The Moment it Started…

Everyone has that moment when everything clicks and falls into place. That moment when you truly feel inspired. That moment when you realize that you are doing something you love and enjoy immensely. For me that moment was when I took this picture and loaded the image on my computer to get a better look at the details within. The moment I realized that sunflowers were much more complex flowers than I thought and that they were truly beautiful in their structure was when my life changed forever.

So how did I get to this moment? Now that is the true journey of my life and my love of observing things around me. But this journey into photography only started when Covid hit, and the entire world came to a standstill. Yes, I loved taking pictures of my kids and our adventures and documented all I could with that. But this was different.

Like many of you I was forced to stay home and find new ways to entertain myself when Covid started. We were all sent home and told to stay there. Only go out when necessary for supplies. Stay safe. So that’s what we did. Luckily for me the weather was warm, and I could spend many hours in my backyard with my two Golden Retrievers hiding from the noises generated by my kids and their computer gameplay.

So what does one do when they sit outside day after day… well first there is the obligatory games of fetch with the dogs and watch them keep the backyard safe from those pesky squirrels, followed by listening to music, and of course watching videos online and streaming movies over your laptop. But eventually, your mind wanders, you start listening to and observing the world around you. Which is what I did. I heard birds. Many more that I expected and a wide variety of species. (I’m guessing my bird feeders being filled with seeds for them helped with this abundance & variety).

Eventually, you recognize the birds by the songs they sing. Then you try to capture images of the birds, cause why not? And you realize your phone is not good enough to get the types of images you want. So you invest in a good quality camera and a zoom lens. Then you start taking pictures and realize you need help figuring out the camera buttons and settings. Then you take a class and figure it all out.

Once you get it and understand you go off into the world and take your photographs. Eventually you realize that you are limited by the ability of your lenses, and you look into renting lenses from your local the camera store or even buying the ones you know you really want.

That’s what happened with this Rainbow Sunflower image. I knew I wanted a macro lens to allow me to get a closer in depth look at the world around me. But those lenses were costly, so I tried them out first by renting one from my local camera store. Needless to say I fell in love with it & ended up buying one of my own.

So, what made me fall in love with the world of macro photography? This image. I used my rented lens to take a picture of a sunflower in my backyard. I was amazed by the details and the beauty of the flower as I could see on my camera through the lens and on the display screen. But I really fell in love with it and the artistry of the images I could create with it when I loaded those first pictures onto my laptop and opened them up. Effectively, I opened a new world to explore and a new desire to capture the world around me with this one image of a mammoth sunflower that I call Rainbow Sunflower.

Who knew sunflowers had those colors? Who knew the beauty of the tiny flowers that eventually become the seeds we love to eat are so beautiful? Once you see the beauty that nature has all around us at that level you cannot go back… or at least I could not go back. I needed to see more. I needed to capture the beauty around me in an artistic way.

Today I honor that revelation by using that image as my avatar on all my social media outlets. As my photography skills grow and as I continue to explore the world around me, I enjoy looking back on this image with fondness as it is the image that set the direction and the tone of my photography journey. I only hope that others will love it as much as I do.