Previous stop: [[Stop Number noStop-28]] Next stop: [[Stop Number 1104]] ![[3508.jpg]] ## Notes [[Pollen]] is one of the most insidiously difficult things to photograph I think I've ever come across. In Richmond, it's something of an *atmospheric condition* during parts of the spring. Towards the end of winter and the beginning of spring of 2025, I felt strongly that [[The Seasons|this project was mainly about seasons]], or put another way, that the passage of time and its effects on the city were one thing I ought to primarily concern myself with photographing. I once heard[^1] that cities favor male trees because, if there were a mix of male and female trees, that there would be rotting fruit all over the city at various intervals throughout the year. I think "some people were saying" as well that it's a way to rob people the benefit of cheap and easily accessible food. Whatever the case may be, it's also made Richmond one of the worst cities in the country for pollen. Or so I'm told. Perhaps it's one of those "every city has the best pizza" sort of things. No one has said Richmond has the best slice of pizza, though I've had good ones. Whatever the case may be, I typically get rocked by pollen in the spring every year. In 2025, it was almost comically bad. The last couple years, I've taken to wearing a dust mask and a thick pair of lab-style goggles when biking not only to avoid the allergic reaction but also because the *physical stuff* of pollen just relentlessly hits me in the eyeballs- it's insufferable to try to wash my eyes out endlessly. Prophylactic measures to avoid the incursion of pollen becomes a necessity. As you can see in the previous stop, [[Stop Number noStop-28]], the stuff washes down into gutters and forms lakes of disgusting pollen soup. Yet, a long view down Broad street here revealed a dramatic sight of pollen thickening the air in dramatic fashion. It was a tricky image to color-correct. Reality really did have a greenish, warm hue. Yet, Lightroom wanted desperately to color-correct away from it. It's like those sunsets or surreal moments of lighting which the increasingly retouching-happy iPhone refuses to capture correctly. Even if I take the more "manual" approach and turn it to Auto White Balance or drop a color picker somewhere, it never quite looked right. If I gave it more green and warmth to compensate, it lost some aspect of verisimilitude. The edited photo as it sits now "feels" authentic. Insofar as, I edited it shortly after I came home and said "yep, there it is, that's what it looked like." Whether or not it looks (to you, dear viewer) as dramatic as it felt (to me, at the time, shielding myself from pollen missiles), that's an entirely different story. (Written September 1, 2025) ## Keywords - [[Broad Street]] - [[Pollen]] ## Footnotes and Miscellany [^1]: It was probably Reddit. This statement is one of the loose and unaccountable pieces of information that float around my brain.