by Terri
We are often
told in society “follow your passion” — and I do believe that concept (to an
extent). But of course, before you can
follow your passion, you must discover what your passion is.
When I first
fell in love with photography, my children were young and photographing them
was my passion. I captured every
activity, birthday party, first day of school, and soccer game. I captured every
detail of their faces right down to their eyelashes. And I’m so grateful to have that record of
their childhoods. Every last photo, regardless of the quality of the shot, is
precious to me. A moment frozen in time that would fade away if it weren’t for
the photos I took.
Fast forward
a few years and all of a sudden I had an empty nest and no sweet faces to take
photos of. And, in fact, I stumbled
around a few years trying to find something else that I could
be passionate about. Purchasing a macro lens and realizing how much fun it was
to capture all the tiniest elements of nature made me fall in love with
photographing flowers and especially cactus flowers. In the spring, that’s my
major focus. The color, the detail, the juxtaposition of spiky cactus and
delicate flowers – I am fascinated with all of it.
And in order
to have numerous cactus to photograph, I began growing my own so I had a ready
supply of subjects. You might think that focusing on cactus blooms
would limit my photographic subjects but things are blooming here from February
to October so there are only a few months that I have to put my cactus bloom
passion on hold.
And if
you’re noticing a pink trend, you’re partly right. I do seem to have an
affinity for the pink ones, but there are so many more colors that I love
almost as much:
Another
trend you might have noticed, and it’s completely unintentional, is the
bees. For some reason, this spring the
bees have discovered my blooms every morning almost before I can get out on the
patio to shoot so I just go with it and include them in my composition. If you can't fight 'em, join 'em!
So have your
found your photographic passion? Is it portraiture, landscapes, pets, still life? Or
maybe you’re still trying to decide what it is. I tried many different things on my road to macro photography and blooming cactus. If you haven’t felt that passion yet, keep shooting. Photography is such a huge territory and I think if you try to broaden your horizons too much, you may find yourself losing interest. There is
something so fulfilling about finding the passion, that thing that makes your heart sing when you see it in your viewfinder. What is it for you?
7 comments:
Sunrises!
Flower macros are my favorite. :)
Macro photography is my passion, especially the intricate details of nature. Terri, I so enjoy your passion for cactus flowers. Until I met you and saw your incredible pictures I had never seen the beauty of cactus!
Terri I am always delighted to see your beautiful cactus photos! They really are amazing in terms of their color and texture. As for me, my passion in photography is capturing the magic and wonder of my ordinary life and right now that includes a lot of flower photography! :)
So lovely to see these shots of yours, Terri. The bees make me hopeful, long live the bees. For me, my passion will always be faces. People's faces. If I had more courage, I'd ask strangers if I could photograph them but I lack that courage.
I love your cactus photo's Terri. My passion is trees. I love old trees especially birch trees. We have 4 seasons in New York State so I am out all year long looking for different trees to photograph.
Wow.....the cactus shots are amazing!
Nicely done.
When I first got into photography I kept hearing "portraits are the way to go". I just couldn't get into that. Too much posing for me. I find that I tend to be drawn toward nature shots so that's where I focus most of my shots on. That and old doors/windows/buildings!!!
diane @ thoughts&shots
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