Danger Will Robinson!
Yellow. It’s the color of danger. It’s the color of warning. It’s the color I often reach for first. And it’s one I pay attention to closely. On this particular morning I was hyperfocused on the road surface. The day before the snow began to melt and there was a lot of water running across the road. During the night it frozen leaving some wide swaths of ice to negotiate. You can see them in the photograph. At each I had to come to a complete stop and slowly paddle the scooter across with my feet.
The yellow kept me sharp.
Yellow Lines — the siren song of the road
The yellow lines leading past the horizon. The visual cue for unknown adventure. I think I always stop when I see those scenes. They’re easy to identify. They’re blazing with yellow.
Yellow Torch
Yellow stands out, calls out, demands a close look. In this case the stalk of yellow verbascum flowers signaled a turn off the paved road to explore another track.
Protective Yellow
By the time I made this picture my First Gear Kilimanjaro jacket was growing weary of protecting me. The once bright yellow was a weak presentation of its former self. Yellow has become a central element of my protective riding gear choices.
Yellow Machines
I’ve always loved yellow motorcycles. And cars. This BMW 650GS that Kissell Motorsports lent me for a ride was exactly the color I love. I’ve ridden several other fine yellow machinves.
Don’t Tell Me Which Way to Go
Signs, signs, everywhere they’re signs, telling me what to do. More and more I refused the commands of signage…
Yellow Happy Faces
Sunflowers glowing in the sun. Yellow faces blazing across the landscape. Warm and inviting. Looking at them all becomes right with the world.
Courtesy, in part, of the color yellow.
They call you Mellow Yellow!
Red is the palette I play in. I often succumb to yellows siren song.
Figuring out a way to turn that into a Haiku will fill the rest of my day……..
Haiku. I wish I understood it better. Same with poetry. You are well on your way.
Since yellow is the color for caution it’s best not to ignore it.
I agree.
I’ve always liked the color yellow on the GS and V-Strom motorcycles. I picked red for Scarlett due to some National Geographic photographer’s comment that he always includes a little red in his pictures to draw the eye.
Darker colors are fine on motorcycles, but makes them harder to present in pictures I think.
I like the first picture, it shows the color of course but also twists and turns, ups and downs….with small patches of ice to represent periods of increased caution…..sort of like, life.
I try to include a little Vespa in every picture.
I have two black dogs. I appreciate the photographic challenge of darker subjects.
I love this whole post! Yellow for warning, but also for safety, beauty, and sunflower smiles!
Yellow. Hope to see some daffodils soon!
They are all over the place down here in GA. We were thinking it was early for them, since it’s been so warm here, but they are so beautiful!
None here yet. Kim tells me it’s much too early. Even with the warm weather.
Wonderful pictures! I just wish I could find deserted roads like you have to actually see the wonderful yellow lines. I’m thinking of getting a high-viz yellow jacket but spouse says my old red one is fine. Hmmmm…….
I’ll tell you — the Hi Viz yellow is really, REALLY bright. Obnoxious. But hard to miss.
I’m spoiled in terms of deserted roads. Never lived anywhere without them.
Yellow for the double line, white on the edges of the pavement…
Centre line yellow…
Don’t eat the yellow snow…
Snow. I’m done with that.
You didn’t mention yellow lights that are prelude to red lights. Too many drivers react to yellow lights by speeding up when the opposite should be true. We all know how vulnerable we are on our scooters, and there is no sane justification for trying to blast through a yellow light. For me, a yellow light means stop.
I didn’t have any pictures of traffic lights. On the scooter I definitely begin to stop on yellow. No racing the light for me. Even with uncontrolled intersections and cross streets I tend to slow. The risk is high in those locations.
This particular “yellow” is a subjective one for me: timing and proximity is key, combined with the amount of traffic, if any, directly behind me.
I used to complicate yellow that way. Now I pretty much apply the brakes unless something is breathing down my backside.
Lovely collection of images!
Thanks Kathy!
Ride Yellow – Ride Safe. – Bumper sticker on many NYC yellow cabs competing with gypsy cabs in the 1970s.
Black, however, is the color of my true scoot’s curves – largely because my dealer had a demo GTS on the floor with 100 miles on the clock, and for a price I couldn’t really refuse. And, of course, black goes with everything, including yellow.
I’m likely to draw the line at MC jackets, since I’m in the market for one as well: as far as “hi-viz” versions are concerned, the only color on offer for the jackets I’m considering is that sickly neon-green. Seriously, I’ll take orange, yellow, almost anything over That Green. Better still, I’ll take something with a decent amount of reflective piping…yep, that’s it.
We’ve had a lot more rain lately, combined with nighttime temps well above freezing, so the open road hasn’t been a worry, but mall parking lots have been a worry, since the crews that plowed the lots when it was snowing created mountains of the stuff, which stick around for weeks, regardless of temperature, and can scatter the odd bit of ice where you might not see it. Always something, right?
That last photo – Vespa among sunflowers – totally does it for me. The others are good, but that one warms the heart, and further stokes anticipation for Spring.
The Hi-VIZ sickly green is hard to take. Really, really obnoxious looking. At least at first. But it grows on you. And after a little use and grime it transforms a bit into something a bit more human. It’s now become part of my persona on the road.
Sunflowers. I wish spring was here. The picture doesn’t help today. Cold, windy and snow flakes here and there. Deciding whether to ride to work…
Awesome post.
What’s fun is that verbascum thapsus grows here too, and I just *love* it. Its yellow flowers, its almost white leaves, resempling a giant weird tobacco plant come from outer space. And I find it difficult to cut it when I have to do some vegetable garden maintenance because it’s so damn beautiful.
My wife taught me to appreciate verbascum thapsus. Until that moment I considered it an ugly weed. Like so much in life, I never stopped long enough to consider the delicate nature of that giant plant.