Big Wishes

Big Wishes

Sometimes being too busy with more important things works out.

This milkweed was growing in our backyard because clearing weeds just hadn’t made it very high on the priority list. By the time I noticed it, it had gone to seed and was still a perfect specimen. None of the seeds had blown away yet.

I knew I wanted to photograph it, but I also knew I didn’t have much time. If we left it alone much longer, all of those beautiful little seeds were going to become hundreds more weeds in the yard. So I grabbed my camera, created a few images, and then the plant had to go.

I loved all the lines and textures in the seed head and decided that black and white showed those details better than color.

I named the image Big Wishes because I’ve always thought of floating seeds as something you make wishes on. This one had a lot of wishes ready to go—the bigger the seed, the bigger the wish it can carry.

I later printed Big Wishes for the Twin Falls County Fair and entered it in the professional photography division, where it received a first-place blue ribbon.

Apparently, sometimes it does pay to neglect the weeds for a little while.