He is nearly invisible, despite his glowing green color.
He just looks like a part of the plant on which he is resting.
It is like meditating. I go out to take photos – usually drawn out by the beckoning sunlight, sometimes driven out by a need to create something – I first take a few shots and restlessly move on. Then it captures my attention – it varies – and my attention becomes focused on it, I change angles, or slowly move closer, or think of the angle of the light or how the background contrasts with it. Sometimes those photos turn out as I imagine them, but often, in the quiet of truly focusing, I become aware of something else that I had not seen – would not have seen at my earlier pace – and that becomes the real photo shoot of the day. This little insect was one of those, in the summer of 2011. I didn’t see him until I was focusing on a dragonfly, what I thought was it, trying to ease closer and get a shot with all the elements right, background, the glint of light on its wings, the… Oh no, the dragonfly flew away! Then I saw the bright yellow flowers on their glowing green stems – and it. When I came out of the trance and went back to my computer to look at what I got, I was pleased with this shot 🙂
Does anyone else find themselves out of the everyday hustle and bustle, almost meditating while pursuing the shot?
Yes, I’ve been known to spend half an hour or occasionally even an hour in one place while I’m photographing in nature. I often lose track of what’s going on outside the little area of my focus.
Steve Schwartzman
http://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com
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