Visual Reflections: Nature Photography as Palette in an Age of Uncertainty – No. 5 (Palm Leaf Photomontage)

31 July 2017

Lens:

Taken in Camera+ and edited in Snapseed and Pixlr

Palm Leaf Photomontage, Longwood Gardens; 2017 Sally W. Donatello All Rights Reserved

Click onto image to enlarge. Let me know your response to this photomontage. Prints are available upon request.

Pens:

Each of us is familiar with a teachable moment where the life lesson is apparent in the act itself. Or even later after contemplation. And I am convinced that nature is the ultimate oracle: providing lesson after lesson.

Nature awakens sparks that encourage the foraging of my spirit and soul. Nature awakens an inner play, that creates and instigates associations and experimentations with ideas and thoughts. Unsuspected concepts are brought to light, sometimes foggy and later clarified.

This morning on a walk I thought about the hibiscus in my garden, and its short-lived beauty, within a day becoming less than its dazzling first appearance. Since I am a visual consumer, I am compelled to savor the brief sighting of this native that sparks inspiration in its brevity.

Then I was reminded about the proliferation of perennials that seem to appear at every turn in summer gardens. They gravitate to my sight line.

For example, this year the hydrangea’s outrageous abundance of flower heads have their own unique draw. Delicate and seemingly fragile in appearance, they are long-lasting and a stellar choice to dry for years of quiet yet attention-grabbing displays.

During summery cycles we often disengage from the leaves, which are essential to the nourishment and survival of botany’s progeny. When the eye allows a flower to recede and a leaf to be honored, much can be discovered and interpreted. It’s a dreamy unveiling of what exists in its visual message, but needs attention to see intricate world of rewards and wealth of character.

In the Lens section is a tribute to the seasonal leaf. I selected a palm leaf that I captured at Longwood Gardens. As I layered the foliage, it reminded me of a roadmap, which disclosed connections between this species in the proliferation of life on Earth and its “web of life.”

As the photomontage became a symbol for nature and how it navigates the universe that we inhabit, the realization became a teachable moment. Of course, I comprehend the interdependence of nature and human nature. But there occurred in my completed image a level of confluence and dimensionality of reality that made me pause and pause and pause. In my awareness I could sense the life blood of nature’s abundance and mastery. I could sense the intense power it has over me.

Note: For those of you who are devotees to species that roam our earth, Joel Sartore, a noted National Geographic photographer, has produced a book, Photo Ark, to document them. Here are excerpts from Sartore’s website and National Geographic. “Joel Sartore is an award-winning photographer, speaker, author, teacher, conservationist, National Geographic fellow, and regular contributor to National Geographic magazine. Joel specializes in documenting endangered species and landscapes around the world. He is the founder of the Photo Ark, a 25-year documentary project to save species and habitat. “It is folly to think that we can destroy one species and ecosystem after another and not affect humanity,” he says. “When we save species, we’re actually saving ourselves.” Joel and the Photo Ark will be the subjects of RARE, a three-part series airing this summer on PBS.” Hope that you can view the documentary and/or purchase his book, which is a masterpiece of nature’s majesty.

 

 

 

 

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