Richmond Riverside

In trying to develop my ideas for the Cruel and Tender project, I was trying to find different plants or trees with spikes or thorns on.
I regularly pass Richmond riverside and had noticed a tree that was growing spikes out of its trunk. On closer inspection, clumps of these spikes were all over this one tree. It is a Honey Locust tree also known as the Thorny Locust or Thorny Honey Locust. The thorns that can be singular or in clumps, have evolved to protect the tree from predators.

When you think of thorny plants you immediately think of Roses. So, to find these thorny clumps on this tree I knew I wanted to try and photograph them for this project.

At this time of the year the leaves on this Thorny Locust were just coming in so these clumps were really visible and easy to get up close to.

These next set of photographs I quite like as the show a tender side to the thorns. Especially the ones where the feather is caught up. Definately showing the Cruelness of the pointy thorns and the Tenderness of the soft, white feather.

Petersham Nurseries

As I have said, Roses firstly come to mind when thinking of thorns. So that meant a trip to one of my favourite places, Petersham Nurseries.

On the way there I tried to capture some bramble thorns. This hasn’t worked well due to the size of the thorns and branches, or perhaps I should have gotten in closer?

I came here looking for the biggest Rose stem I could find. As I was using my Prime lens I wanted to try and use a very shallow depth of field to emphasise the thorns.

I found some very old roses, again, thorns were clearly visible due to the time of year. It wasn’t just the thorns that intrigued me, it was the shapes created by the old branches and stems. Creating some abstract shapes and lines.