After somehow getting away without any hassle from officialdom last Autumn I didn't think I'd go back to site C again, particularly after getting no interest in the pictures from various open submissions. But, it was that time of year again, when those leaves would be changing colour so amazingly. How could I not go?
On the cycle trip out I was pondering excuses to turn back, particularly because the hedgerows en route were mostly still green and I wanted another batch of images with flaming yellow and burning gold leaves (that, to me at least, referenced explosive shell-bursts). The ones taken on the first day of November last year (after a violent storm had stipped most of the branches) were more effective I thought due to those hot colours. The weather has been mild recently so presumably that's why the hedgerows are holding back longer this year.
Site C involves taking pictures in very close proximity to what's actually there at site C, and not including that thing at all, (it's a prohibited site). Any old hedges would not be the same as the hedges there, which meant I rode past a few that did look exactly like what I was hoping for, but didn't bother to stop. That would be just wrong.
I'm not a very fast cyclist and started to ruminate about the process of how a plant comes to effectively kill off its own leaves, evident with them turning from functional green to pale yellow. How it monitors information from the environment, temperature, the intensity of sun exposure, the dryness of the soil. And perhaps this 'decision making' has a strange resonance with the intel gathering that comes to a head at C that results in an extra judicial killing thousands of miles away, with as little fuss here as turning of leaves. Both acts involve a determination, both have a very precise tipping point, and from both death results.
On the cycle trip out I was pondering excuses to turn back, particularly because the hedgerows en route were mostly still green and I wanted another batch of images with flaming yellow and burning gold leaves (that, to me at least, referenced explosive shell-bursts). The ones taken on the first day of November last year (after a violent storm had stipped most of the branches) were more effective I thought due to those hot colours. The weather has been mild recently so presumably that's why the hedgerows are holding back longer this year.
Site C involves taking pictures in very close proximity to what's actually there at site C, and not including that thing at all, (it's a prohibited site). Any old hedges would not be the same as the hedges there, which meant I rode past a few that did look exactly like what I was hoping for, but didn't bother to stop. That would be just wrong.
I'm not a very fast cyclist and started to ruminate about the process of how a plant comes to effectively kill off its own leaves, evident with them turning from functional green to pale yellow. How it monitors information from the environment, temperature, the intensity of sun exposure, the dryness of the soil. And perhaps this 'decision making' has a strange resonance with the intel gathering that comes to a head at C that results in an extra judicial killing thousands of miles away, with as little fuss here as turning of leaves. Both acts involve a determination, both have a very precise tipping point, and from both death results.