There isn't one part of our society that hasn't been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessity for all of us to Quarantine ourselves to some extent. It has changed the way that we interact publicly and privately. To date, I have spent 124 consecutive days Quarantined either at my house or at our family's ranch in Lampasas, Texas. Which has come with numerous challenges - but also some opportunities.
Most of us have had to slow down to some extent. Most of us have had to spend more time at home. For me, both of these conditions have led to an intensified investigation into Macro Photography.
Close to the start of my personal Quarantine I challenged myself to look for something, wherever I was, to photograph and document each day. And I have done that. Posting whatever resulting image has come from that daily challenge on my social media outlets. Some days it has been an easy exercise. Others I have had more of a struggle finding inspiration. But at some point, I started returning to the roots of my journey with photography.
In 2013 my Mom gave me an old Nikon camera that she was going to stop using because she was switching over to a Canon. At that same point in my life, I was experiencing a number of life-changing and altering events. Our family ranch in Lampasas, Texas became sort of an oasis for me. A respite from the upheaval I was experiencing. Armed with that hand-me-down camera I started looking at life differently - both figuratively and literally. The only lens my Mom provided with the camera had a switch on it that allowed the user to zoom in very closely on subjects for Macro Photography images. It was Spring of 2013 and our ranch had all kinds of wildflowers and interesting plants. I started zooming in on anything that struck my interest. I started seeing things in ways that I never had - or that had never even occurred to me.
And in so many ways, my journey with this camera was mirroring my journey in my personal life. I was stopping to examine things that had always been there in order that I might see them differently.
And it's funny how life goes in cycles and I find myself today with such a similar juxtaposition. Part of my journey with my camera has returned to Macro Photography and looking at things around me differently. At the very same moment we are all being given the opportunity to look at so many things in our lives differently.
0 Comments