Saturday, July 31, 2010

light, shade and perspective

I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, — light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful.
--John Constable (1776-1837) English Romantic painter

The quote fits this simple photo well, I think -- it's not that the subject was so compelling, it was the interplay of light and shade that got my attention while standing on a cliff overlooking the Blue Hole. I was impatiently waiting for the clouds to role in so I could take my shots of the waterfall, when I noticed how beautiful the sunlight falling on the leaves was.  And given my position on the cliff, I was also seeing it from a unique perspective. I focused in on this particular section of the tree, drawn to the solid dark lines of the trunk and branches against the glowing green. I guess the point of all this is I think the quote above is a good reminder: look for beauty everywhere and in everything.

I should know what kind of tree this is -- but it's escaping me. It's pretty common in this area - and quite distinctive with its red-ish colored fruit. Any help?

2 comments:

  1. I believe thats an Umbrella Magnolia

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the help - I wasn't having luck finding this until you said that. It makes sense that it would be a magnolia given the shape of the fruit. Looking at it closer (and zooming into my original), I'm thinking it may be a Frasier Magnolia -- which is very similar but the base of its leaf is "ear-lobed" shaped. http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/trees/mafr.html
    Thanks again!

    ReplyDelete

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