To a photographer, fences can be barriers or boons
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I have spent a lot of the last 20 years photographing over fences.
At first, on my travels through Florida’s ranchlands, I was upset by their being between me and the “goods,” but then I simply incorporated them into my photos or edited them out.
I never climb fences. Not just out of respect for private property but because of what I might find on the other side: cow plops, poison ivy, thorny vines, dogs, fire, a rancher.
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Once during the rainy season at Deer Prairie Creek Preserve, I leaned over barbed wire to photograph browsing cattle on an adjoining ranch and was continuing down the trail when suddenly saw a young bull charging straight at me. I made a U-turn and walked as quickly as I could towards my van.
With the “splash, splash” getting closer and closer, I pleaded for Divine Intervention. Suddenly, there was silence. The bull had headed in another direction.
Was it a miracle?
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Fences have their uses. I can use one as a tripod when zooming in on wildflowers blooming in a field. Along roadsides, I find some of my best subjects sitting on fence posts. In rural areas where mowing is at a minimum, wildflowers and shrubs bloom freely along fence lines, thanks to bird poop.
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In the 1960s, when my husband (who worked for the U.S. Information Agency) and I were living in Kisangani, Congo, Time came through to do a story. They asked Bob to identify an area with “no buildings, no cars, no roads, no fences, no shoes.”
Why was the Dark Continent being perpetuated in America when I was living in an apartment building with an elevator?
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Last week, along the perimeter of a strip mall in Venice, I looked for plants that had survived the bulldozers. I was sure to find beggarticks, which feed hundreds of species of butterflies, bees and other pollinators, and Virginia creeper, a tough customer that infuriates gardeners.
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I had stopped to photograph a dinky little retention pond through a heavy chain-link fence when suddenly a large splash startled me. I stood for long minutes, awaiting the source of the noise to reveal itself — but nothing. Remembering that alligators can stay underwater for hours, I pushed on, cheered by the thought that despite us, the old Florida prevails.
Can alligators climb fences?
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Fran Palmeri is the author of Florida Lost and Found, available on Amazon. Her new book, A Bouquet of Days, will be published later this year.
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