Bees and Balance
I'm back! I did say that this blog would be intermittent, right? Ummm…yes I did, it's right there at the top of the page. The reason I haven't been able to scrawl any ramblings or put up new galleries for a couple of months is that I've been waaaaaaay too busy at work. Ironic as I work as photographer. Hilarious! Not. Anyway, enough with the excuses.
I did manage to get one gallery together, squeezing in the time to edit purely because I was excited about the images. The Bee Business gallery came about through sheer laziness. Well, not quite sheer…there was at least the motivation to pick up the camera and go outside.
And a very rewarding afternoon it was. I really enjoyed crawling around the garden following these bees. They were fascinating to watch and challenging to photograph. 'Challenging? Are you serious? They're just bees!' I hear you say. Gimme a break, I'm still pretty new to all this! Challenging, yes: small, fast moving, potentially stingy, difficult to focus on and only accessible by scuttling about the garden on hands and knees. And shunning the temptation to click onto Auto, there were settings to be fiddled with, light to contend with and manual focus to get right. So many things to not screw up!
When it came to scrutinising the results of an afternoon's bee-bothering, the excitement was tempered with that what-if-they're-all-rubbish apprehension and I was reluctant to actually look at the pics. It's that feeling of knowing that you might have a chip full of bad shots and that if you do it's down to your own camerawork, because the shots you saw through the viewfinder were definitely good. So I eventually ran out of convenient distractions, loaded them up and halle-frikkin-lujah… there were some good ones! By 'good' I mean in focus and not in need of too much work to create an image I'm happy with (hey, I'm sure my benchmark will improve as my skills do!). So I had a good time working on these photos despite having to squish editing into 15 minutes here, 20 minutes there. In particular I'm really chuffed with the ones of the two bees together and this one of the honey bee coated in pollen.
The past couple of months have been frustrating in terms of not having much spare time to spend with the camera, or edit the stack of photos that I've been meaning to get round to, or write more blog posts, or put up more galleries. An hour to two spent in the garden with the company of Other Half, a camera and some bees was definitely a simple, much-needed and very welcome pleasure. Aside from the enjoyment found in chasing bees and tweaking out a Keri-Eye-View from the resulting pictures, I have learned a few things:
1. Inspiration is a two way street: There was no inspiration beyond wanting to point the lens at something and create an image (I don't know if this even counts as inspiration, it's the baseline of how I feel every day). In the quest for camera-based image-creation, I would have settled for some run-of-the-mill flower pics that would probably never have made it to the editing stage. Inspiration unexpectedly appeared in black and yellow stripy form and oh look…here's a new gallery! Inspiration happens to you, it can't be whipped out of thin air. That said, it might be waiting around the corner (or on a dandelion outside the back door), so even if you only feel a little bit like creating something…you should try! You never know where it might go. And if it doesn't go anywhere then that might be frustrating, but is it that much of a big deal? There's always the next time.
2. Work with what you've got: Other Half must be totally fed up with hearing squeaks of 'I NEED a macro lens.' and similar. Of course I don't need one, I just think I do. I would certainly like one, but would it make me a better photographer? Probably not…at least that's what I'll tell myself until I can afford one. The Bee Business photos were all shot using a 24-120mm lens. They would definitely have been a whole lot more effective with a macro lens (and someone who knew how to use one properly) but then I wouldn't have had the fun of teasing out these final images.
3. Cool Your Boots Man! Setting up a website and blog is something that I've done to push myself, but at the same time I'm meant to enjoy it. When work got busy and free time suddenly evaporated I started to give myself a hard time for not keeping it up together: not taking more photos, not coming up with new ideas, not editing new galleries, not writing more blog posts. It somehow became a source of anxiety…not cool! So I had to take a step back and remind myself that it's something for me to do as and when, and to enjoy doing. Chill out!
4. There is a balance to be had in life: This definitely goes hand in hand with point 3. When there isn't much going on in the way of spare time and we suddenly find ourselves with a few free moments, most of us have that compulsive streak that throws us into doing the stuff that WE want to do. One flash of minor self-indulgence later, we look up and say 'Oh, yes…I'd love to spend some time with you but I now have to go to work / do the grocery shop / take the car to the mechanic / wash the elephant etc…' whether saying it to the significant other, or family, or friends, or pet dog, the outcome is the same: the free time has been spent. Try and find the balance.
You can't make time, but it's one of those rare things that seems to last longer when you share it. So share it with the people and the things that make life buzz for you. Having your world rocked might put you off balance, but hey…how else will you learn to find your feet?
If you want you can see the rest of the Bee Business gallery here. See you next time.