focus: week two
By mew
Tags: 2010 word of the year, blurry image, cardinal climber, chaff, focus, saving seed, seed pod, translucent
My photo for week two of the year of Focus.
I actually did not feel in focus this week, but as if I am slowly coming into focus in one area of my life. Or maybe even more nebulous than that, as if the picture is in the process of emerging from a grey-green murk, like a Polaroid, revealing things I had never before noticed.
Last week, there were too many areas for my camera to focus on them all at once (the stamens), and I felt as if that photo from the Botanical Gardens spoke to how I’d felt in the beginning of my journey.
This week, I finally gathered the seeds from the thoroughly dried cardinal climber seed pods, and as I was putting the chaff into the compost bin I realized how lovely it had become. Once they were emptied, the pods became translucent to the light. I ran to get my camera to record the moment: the cold, wintry light and the chaff become buff-colored stained glass, melancholy echoes of the original flowers.
However, my little point-&-shoot did not want to focus on these tiny figures. I was frustrated at the time. Looking back at the week just past, though, the photo seems to have fit my experience perfectly.
Victory Garden Redux 
This is simply gorgeous! I’m consumed with envy at such a shot. Wonderful subtle colours and mood. Well done.
Oh, I’m so glad you like it, jodi. That is high praise indeed, coming from such a skilled and talented photographer as you. 🙂
You may not have captured the pods the way you wanted to, but the translusence of the tallest pod is beautifully depicted.
Thanks, Talon. That’s the one that made it okay, I think.
Maybe the act of focusing will just take some time.
I think you are right, Lynn. Anything truly worthwhile takes time, after all.
The transparency comes across beautifully! The soft focus adds a mystery! Lovely. ;>)
Carol, thank you for the compliment!
Very nice, great light.
Thank you, Robin. 🙂
Seed pods are one of my favorite things out in the garden. Their unusual shapes draw my eye to them. Your photo is just breath-taking and seems to evoke how you described you were feeling at the time.
Noelle, I’m with you on the seed pods. Maybe it’s our gardener’s knowledge of what they mean that gets us? Life carried forward, and all that good stuff. It is a much better picture if you understand the emotions behind its selection and resonance with me, I agree. 🙂
M.E. – I love love love this post. The garden cleanup bug gets to me, especially in October and February; I remember so many times throwing away great handfuls of sweet pea and morning glory seed pods, only occasionally stopping myself to shove a few fat black seeds in my pocket. It’s funny how something that’s junk at one time of the year becomes treasure later on.
I know didn’t come out the way you want it, but do you ever find that the photos you take when you have to — as you describe — run for the camera, are inevitably the best? This is full of atmosphere. Lovely stuff.
– Sheila Averbuch
I’m so glad, Sheila. 🙂 It’s so true about see pods going from trash to treasure in a matter of weeks. It’s true that the run-for-the-camera shots tend to be memorable. And another weird coincidence: it’s often the first shot, not the 3rd or 4th or 10th, of those subjects that turns out to be my favorite of the batch.
Thank you for the compliments. They are much appreciated. 🙂