One of the things I like about this picture is that it’s not immediately obvious what it is. It’s actually a bunch of fallen leaves on a carp gate. What’s a carp gate you may well ask. Well, a few years ago the powers that be decided to stock our lake with carp. Apparently they eat all kinds of nasty aquatic vegetation. As our Town Supervisor said in a recent newsletter: “…the sterile carp, many of them now 2-3 feet long, are proving to be valuable in keeping down lake weeds. ‘One of the smartest things Roaring Brook ever did”. This is terrific, but water flows into and out of the lake so it’s not too much use putting the carp in if they are just going to swim out again. Hence the carp gate. It’s there to stop the carp escaping from the lake.

I also like the contrast between the obviously man-made nature of the metal bars and the more organic shapes of the leaves. The diagonals make the picture a bit more dynamic and I also like the repeating pattern of the bars. It almost makes my eyes hurt.