Photo Day 30: Texture and Color

 

COR-TEN steel is a specific kind of weathering steel, and has a combination of chromium, silicon, phosphorus, manganese, copper, nickle and sometimes vanadium added to the iron and carbon that make up most steel alloys. Over a period of wetting and drying cycles, the alloy develops a tough patina that both gives it a distinctive texture and color and protects it from further oxidation. US Steel developed Cor-Ten in the 1930's, primarily for use in railway coal wagons.

Flies have always been with us. I have no idea if they normally contain vanadium, nor do I know the variety of fly that appears in this picture, resting for a moment on sculpture in Frederik Meijer Gardens.