Shots of women, a baby, and a Santa Claus were laid on the table top and exposed by the open photo album.

Dancing Trees In A Photo Album

Some families dump all their old photos into a box in the closet, others into a drawer, and others into an old steamer trunk. In the attic of the old house just inherited, Toby Williams was bored one afternoon, and for want of an activity, discovered that very trunk.

Among the stale smelling albums and old documents, Toby stumbled upon an old wrapped set of drawings. Pencil sketches showed two trees beside a pond. Based on the dates on the back of the drawings, Toby concluded each had been drawn a year apart.

Later he pulled out a box of photos, a mix of box camera black and white prints and color slides. They too showed two trees beside a pond, and they too were taken a year apart. Curious, Toby dug through the rest of the box and eventually found more photos of the same trees.

Toby laid out the drawings and photos in date order and tried to see any connection between them. "Wow," he said when he saw it. "Those trees appear to be dancing."

Using a scanner and software on his Imac, Toby scanned all the images into his computer. Then he loaded them into his movie-making software. He watched the result and said, "Wow, they are really dancing."

Toby uploaded his film to youtube.com. It didn't take long for comments to arrive. "Where did you find these trees?" and "What park is this? In what city? In what country?"

Toby went back to the trunk and searched everything. Not a hint. "Nothing," he said. "You'd think there'd be a map or something."

A month passed. The video called, "Dancing Trees," was viewed one million times. Eventually a comment arrived the tickled Toby's interest.

"In Stuttgart," it said. "I think I know where these trees are. They are a short walk from the train station."

Toby exchanged email with the person from Stuttgart.

Toby soon planned his trip to Germany. He arranged to take his two weeks vacation in the fall. He had never traveled overseas before and was excited.

Toby paused on his way home to buy a map of Germany. He stood outside the bookstore and noticed something about himself. "I'm not bored," he said. "I haven't been bored since I discovered that trunk."