This Image Of The Week was taken on a stormy Saturday. My morning started with other plans, which changed when the weather chose to be wet and windy. As thunder rolled across the fields of Niagara and the clouds burst like a kid with his thumb over a hosepipe I found myself passing this corn field. Oh, what a beautiful morning, as the song goes. This ain’t Oklahoma but the corn was indeed as high as an elephants eye.
I pulled over for a closer look. Road stretched endlessly ahead and behind. As far as I could see there was nothing to either side but corn. Driving slowly back and forth I found the composition I wanted. Here, the yellow flowers framed the long green corn stalks at the bottom. The iron-grey sky framed the top. The land itself sloped off gently to the right, and the corn followed that line. The yellow tips of the stalks gave a subtle touch of colour.
Those deep shadows brought to mind dark thoughts of getting lost in an endless maze. In places this corn is above human jumping height. These fields go on seemingly forever. Nobody would hear you yell ‘Marco!’ and you really would not want to be in there at harvest time. The dark and brooding sky echoes such dark thoughts.
Movies
Deliberately overlooked by movie plot lines, most smart phones have GPS compass apps which work even if there is no signal. If you walk in a straight line you will reach an edge, eventually. If your battery doesn’t die, and you don’t get eaten on the way or break an ankle. Talking of movies, farmers are paid to grow special crops for movies, with the corn spaced wide enough apart to allow people (and camera crews) to run through them. Real corn fields are not like that. It’s hard work pushing through a regular corn field. Seriously, stay out of corn fields.
We have in this image one of the many cycles of life. This crop speaks of warm summer days but just under the surface lie sinister possibilities. I find that I like the tension this evokes in me. Photographically I think what makes this my choice for IOTW is the layer cake of complimentary colour. But this simple image also gives me mixed emotions. Happiness. Sadness. Fear. Curiosity.
I mean, don’t you want to know what might be lurking in there?
Prints and products for all images by request.
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