The color of water

I’ve been walking around the pond at Forest Hills Cemetery for the past month or so. The most notable characteristic of the pond, as you can observe in this image, is the color of the water. It’s a rich - if somewhat unnatural - yellow-green. When I first came upon it, I found it jarring. Water isn’t supposed to be that color! I took some shots and worked one or two up as black & white images (one of which I used in an earlier blog post) to get rid of that color.

Yet as I’ve continued to look and shoot this odd-colored water, it’s become more familiar and, in fact, I’m enjoying it, much to my surprise. You know, in photographic processing nowadays, there are so many ways to manipulate images. In that world, yellow water fits right in. But this isn’t that. This is real, honest, “natural” yellow water, unmanipulated.

I’m thinking there may be a series, a portfolio of shots of this place, this water. Building upon my work at Jamaica Pond, the “Edge of the Pond” series may expand to include these shots. We’ll see how this plays out but it’s fun to think about.