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© Christine Till
Rock balancing is a a pretty cool hobby, an exercise in balance, spatial orientation, and patience. Those rock piles are called cairns.

A cairn can have several purposes. They usually signify a trail or are navigational land/sea markers or even memorials. In a number of native cultures, including the Hopi Indians of Arizona and many of the Eskimo Native Americans of Alaska, a stack of rocks was seen as a symbol of a protective entity. Because a vertical stack of rocks looks like a human figure to some extent, these stacked rocks were seen as entities protecting the property, perhaps warding off harmful spirits and helping to protect the sacred space of a particular outdoor area.

For some, building cairns is a kind of prayer or meditation. It's hard to think of other things when you're balancing rocks. It takes body, mind and soul. Very Zen. A lot of people, for a lot of reasons, take the time to gather rocks and build a cairn and say "here... now...

My photography covers a wide range of subjects such as fine art, still life, black and white, infrared, portrait, animal, architecture, landscape, national and international travel and corporate (commercial) images. All my photographs and photo objects are available as fine-quality Prints or as immediate downloads from http://www.ct-graphics.com/. Get them as Calendars from redbubble, or digital per email, or on CD / DVD. If you are serious about upscale photography, please contact me for a free consultation. I cover assignments throughout the United States and abroad. I will also be happy to help you if you have a question about a picture, or would like a different format, size, customization, or need custom stock photos. My...