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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