More of the beautiful wood

I knew trees had rings, but I can’t say that I’ve ever seen wood with this type of pattern before. Can anyone tell me how it came to look/be like this? Is it water erosion that is slowly exposing different parts of the tree rings? Once again – I could stare at the patterns for hours.

I had to show you guys another shot of that wonderful wood I found. The original was a little dim and dull. I sharpened the picture, increased the contrast and clarity, and lightened the shadows and blacks. I used a graduated filter on the bottom part of the photo to increase the exposure down there because it was so dark. Here’s the original:

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