Although you wouldn’t think it from the number of flower pictures I’ve been posting of late I don’t really like flowers all that much. While I don’t mind looking at them I’m not a devoted gardener – that’s my wife. However, I’ve always loved bluebells. They grow wild in the woods where I grew up and I was always fascinated by the carpets of blue that you would see at certain times of the year. So when I bumped into this cluster of bluebells at the NY Botanical Gardens I had to take a picture.

When I looked at it later the first thing I saw was the brown leaves. Now I could say this this was deliberate. That the whole pictures is about transience and even though you see the flowers in their full spring glory now, autumn is just around the corner. But this would be a load of nonsense. The fact is that in my enthusiasm to take the picture I just didn’t see them – not at all! The eye (and the human brain) is an amazing instrument capable of shutting out things you don’t expect to see. This just underscores the need to look really hard when you take a picture so as to see any distracting elements.

You may think I’m crazy not seeing the leaves, but I’ll refer you to a fascinating book called “The Invisible Gorilla. How our intuitions deceive us“.