Wandering souls

...That summer I spent 3 weeks home, in a small town of Belarus ,where

I go every year to visit my mom. She still lives in a house , the only

one I ever knew as my home. The place you see on a picture I familiar

to me since my childhood : a village road and a lake near buy. I never

took pictures of a landscape before, but this one was first born in my

mind: poles, fog, feeling of uncertainty, of deep pain that is called

nostalgia... Every morning I would wake up at 5 :00 to look into the

window. But no, just a sunrise...The last morning of my staying home

it just all came together: sunrise, clouds and fog... I ran to the

lake, shaking from anxiety, holding a pole from the fence as a

mono-pod - the only thing I could think of. All was perfect: the

water, the reflection, the trees near by - I had nothing to blame on

if I failed. It was an intense and exciting time I will never forget!

When the excitement was over I realized that the lake was producing

the noise close to the one ,that cicadas make, just duller. It took me

a few moments to understand that it was a huge flock of birds, hiding

in the grass. My anxiety returned... I got my camera ready,,, and

screamed as loud as I could. Oh, my God! I was just snapping without

thinking.... And then the birds (with loud noise) flew away from the

water to the road ,and by the time I approached they covered the

poles. I screamed again and took this shot! I felt right away that it

happened! I looked at the result only when I returned to Canada. I

knew it couldn't be repeated and I couldn't bare the thought that it

was not good.

In black and white it connected with what I felt and wanted to

take with me... The wandering souls of the birds reflected the souls

of the immigrants with their longing for home, for their native land,

never certain, that they made a right choice....

Thank you for your patience, my friends.

This is shot caught my attention right away when I was scrolling through the thumbnails this morning. I love the birds and the leading lines from the wires and poles which carry you into the picture. Congratulations!

Great work, Tamara! And your story goes well with it. For some who left perhaps the only connection remains is through these lines.

Beautiful composition, very significant image! Brava!

Excellent photograph and story...  Mike

In my child hood, I used to live in this flat place and remember, specially in the fall, those flack of birds, mostly crows,  sometime those little birds (?) of thousands, flying all over above the empty, all ready harvested fields. This image had a mood, a mystical feel of the real thing. The electrical transportation wiring and polls nicely arranged in a geometric forms. It is a very good B&W image with lots of content, with beauty in it. Longer I steering on the image, more realistic it becomes, it goes in my mind, and become alive. The biggest Eastern part of Hungary ( Magyar)  like this, the plains, we called the "Alfold" ( low-land )  the most fertile agricultural part of the country.

Warm regards to you, Tamara.

Your story and photograph gets my vote.