Banana Leaves (6 photos)

[Don Ellis]

A while back, I spent three days and hundreds of shots to get a few decent photo of a bunch of bananas. It was interesting, and a lesson I’d never learned in class, but now that I’ve done that, I find myself looking less at the fruit and more at the plant itself.

The banana tree is not a tree because it has no wood -- its thigh-thick trunks are created from the bases of its large overlapping leaves. While the leaves are still green, caterpillars chew out sections and roll them like cheroots, still attached to the main stem, and crawl inside until they emerge as butterflies, or perhaps moths -- I haven’t caught them coming out yet.

As the life goes out of the leaves, they fold over, yellow and ragged, and dry head-down to dead-corn-husk color. Having taken some photos of the wasps and beetles and giant ant-like creatures that make the banana plant their home, I took a picture late the other evening simply for the texture of dead leaves.

I think of it as a reminder that you could spend your life taking photos of a banana plant. Well, maybe not you, but me.



Don

[marie]

its a wonderful story of the life span of a banana leaf 'tree' Don and all which is is going on during that life

the dead leaves here don't look completely dead .
theres something very moving about the way they are dying in your shot. very dignified and as if ready to give up the ghost. mission fullfilled.

what a mission

where would we be without them.
I just bought another bunch of bananas this morning

thank you very much bananas
.... and you


regards
marie

[marie]

this morning I bought a bunch of bananas
(as I do regulary)
this photo shows a batch of bread and buns which I made late tonight with the help of those bananas
(mashed )

the steam was still coming off them (buns and bread) so I didn't put the camera too near when taking the picture
( on tv mode and no flash )
photo taken a short while ago under the light in the kitchen.... it may be not be quite up to scratch

http://www.pbase.com/image/23025171

I'm off to have a cup of tea and you know what, with lots of butter , before I go to bed



and for anyone new who never saw Don's pictures on his site they are in for a beautiful surprise.

see here >


http://www.kleptography.com/s-gallery-bananaland.htm

or one picture at least >
http://www.kleptography.com/sbananaland_wasp9861.htm



best wishes
marie

[Don Ellis]

marie wrote:
this morning I bought a bunch of bananas
(as I do regulary)
this photo shows a batch of bread and buns which I made late tonight with the help of those bananas
(mashed )

http://www.pbase.com/image/23025171

I'm off to have a cup of tea and you know what, with lots of butter , before I go to bed



marie

I wish we were closer... one of my favorites is banana bread and yours looks excellent.

After seeing the shot above, someone mentioned that they weren’t sure if they’d ever seen a banana plant and asked if I had a picture of the whole thing... so yesterday afternoon I took a few more to show the plant and illustrate its structure...

Here is the 20-foot-tall banana plant...



This is looking up into the leaves with a bunch of bananas chopped off the in lower center...



A section of the stalk showing the thick leaves whose bases overlap to form the trunk...



One of the trunks either broke under its own weight (unlikely) or two of the maids in local homes pulled it down to cut off a bunch of bananas (very likely since I saw the pair carting bananas past my window and they’re not known for banana finesse)... the “rings” are the cross-sections of the leaves...



And a banana leaf... these are especially wonderful in roadside restaurants in Penang, Malaysia, where they’re used as plates/tablemats and heaped with rice and vegetables and the best fish curry in the world...



Time for a snack... thanks again for your comments, Marie.

Don

By the way, the original shot is color (although converting to grayscale makes virtually no difference) and the rest are infrared.

[marie]

Don
very many thanks for all these interesting shots.
its really lovely to see them and 'hear' all the details.
and for those interested in infrared even more so.
to see how the bananas form at all these different stages is really good.

I saw see the beautiful 'shaded' classy colour in the first shot
and the fourth in the next series is so different from any you have shown. some of them look almost like a fireworks display.


re the banana bread
I only made small sizes as you can probably see from the size of the bananas beside them in that photo (which I put on the post last night )
they were gluten free as I 'have' to stay on that kind of diet but mostly for others I make the bigger loaf without it being gluten free. (the usual banana bread)
glad you like to eat it when you can get it also .
its good for a body

In above post I had said 'lots of butter' on the bread and buns but realised I put none on those buns.. ever . they are rich enough as I have added chopped almonds/ ground almonds/ dark muscovado sugar and whatever I fancy.
the butter part was mostly just in my head .

but a little butter on banana bread is really lovely

regards this old photo ( below )
I mentioned it to you a long time ago.
just showing it. how the bananas are carted around in israel.
the picture was taken with a compact camera from a moving bus..between tiberous and the dead sea area.
loads and loads of beautiful banana 'trees' all around
http://www.pbase.com/image/23037831


again thank you very much for all the beautiful pictures .

best wishes
marie

[Bean13]

Very nice series of shots Don. I really like the third picture you posted. To me it has a great composition and just looks really appealing to me. Great work!

[G2Jim]

Beautiful shots Don!

[xuxu1]

Very nice shots Don!

I have a banana tree in my winter garden. Although not 20 feet high (yet). But to my surprise grows quite fast.

Regards
Ed

[rockyc2]

marie wrote:
this morning I bought a bunch of bananas
(as I do regulary)
this photo shows a batch of bread and buns which I made late tonight with the help of those bananas
(mashed )

the steam was still coming off them (buns and bread) so I didn't put the camera too near when taking the picture
( on tv mode and no flash )
photo taken a short while ago under the light in the kitchen.... it may be not be quite up to scratch

http://www.pbase.com/image/23025171

I'm off to have a cup of tea and you know what, with lots of butter , before I go to bed



and for anyone new who never saw Don's pictures on his site they are in for a beautiful surprise.

see here >


http://www.kleptography.com/s-gallery-bananaland.htm

or one picture at least >
http://www.kleptography.com/sbananaland_wasp9861.htm



best wishes
marie

Yum! Yum! I could eat a hundred of them in one sittin. Mornin, Marie. Send me some of those Muffins, and the Bread. I'll smear lots of butter on them. Haha!
Rocky.

[marie]

I'll make you loads of rock buns rocky
they are real spicey.
get the butter ready

thank you very much

yum yum

marie