I hate it when the picture you thought would be the best does not materialize. I imaged scenic vistas with a bird flying across the moon. But Noooo. This is one of my favorite from this trip. The more I look at it the more it screams out symbolic messages for me. Of course I really did not see all of them when I shot it just a few but more and more just keep popping out.

 A study in contrasts

The tonality of the picture. The hazy in the distance adds a gray palor to everything then it struck me the monocramatic Black and white birds. Even the trees look like they should have a more vibrant color but just sort of receed to blah-ness. Also the white snow geese have those wonderful black wing tips.

Vertical and horizontal the vertical corn in the middle fits with the long necks of the geese. This grabbed me with the black birds with the contrasty horizontal shadows

The Madmade element of the road in a straight conflict with the more organic side to side crop field.

Even though the black birds may be wonderfully native to me they seem like crows around town.  The White geese seem "more" natural. Of course the geese are fleeing while the black birds just seem quite content.

Agriculture vs. nature: The Argriculture sems to be sprawling back towards the mountain and more native area. It is the relentless human sprawl. (Note: the crops are actually planted specfifically by the refuge for the birds to forage on. Each day a precalculated area is knocked down to give a safe hieght for the didffernt species. A few days latter it will be knoked down again so another species can also forage. But symbolically it looks bleak.)

The road is going to ultimately dead-end at the timeless mountain. (ie nature will win)

The birds seem to exist with the road and the manmade agriculture. So maybe nature and man can play well together after all. All though conversely you could say the farmers will be upset with the white birds and playing in the street may not be the recipe for long term survival.

The black bars on the road are the prison of modern technological life. Ironically I shot this from inside the powerful Safari Minivan. To certain extent I was captive in the vehicle. If I were to have opened the door the black birds would have fled.. Flown the coop so to speak.

For the self loathing crowd. The blacks getting the crumbs from the road while the whites frolic and feast on bountiful crops.

Finally bar code  like strips remind me of generic products. And this picture has all the generic symbolism one could wish for. I love this new digital photography stuff.

I look at life metaphorically. Sometimes I can’t distinguish the two.  If there would have been an eagle in there I think my head may have exploded.

Any symbols or metaphors I missed? E-mail me.