Onegav

I should probably know what this flower is called, I’ve seen plenty of them in the past, but alas I don’t, and so I’ve dubbed it “the Fire Flower”.

It’s a plant that’s just started to poke its head over the neighbours fence, and over the past couple of days it’s really caught my eye, due to its vibrant red colour, and it’s wicked shape.

Close up it’s got a sort of prehistoric creature look about it, and the way the flowers bloom from back to front, really enhances the gorgeous shape and adds to that feel of it being from a forgotten time.

Nature is such a wonderful thing, and I think I could be happy just photographing flowers.

These past couple of days I’ve had a few moments where I’ve thought, “I’m not going to make it today, I’m going to miss taking a photograph”.

It’s mainly been due to not knowing what to photograph, and it reminds me of the very early days in this challenge when I felt like that, and I wondered what it would be like 200 or so days in.

Well, I’m almost at 200 days now, and sometimes it is almost scary to think I might miss a day, but that drives me to look deeper and, thankfully I haven’t missed a beat yet.

That is the point of this I guess, to learn a deeper photographic understanding, and train my eyes to see further, deeper and into a world that might otherwise be overlooked; for that something special.

More and more the technical side is coming easier to me, and my focus is on subject and composition. That in itself becomes more of a challenge, as to-date 192 times over I have looked for something to top the previous image.

Learnings – just keep on looking, and importantly I have to keep personal and professional emotions and feelings aside from this challenge. That may sound a little strange, but at those times when the world seems to weigh heavy, it can be psychologically challenging in itself to go out and capture something beautiful.

However, one thing I have learnt is that doing just that, spending ten, twenty minutes just capturing images, has a really calming influence, and affords a slice of time to reflect. Particularly if I’m spending that time with my family.

I’d recommend it to anyone, just go out and take some photographs of something beautiful, I promise it’ll cleanse your mind.