The mystery of emerald green

When I travel, I do my best to describe what I see for those who are not there, my friends and family in France, or anyone interested in my subjects.

Leeds seems to be in perpetual reconstruction, and among the used machines, some vehicles or earthmoving equipment show an unusual color, emerald green. So it seems natural to be tented to take pictures of their mechanical ballets.

In a strange way, the emerald green color exists only for my eyes, but becomes blue for my camera —either in the EVF and in the picture— as well as my smartphone, despite its Leica rear lens. Most of the time …

At start, I only used my camera to take photos. But when I discovered the blue color in place of the expected green, I thought my camera —a recent but second-hand acquisition— had a mismatch with colors, and I started to prefer my smartphone to the camera.

Few days ago, I took a picture of works near the Leeds Art Gallery with my smartphone, and on the final picture, the emerald green had turned blue, once more. Only then I started to wonder how this ‘magic’ emerald green was doing to make it impossible to capture, even for the Leica lens of my camera.

And I gave my confidence back to my camera, unduly suspected of color incompetence.

• • •

Things might have ended there, and the mystery remained insoluble, but sometimes I am lucky, and once more yesterday … I was coming back from Merrion Center with a few purchases, and I saw a nice group of engines of the ‘magic’ color, and I took a picture, not for the color, but for the group itself, and …

Tadam ! Engines in the sunny place are the right color !

I don’t plan to explain the mystery of Leeds’ emerald green. But at least I’m able to show it to friends, family, and curious people worldwide.

It’s enough for me — for the moment !

PS: And yes, I confess that here, I have used a lot Google Translate. Because it was a very technical subject, far beyond my knowledge on public works, but I really wanted to show the ‘magic’ color to everyone. Ouf! It’s done!