TerraNova L.A.
Clouds of controversy...
I've had this photo in my "To Post" folder for a long time, waiting for what I thought would be an appropriate opportunity to share it with my friends on Flickr. But I've wondered to myself many times: what, or when, would be a good opportunity to share a photograph of tobacco plants??? Yes, this is a field of nearly-mature tobacco plants, photographed last Summer during a work assignment along the Virginia/North Carolina border -- the very heart of the tobacco producing region of North America. I took this photo early in the morning, as mist and low clouds were being driven off the fields by the heat of the rising Sun. It was quite a striking scene and caught my "photographer's eye" immediately.
However, I must confess that tobacco has been more than just the object of my photographic interest. I used to smoke cigarettes. Not many of them, mind you, and not very frequently. But I really enjoyed smoking them. I usually smoked a single cigarette, while I was finalizing preparations of my observatory telescope before beginning a night of asteroid hunting. As the telescope moved through its pre-programmed alignment routine, I'd lay in the hammock I had hanging next to the telescope and blow puffs of smoke into the star-studded sky. Smoking that single cigarette each night, maybe a few nights each week, was one of the most pleasurable experiences I've ever enjoyed. At most, I'd smoke a pack of cigarettes in a month; in fact, by the time I smoked the last few in the pack they were pretty stale. To make a long story short, it's been a long time since I've smoked, mainly because it's been a long time since I hunted asteroids. But the intoxicating aroma of a good cigarette (Camel Golds are my favourites) still excites my senses. When I was driving back to the Raleigh-Durham airport (both the names of well-known cigarette brands) last Summer, I passed thru a small town that had cigarette factory. I pulled off the highway, rolled down the windows, and basked in the pungent aroma of the freshly harvested tobacco leaves which were hanging in the nearby drying barns.
So why did I decide to post this photo, now? Well, January is the month of New Years resolutions, and I know that there are many folks out there who have made resolutions to stop smoking. I have no illusions about cigarettes -- I know they are dangerous and terribly addictive. So I hope that my smoker friends who are determined to quit this year will think of this image when they are tempted to smoke, with its dark, gloomy clouds, rather than thinking of the rugged cowboys or super-chic fashion models which appear so frequently in cigarette propaganda.
Click HERE to see this image in a larger size.
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Featured in Explore 2010.01.29 #473
Clouds of controversy...
I've had this photo in my "To Post" folder for a long time, waiting for what I thought would be an appropriate opportunity to share it with my friends on Flickr. But I've wondered to myself many times: what, or when, would be a good opportunity to share a photograph of tobacco plants??? Yes, this is a field of nearly-mature tobacco plants, photographed last Summer during a work assignment along the Virginia/North Carolina border -- the very heart of the tobacco producing region of North America. I took this photo early in the morning, as mist and low clouds were being driven off the fields by the heat of the rising Sun. It was quite a striking scene and caught my "photographer's eye" immediately.
However, I must confess that tobacco has been more than just the object of my photographic interest. I used to smoke cigarettes. Not many of them, mind you, and not very frequently. But I really enjoyed smoking them. I usually smoked a single cigarette, while I was finalizing preparations of my observatory telescope before beginning a night of asteroid hunting. As the telescope moved through its pre-programmed alignment routine, I'd lay in the hammock I had hanging next to the telescope and blow puffs of smoke into the star-studded sky. Smoking that single cigarette each night, maybe a few nights each week, was one of the most pleasurable experiences I've ever enjoyed. At most, I'd smoke a pack of cigarettes in a month; in fact, by the time I smoked the last few in the pack they were pretty stale. To make a long story short, it's been a long time since I've smoked, mainly because it's been a long time since I hunted asteroids. But the intoxicating aroma of a good cigarette (Camel Golds are my favourites) still excites my senses. When I was driving back to the Raleigh-Durham airport (both the names of well-known cigarette brands) last Summer, I passed thru a small town that had cigarette factory. I pulled off the highway, rolled down the windows, and basked in the pungent aroma of the freshly harvested tobacco leaves which were hanging in the nearby drying barns.
So why did I decide to post this photo, now? Well, January is the month of New Years resolutions, and I know that there are many folks out there who have made resolutions to stop smoking. I have no illusions about cigarettes -- I know they are dangerous and terribly addictive. So I hope that my smoker friends who are determined to quit this year will think of this image when they are tempted to smoke, with its dark, gloomy clouds, rather than thinking of the rugged cowboys or super-chic fashion models which appear so frequently in cigarette propaganda.
Click HERE to see this image in a larger size.
*************************
Featured in Explore 2010.01.29 #473