Nature Photography: Coexistence (No. 3)

15 October 2018

Lens:

Taken in Camera+. Edited in Snapseed.

Leaf of Bradford Pear Tree; All Rights Reserved 2018 Sally W. Donatello

Taken in Polamatic. Edited in Snapseed.

Leaf of Bradford Pear Tree II; All Rights Reserved 2018 Sally W. Donatello

Click onto each image to enlarge. Let me know which you prefer. Prints are available upon request.

Pens:

15 October 2018

Transformation has many faces. None is more obvious and symbolic of  how nature shifts the purpose of a tree’s leaf in autumn. As this season progresses, nature’s palette ranges from quiet presence to megaphonic loud. Each autumn is dependent on the temperatures  and its effects upon the gradual or instantaneous release of chlorophyll. It’s a puzzle as to the visual changes that will leave a season memorable or so so. Discovery is a mainstay during each season, but definitely on high alert in the autumnal months. 

The arch of autumn leaves is a symbol of the season, and easily demonstrated by images in the Lens section. The Bradford tree, a mostly unwelcome citified non-native, has its most appeal as its leaves begin this season’s transformation. Each year discovery after discovery brings a level of awe and wonder. As in the Lens section where the two images were collected within days of each other.

While these plantings are no longer desirable (once they were planted en masse in cities and towns), the mature one in my backyard amazes as the weather cools and a certain mystery appears in one’s visual plane. In truth you must be aware, keeping alert to the unusual in nature.

Even though some of the leaves do not grip one’s attention, there are a percentage that do. As each leaf descends, possibilities abound. I have witnessed few other plants and trees (hydrangeas and maples) whose fallen leaves can so consistently bring such unique results from the loss of chlorophyll. While many are nondescript, each season brings a few outstanding designs—designs that mesmerize and instill instant joy.

There is an innocence to the aged leaf’s ability to keep giving (once fallen, I use them as mulch to winter over on my gardens). They have given their personal best in spring and summer, and now they are gold for composting and protecting plants. Their worth seems to expand with time.

Visual effects can overwhelm, and the cadence of autumn leaves are truly one of nature’s most pleasurable. While for some they may seem small in their gifts, But for me they bring an emotional and spiritual awakening that fills my senses. They are existential symbols of nature’s monumental and relentless magnificence. They match the old saying, “Big things can in small packages,” which is an astute way of saying that a jewel can be teeny or mammoth. Certainly, a leaf offers a glistening reminder that nature provides in vastly different ways from mountain ranges to sunsets to wildflowers peeking from a crack in the sidewalk. 

Note:

“Perhaps the rewards of solving climate change are so compelling, so nurturing and so natural a piece of the human soul that we can’t help but do it.”

The above quote is the final sentence in the article “Stopping Climate Change is Hopeless. Let’s Do it: It begins with how we live our lives every moment of every day” (from the The New York Times Opinion section, published on 06 October 2018). The authors Auden Schendler and Andrew P. Jones make a compelling argument for each of us to serve our communities in an ongoing effort to save the planet and therefore humanity.

Mr. Schendler is a climate activist and businessman, the author of “Getting Green Done.” Mr. Jones creates climate simulations for the nonprofit Climate Interactive, which contributed climate scenarios to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Read the entire article here.

 

 

Advertisement