Transition

One of my longstanding conventions here on Weekly Fifty is that I don’t really create my posts to coincide with any particular point in time. I take pictures often and then schedule them weeks, sometimes even months, in advance so as to give me plenty of buffer in case I just don’t have the time, patience, opportunity, or let’s face it, mental energy to get my camera out and take a new photo every single week. As such, I often don’t even know when a given image will get published until I write the entire post and then click the “Schedule” button in WordPress. Where I’m going with this is, here we are on the cusp of a brand new year and the picture I have to go along with it is…a couple of leaves. It’s a fine photo, but there’s not much in terms of symbolism or meaning–not that you can attach to turning the calendar to a whole new year.

Though perhaps there is something to be mined, or gleaned, from this picture of a handful of leaves changing from green to yellow to bronze. It’s an illustration of the passage of time, of the constant nature of change, and the hope of better things to come even in periods of uncertainty. Leaves wither and die, only to be replaced by buds of new life. It’s also a bit ironic when you consider the overall composition of the image: the bright subject at the center of the frame is actually the leaf that is closest to withering away. Is any of this a metaphor, and if so, what does it mean? I honestly don’t know and at some point this kind of overanalysis becomes not only reductive but counter-productive. At the end of the day it’s just a picture of some leaves with cool backlighting, so maybe it’s best to just leave it at that.

It was that very backlighting that really drew me to this scene. I liked how the low sun made the leaf in the center glow with life even as it was drying up, but I also thought the interplay of light and shadow was kind of cool too. Only part of the subject is clearly visible; the upper half and part of its side are shrouded in darkness, as are other parts of the surrounding leaves. It’s something I don’t often do in my photos, and I find it not just interesting but compelling, in a sense, and something I might try looking for more often.

And with that I’ll wrap up this post by wishing you all a very happy new year. Whatever it holds for you and your loved ones, I hope meet the opportunities, blessings, and challenges with love, grace, patience, and kindness for your fellow man (or woman) on this pale blue dot we call home. God bless you, and thanks for being a part of Weekly Fifty.