WPC: Close Up and Beautiful

butterflyI have to start with the disclaimer that I know nothing about butterflies except they are beautiful.

Perhaps that’s all I need to know.

I took this photo quite by accident, in that I didn’t initially see the butterfly, or frankly, even look in its direction. I was wandering around the farmers market in Charleston, looking at fruit. I wanted peaches and it seems everywhere I looked people were selling tomatoes. Big, juicy, red, fresh tomatoes, but that’s not what I wanted. I wanted peaches.

I passed a couple selling plants a couple of times as I picked my way through the growing morning crowd. The lens cap was back on the camera, and I let it dangle loosely as I resigned myself to people watching. And more tomatoes. Suddenly, the man caught my attention and called to me.

“Hey! You’re taking the wrong pictures. This is what you want to photograph.” He pointed to a nondescript plant. I made a face at him.

“Come close. You can’t see it from there.”

Are you kidding me? That’s the lamest sales pitch I’ve ever heard. And yet, I went closer. What can I say? I’m the sucker that kept P.T. Barnum in business.

Only, wait.

There was a beautiful butterfly perched on the plant. I had to get close up to see it and get a picture. I was fascinated by the coloring. The blue flecks along the spots are my favorite part — mostly because I’m partial to blue, but also because it triggered some long forgotten childhood memories. I used to love  to draw, and that shade of blue and the dusky effect as it moves away from the orange spot was a favorite technique I’d use.

I took the picture. And now, I want to draw.

 

 

out of time

For as long as I can remember holding a camera, I’ve been drawn to scenes that show disrepair and the passage of time — perhaps a level of brokenness or abandonment that speaks of good times long gone. I’m sure if I was able to find a Freudian analyst, he’d have a field day helping me figure out this attraction. Whatever. It leads to a compelling picture every once in a while.

preserveRecent adventures in the Mobile Bay area of Alabama yielded quite a few opportunities to find scenes that are off-season — past their prime. I love the idea that there was a time of prosperity and now these places are in a new season — either a season of renewal, as this hundred year-old church under renovation and historic preservation, or one where the passage of time has rendered a property or home useless.

The church is pretty and quaint; this dilapidated home, however, calls to me. Who lived there? Why did they leave? What secrets are being reclaimed by the forest? It doesn’t just tell a story, it weaves a tale through the kudzu.

house

 

WPC: on the way

oneMy husband and I are road warriors. We travel a lot by car. It’s certainly not because it’s a cheap way to travel any more, but once upon a time it was. Still, old habits die hard, and we like to just hop in the car and go. See where the road leads us. Have adventures. Why not?

I’m usually riding shotgun with a camera, and taking desperate shots of the scenery zipping past. By the time I can communicate my desire to pull over, the photo opportunity is long past. I’m okay with it. I just got a better camera, and every once in a while, I get a fairly decent shot at high speed. It’s rare, but it happens.

I took this picture in the Alabama countryside on the way to a beach vacation in Florida. We travel this route all the time, and I am always taken by the weathered buildings, so often abandoned, but full of charm and history. I wish I knew the families who once lived there and used those buildings. Most are out building –barns and garages, but every so often there’s a farmhouse, and it begs to be recorded. To be remembered.

three

Pin It on Pinterest