Seeing the Light

Quite remarkable really. I had this week’s blog all planned out and apart from a few last minute touches. It was all ready to go. Then this morning I took my bicycle out to go to a nearby village to purchase a birthday card or two.

It was a clear sunny morning with the slightest hint of mist; but by the time I had mended my puncture and blown the tyre up again, the sun was really making its presence felt.

Huh, I thought, that’s the end of any morning photography for another day. So I ditched my camera and set off. As I rode through the familiar lanes, I realized that the sun was beginning to light up individual sections of the trees and hedgerows. They were illuminated against shadowed backgrounds. A low sun and deep shadows.

Armed only with my noddy mobile phone, I tried to photograph the leaves in the light and against the light. The exercise was quite captivating. If photography is about studying light, then that was what I was seeing – light showing leaves in isolation, or sometimes light reacting with branches of leaves, while other parts were shrouded in darkness.

Today’s blog is certainly a very personal exercise. I enjoyed seeing the way in which the foliage was reacting to the sunlight. Does it come through when recording the experience? There were moments certainly when I loaded the images into Photoshop in the usual way and thought “What was I looking at here?”

Perhaps the pictures represent memories for me – so fair enough. That’s what the man said “As long as you like them – that’s all that matters!”

Please don’t scratch your head over this one – I promise next week I’ll give you the other blog rather than a lesson in philosophy.

Hope the clear weather holds for our weekend.