I love seeing a cotton field near harvest time and I’m afraid this may be the last set of photos I get to capture this year during picking time. Late in the afternoon and into the early evening there is a kind of light that grabs my attention and makes me hit the brakes no matter what I should be doing. I hope you enjoy the photos and that you get a moment’s wonder thinking this is where your favorite jeans, hoodie or concert shirt got it’s start.
I should have gotten photos taken when someone else was around or I should have put a tri-pod in the car because balance the camera on my car, on a jacket didn’t give me too many options for a self-portrait. And the wind was pretty strong and cool (especially without the jacket!). Add to that the drought kept this crop pretty short and well, I love cotton far more than I love the results of my self-portrait exercise. This one is ok even if I’m not smiling. 🙂
Nothing better than a beautiful field of cotton!!!!
Agreed!
Thank you very much for your informative blog! As a Yankee who recently traveled through GA (not just Atlanta) for the first time, the cotton fields didn’t look much like I expected. In particular, the plants are much shorter than historical pictures show them — I thought they’d be chest- or maybe waist-high on you, not so close to knee-high. Is this due to modern varieties? or is it modern planting methods?
Great question! And I think I’ll be writing another blog post based on it! In general, farmers want to keep the cotton plants compact so it will be able to feed through a cotton picker. That means breeders have worked to develop varieties that tend to be in that height range and farmers do additional things to keep them that height. I really may have to write a bit up!