I'm not sure why I like this photo, but I was drawn to these dandelions in a McLean park at dusk. I took several shots from different angles and like this one the best.
Dandelions are all around, but I try hard to keep them out of in my yard. They will take over so quickly if you let them. One summer soon after we moved here, I spent hours and hours pulling them. Since then I remove any that show up. If they have seeds, they go in the trash instead of the compost.
I found out my mother likes them when I automatically started pulling them up in her yard. She likes the yellow flowers and says the leaves are edible.
I never developed a taste for either the flowers or the leaves, but the seeds are fascinating. When I was young I loved to pick a stalk, being careful to keep the globe of seeds intact. Then I'd blow on it or twirl around holding it at arms length and watch the seeds float away in the wind.
I took a few photos of intact seed globes, but these imperfect ones seemed more interesting. I didn't think about it at the time, but I guess this is another example of shooting from a low point of view.
We must have been commenting on each others dandelion photos at the same time, too. I saw this comment a few minutes after I posted a comment on your photo.
Think about it: a perfect white dandelion is a single moment in time, the balance point between the processes of development and decay. Processes unfold over time, they are many moments strung together. And it's the process, the journey, that interests me more than the destination, more than the perfect moment. Decline and decay have a terrible beauty of their own, no less so than than growth and blossoming. ALL part of the cycle...
April 30th, 2011
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