Visual Ornaments, Part One; Maui, April 2019
The recent coconut palm frond and shadow images could be criticized as ignoring the trees for the leaves. And even though we admire the geometrical precision of the fronds and leaflets and their architectural shadows, that intellectual admiration doesn't necessarily provoke great emotional heat. Their precision constrains passion, notwithstanding their balletic movements under the wind's influence.
We must turn elsewhere for a botanical infusion of exuberance and emotion. Maui's other plants are up to the task. Lush foliage and blooms in profuse variety compete for approval. A few posts will sample that variety. No rigid precepts dictate selection. Visual ornaments were the targets.
Here we see the tree and the leaves, and even see the entire canopy. We admire its rangy energy but aren't moved to passion.
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Borrowed vibrance: the palm is only a platform for some drop-in color.
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Likewise, a single monarch alights upcountry.
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Less stark than the palms are these trees, living in harmony with their settings.
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Haleakala gently looms behind a lush and surreal canopy.
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Monkeypod trees in Kula seem to cast their own illumination.
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Gnarled trunks play bass counterpoint to monkeypod blooms' high registers.
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Jacaranda; fallen blooms tint its shadow.
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Bottlebrush
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Roadside attractions:
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Comments
After a lifetime of mainly expressing myself with words, my postings here will mainly rely on images. They will speak for themselves to some extent, but I'll usually add a few comments of explanation. I've taken photographs for decades, since the 1950's, inspired in part by my father's photographic skill. Four years of photo assignments and quality darkroom time eventually gave way to decades of casual and family picture-taking. I re-immersed myself when I left film and turned to digital.