the colour purple

Thinking again of colour from Wednesdays post, the photograph below works well in black and white because of the impact of the light and shadows and the depth created by the foreground flowers, the middle ground field and the far ground trees.


Add colour and most people would rather look at the picture below as we are so used to looking at flowers as colourful things, that once our eyes see the colour its hard to go back to being without it.

'Lilac Dancing Flowers'

I'm linking in with The Shades of Autumn Photography Challenge and this weeks colour Purple with this photograph as it one of my favourites in my initial portfolio, I think because of its fairytale like quality. It was taken on a very cold frosty morning and these flowers were the first in a winter allotment to catch the first rays of the morning sun, hence the title, as they almost look like they are dancing with happiness at the arrival of the day and the warmth!

Sadly this allotment that I visited to take photographs for a number of years is no longer there. The old man who loved it had been given the small plot to tend on a farmers field, across the road from his remote house in the countryside and this year, when spring came, the farmers crops grew over the land where the allotment used to be and I realised he had gone. It was a sad day. Imagine the thrill one day in late summer when I stopped my car and saw the old mans flowers had returned and were fighting for their space amongst the corn, I wonder how many years they will come back.

I thought about trying to contact his family to give them some of the photographs to remember him by but I never introduced myself to him, I only saw him a couple of times over the years, bent over tending the ground or hurrying back into his house. He didn't seem to welcome intrusion into his world, so to talk to his family would be a little odd. Perhaps I should have posted some through his door while he was still here, as a thank you, as he must have seen me out of his window, parked by the side of the road, snapping away in all weathers.

I read a quote on photography 'Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but footprints' and thats just what I did at the allotment, should I have done more?