Dandelion Clock

Dandelions are pretty when they are wild, but a nightmare when they infest and ruin your lawn. In bloom, and also as a seed head, they have a simple but beautiful symmetry.

It’s my impression that the Dandelion season arrived early this year in the UK. By mid May when today’s image was taken, many of them were already in seed.

My wife and I were out on a shortish walk when we came across a carpet of Dandelion seed heads. There was an image to be found. Dandelion seed heads are not easy to photograph because they are perfectly shaped globes of seeds. The problem always is how do you get a decent shot while still retaining sharpness across the whole seed head?

One answer is to shoot directly from above onto a seed head that has lost all its seeds from the waist up. You then get a circular, flattish plane of seeds and a dark green background. The task is to find that specimen – not as easy as it sounds. Yes, one could cheat and slowly pluck out seeds to achieve the desired effect, but the purist in me wanted to capture one prepared by nature. And my patience was eventually rewarded.

Meanwhile my wife had plodded on back to the car. My task completed, I was off at a jog to catch her up. I found her propped against the car door. ‘At last’, she said, ‘What kept you this time?’ ‘Dandelions’, I replied. She wasn’t particularly impressed when I showed her the pictures: ‘They are all imperfect, couldn’t you find a perfect one?’ We all see the world differently, don’t we.