Latitude: 44" 00' 06.95 S
Longitude: 170" 28' 49.25 E
Blue is the color of this lake.
That's a lie.
It's green. Greenish-blue. Um. Teal?
Sky is the colour of this lake.
A greener version of the sky.
This colour's lightness belongs in the sky,
not held down on earth, trapped in this lake.
But if it were in the sky,
I'd think the grass had seeped upward to contaminate the sky.
There's just no way to win.
This color is unnatural.
Scott calls it gatorade.
Gatorade is the color of this lake.
Gatorade should not be the color of any lake.
There's exactly one place in nature where this color would be at home: in a hot tropical beach surrounded by bright green palm trees, glowing golden sands and a blinding hot sun.
But no, it's here in the South Island of New Zealand with a chilly breeze and a crisp sun muted by vague clouds. Here, preceded by chalky white rocks that will undoubtedly transfer its white powder to the seat of my dark black pants. Here, bordered by dry, brownish green hills that could easily be transplanted to sunny southern California in the heat of fire season. Here, followed by icy bluish mountains capped with snow.
There is something unfailingly epic about snow capped mountains.
But epic bluish brown snow capped mountains don't fit with unnatural Gatorade blue-green teal sky-seeped-grass colored water that should only be paired with a blazingly hot beach.
Pictures were attempted. But the camera mocks me by adjusting the color until the lake only displays a brilliant blue. None of this green-teal-grass-seepage business.
Maybe that's the color other people see as well. We don't really have a way of knowing how different our perceptions of colors are from other people's. That bothers me sometimes.
This landscape, these colors… They only fit together when you jump off a tour bus in the company of a hoard of camera-wielding tourists, squinting at nature through layers of plastic and technology. Shoot and run. Shoot and run pile hoard back onto the bus.
But to sit here at 44" 00' 06.95 S, 170" 28' 49.25 E, contemplating this landscape and these colors? I'm befuddled.
What a quandary.
3 comments:
I had hair a similar colour once. I could never photograph it- it always turned blue. I think camera's cannot handle that colour ever, which made me happy.
I get half happy half frustrated when cameras can't handle a colour or a scene. Half frustrated because I can't preserve it except with my too fluid memory. Half happy because that means it's special and can't be anywhere but in it's home in reality and in my memory.
I love your narration. I was able to invision said location, but alas I'm sure I cannot compare what my mind saw with what you saw. Someday I'll will definitely go and visit to see for myself. Also, feel not frustruation towards the camera. It might not be able to capture the image not because it mocks you, but rather because it cannot. It might not be able to see nor enjoy the splendors of color, which is... sad if you think about it. Poor camera.
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