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Tucked away in Western Australia’s Yalgorup National Park, within the quiet shallows of Lake Clifton, lies something truly extraordinary — almost more science fiction than fact. These knobbly, unassuming formations are **thrombolites**: living, rock-like structures built by ancient microbial communities.
What makes them so special? Thrombolites are incredibly rare! They’re among the few surviving examples on Earth of life forms similar to those that began oxygenating our planet billions of years ago. According to wiki, unlike the more well-known stromatolites, which grow in tidy layers, thrombolites have a "clotted, chaotic internal structure" — a bit like my brain on most days! They’re messy, ancient, and utterly fascinating.
As we stood on the boardwalk, watching the sun filter through the nutrient-rich waters, which is just the way these microorganisms like it, we felt small. I was staring at the descendants of the planet’s earliest architects of breathable air, still quietly persisting in a world that has changed beyond recognition.
They’ve survived for millennia, but they’re fragile — vulnerable to rising salinity, pollution, and, sadly, careless human behaviour. Just last year, they suffered significant damage after many visitors, in pursuit of the aurora australis, wandered into restricted areas. The result? Extensive harm to the thrombolites and their delicate microbial mats. Makes you almost ashamed to be a photographer! I’ll be polite and refrain from calling them what I really think of them ..... *deep breaths*
I consider ourselves lucky, truly lucky, to see them still hanging on, whispering stories from the origins of life - rare, ancient & alive. I hope more people come to understand their importance, and that these incredible rare living fossils not only survive but thrive.
Sorry for the rant. Have a great end to the week! Thanks kindly for any likes/comments, they are always appreciated.
Waterscape 38/100 in 2025
I took this shot to get a closer look at the bottom left corner of the web on the adjacent shot, and how is had been attached to that lower twig to give the square, our cuboid shape of the overall structure. To think that you could just stumble through that unthinkingly, and destroy it, after all that engineering skill and work.
A young couple expressing their sentiments & who cares about distancing. L'amore non conosce distanziamente. Comme dirait Maurice Chevalier, l'amour c'est toujours l'amour a peux importe l'age.
Back to when I got to Worthing pier when low tide coincided with the sunset.
Here I made my way out to nearly the end of the pier to capture the only bit of cloud that we had seen that day but the colours of the sky were lovely.
The pier added my foreground interest and the light on the foreground rocks was amazing too.
I have been out shooting some images in the mist this morning including shooting my fave tree near Upper Beeding which will be a monthly project.
Structure Fire this was practice burn by local firemen, they managed to destroy the whole building safely, shot in North Carolina.
The picture is from our trip to Morocco in 2019, and it fits well at a time when I'm working on colourful architectural structures. I only recently "discovered" it and processed it.
Nikon F3
Zoom-NIKKOR 35~70mm f/3.5 AI-s
Nikon L1bc filter
Kodak professional Tmax 400@ISO500
1/250 sec@f/11
Developed in Diafine 3+3 min
Low tide at Slikken van Voorne (Netherlands)
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Took 3 of us 2 days to build this 20x12 gazebo. It was a big pain...but I'll get tons of use of of it.