Fences are said to make good neighbors, but they provide many other services, including considerable photographic opportunities. They help keep our beagles from escaping while chasing scents. My husband once forwarded me an account of an undoubtedly well-meaning beagle who was recovered–in Indiana–after more than two years on the lam and 850 miles from his fence-free home. My husband’s header: “I wonder how far the rabbit got?”
“En guard” is spoken to alert fencers to take their defensive positions, but fences themselves need not be uninviting. They lend scale to and break up the vastness of landscapes. They mark paths and house buoys and tchotchkes and seasonal displays. They are backdrops for posters and banners, and display political sentiments and commercial enticements.
While birds frequently situate themselves comfortably on fences, a fence-sitting human tends to be one unwilling to commit to one side of an issue or another.
For the attentive, an unusual fence can identify the particular place in the world of an otherwise undifferentiated seascape or skyscape.
They may be whole or broken, winding or at strict high alert. Antique or modern. Functional or decorative. Enduring or flimsy, or somewhere in between. Sometimes they completely block one’s view. Others are so porous as to be nearly invisible, wrought of wire that melts into its surroundings. Lush summer flowers may exuberantly burst through their grids.
Sometimes, fences are so perfectly situated within their surroundings that they seem to echo the sky.
At least for awhile.
Love in the Spaces 
Beautiful Stephanie. Loved them all, but I especially loved the image where the fence echo’d the sky – great eye on that one.
I confess I may not have noticed that fully until after I took the photo! Thank you
Fabulous pictures Stephanie.
Thank you! Most of these were taken in or near Portsmouth, NH, and I’ve been so lucky to spend time there.
The colours are spectacular.
Thank you!
Most welcome.
Wonderful fence images Stephanie. I especially liked the last one.
Thanks! That was a doozy of a sunrise–stippled skies are amazing color-catchers.
😊
Wonderful images. Great compositions and colors.
Thank you! It hadn’t occurred to me how often I take pictures of fences, and I just realized I forgot my favorite fence: in front of Mt. Chocorua, in New Hampshire, there’s a very unusual wood fence. It took until I’d been there several times until my real photographer friend Jeff pointed out to me that the intersecting and angled logs spell “NH.”
That’s an interesting log formation.
Your post showed me how great fences are as elements in an image. I like specially how well integrated they are, falling into place in the composition without overwhelming the other elements.
I didn’t realize how often I use fences to set up a shot! The golden logs were an unusual find: a section of waterlogged fence had washed up on the shore very close to the “drowned forest,” on the seacoast of New Hampshire, where seawater has worn a cove of trees into leafless smooth grayish skeletons, like mammoth bones. There couldn’t have been more contrast with the fence, which had a lot of personality (I saw a row of thin faces above the puckered sections).
Great photos, all. That last one is a stunner.
Thank you, John! That last shot was of a very early summer sunrise and until this post, I don’t think anyone got to see it. Mysteriously, not many people get out for those 4:00 a.m. starts to the sea.
😱🤷♂️🤔
Boundaries… safety… home… stop… welcome… no admittance… fences have the distinct and delicate dance of offering welcome and forbidding entrance. And they all double dog dare you to attempt to climb them. Bravo post!
You’ve pinpointed the flip side of fences! I hadn’t remembered that the same fence which the flowering bushes were pushing through had a very unhappy and tough little dog fiercely instructing pedestrians to stay away from his flowers. And of course it would have been in very bad taste for me to include pics of the razored-wire fences at the correctional institutions I’ve been in (for professional reasons, I assure you).
How long were you incarcerated? 🙂
Ordinarily, I was just visiting! Witnesses sometimes crop up in places I rarely frequent!
I try only to visit, as briefly as possible and when absolutely necessary!
Excellent strategy!
First time I had to go into a state prison, I was so nervous I forgot to collect my license afterwards…until I was three states away.
Now that’s funny!
Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous. So many great photos and a grand finish 🙂
Thank you! There is a wee island off the Massachusetts coast with sand paths you’d think a photographer had set up, with different kinds of leading lines to sunrise as it traverses the coast during the seasons. I was always amazed to find no one else there for sunrise, except a few fishermen.
There are places that are great secret spaces 🙂
Simply gorgeous!
Thank you! And your photos are incredible!
Thank you!!
Gorgeous images and a unique point of view.
But that comment from your hubby was just the best! lol
Thank you!
My husband had such a quick wit. There was no situation in which he couldn’t find something to make people smile, and keep us smiling now years later.
Good guy to have around.
Among all the brilliant photos, that last photo is spectacular. Wonderfully spotted and taken
Thank you! I have been very lucky, sometimes, to be an insomniac!
Such a beautiful gallery, interesting thoughts all with a grand finale. So nice Stephanie.
Thank you! Hope your adventures are all fun and photogenic!
ThanK you Stephanie. Thats the goal.
Thanks so much! I loved this prompt.