An Unexplainable Attraction to Stacks of Firewood

I’ve never been able to resist taking a picture of a stack of firewood.

On road trips, I’ve pulled the “stop the van, let me out” move just to grab a landscape-style shot of a neatly piled stack. I’ve even posed beside one in Dog River, Saskatchewan, just down the road from Corner Gas. I’ve used stacked wood as a backdrop in family sessions and pet photography.

There’s just something about it.

So when I’m trudging through the woods during the 24-hour ultra marathon Sugarbush Shenanigans, hosted by Dirty Souls Trail Running, and I come across a pile of wood, my first thought is, I need to shoot here.

I stake out a spot and wait for runners to come huffing past, working this stack of firewood into the frame.

And it makes me wonder how many of these little obscurities sneak their way into a photographer’s work.

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Mat Coker is a writer and trail running photographer based in Ontario, Canada.