It’s springtime in Tuscany, early May. Arriving at
Pisa airport the air smells different, dryer, lighter, brighter
with the alluring waft of some flower scent, even amid the
concrete hustle and bustle common to airports everywhere.
I’m travelling light, or as light as you can get when
your camera bag is your hand luggage and you couldn’t
quite leave the tripod behind. Not when the mission is a
whistle-stop orchid extravaganza, to try and photograph as
many different sorts of orchid as we can find, in under a
week.
Heading off in a hire car, we leave Pisa behind and take
to the hills, a winding, twisting, and convoluted back road
towards Siena. The air is fresher and the hint of flowers
strengthens until we are overwhelmed by the honeyed scent
of broom, pouring in through the car windows. Every which
way you look there is a picture postcard scene, comprising
the essential props of a Tuscan photo – cypress trees,
warm brick farmhouse and stone church, with gently curving
green hills behind. Is it possible to take a bad photograph
in Tuscany? Well yes it is. If I give in to temptation and
snap every tempting vista, I’m going to find the bright
midday light turns everything to dull monochrome, flattens
the colours and wastes all my film before I’ve even
started on the orchids. I’ll have to note the best
views and try to come back in early morning or evening light,
when it all magically turns golden and lucid.
We know where we are heading – south of Siena some
friends have been walking through veritable meadows filled
with orchids. The challenge will be to find those places
by car, along the strada bianca (dirt roads) that crisscross
the countryside. The other challenge is reaching our destination,
when every few yards we spot a flower spike on the roadside
and have to screech to a halt to identify it. Fresh from
England any orchid at all is a rarity, but after an hour
we are already blasé and we no longer stop for ‘just
another spotted orchid’.
The next day we are up bright and early at our first spot
on the lower slopes of Monte Amiata. There is an open clearing
surrounded by stunted oak trees and bingo – a lavish
sprinkling of bee orchids, my favourites, with their furry
lip that looks just like a bumble bee. Now the advantage
of early morning light and sparkling dewdrops is offset by
the fact that I’ll have to lie down in the damp grass
to get a good angle. Remember to bring a waterproof next
time. I should use a tripod, but first I’m looking
through the camera to choose the finest specimens and best
setting. Some I need to trim the grass around, either with
nail scissors or by gentle flattening down. A wide aperture
will take care of the background but I don’t want any
blurring of grass waving in the foreground. Sort out tripod,
get light reading and bracket, bracket, bracket.
These are pre-digital days, I’m using tranny and colour
saturation has to be spot on, so to be safe I’ll do
five half-stop brackets. I can’t reshoot from back
home once I’ve processed it all and seen the results.
This also means I have to be selective, I’ll only get
six shots to a roll of film, so just the best flowers and
best angles.
Moving across the clearing, as the light strengthens, I
find a fly orchid, this time impersonating a bluebottle fly,
not as pretty as the bee orchid but striking, then setting
up for that shot I nearly tread on a fragrant orchid, delicate
pink flowers. I have to be quick now before the light gets
too harsh and contrasty. Three in the bag and it’s
off to a bar to get a second breakfast of cappuccino and
brioche. The film is safe in a cool box – hot cars
at midday don’t do much for it! The middle of the day
is for scouting the evening’s shoot, then lunch and
a siesta. The light won’t be good again until about
5 o’clock, but we have to be in the right place by
then to make the most of it. So it’s driving the back
roads again between Buonconvento and Casciano di Murlo.
Over the next few days we cross off our list the green-winged
orchis, pyramidal orchid, lady orchid, the monkey orchid
with its long tail, a man orchid – not so easy to spot
with its greeny-yellow colouring, but now we’ve got
our eye in the orchid shape leaps at us from all sides. A
lot of these orchids are also supposed to be common in Britain
but I’ve never seen any of them there, here in Italy
they’re everywhere – must be something to do
with farming methods, pesticides and all the rest. Here there
are a lot of small-scale farmers, subsistence farming is
dying out but huge commercial agricultural companies haven’t
taken over. There are also a lot of woodland and unfarmable
hilly slopes. Orchids on the roadsides though, that’s
just showing off!
At the end of the week it’s back to Pisa, hand in
the hire car, just slightly dented from overly-steep off-road
experiences, and try to persuade the security people to hand
search the film bag rather than X-ray it, which could fog
the film. They promise that their machine is so modern and
foolproof that you can put film through safely but I’m
not taking any chances and eventually they agree. So only
one more hurdle to go, the lab back home, processing and
seeing what I’ve got – that heart stopping moment
before opening the envelope, the huge sigh of relief when
you see images on the film, then examining each one carefully
and remembering the scent of the Italian countryside in springtime.
Copyright 2005 Kit Heathcock
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