The Joy of Wonder

It all started one June in my garden. Nestled among the branches of a lilac bush, almost indistinguishable from a fresh bud, was an insect I’d never seen before. Over the next few weeks, my fondness for these insects grew into astonishment as I watched them grow wings, double in size, and begin preying on any flying insect hapless enough to land within range of their raptorial forearms. Fascinated by what I saw, I was inspired to buy a macro lens adapter for my phone. I took over a thousand photos that summer. I was hooked.

Christmas furthered my obsession when I eagerly unwrapped my beginner camera kit (thanks, kind family!). There was only one problem. This kit didn’t come with a macro lens. Undeterred, I set out to shoot anything within walking distance, including the ducks and geese on a local pond. I proudly downloaded my photos only to find that my subjects were tiny specks in an overwhelming and boring background. Thankfully, my beginner kit came with a secret weapon: a telephoto lens. We’re talking up to 200 mm focal length here, people. This produced slightly better results: medium sized specks in an overwhelming and boring background. None of my shoes from this era survive, as they are all encased in roughly 5 pounds of mud picked up during my efforts to get closer to birds.

Thankfully I’ve been lucky enough to acquire several longer focal length lenses since I started (400 mm, 800 mm, the next might as well be a telescope…) and have learned a bit about framing pleasing backgrounds. I scan the sky and the tree branches rather than the leaves and twigs since the majority of my subjects birds rather than bugs. But what hasn’t changed is that wonder that I feel every time I take a picture of a wild creature doing something fascinating. I hope the photos and articles on this site will be of use to you and further your own love of nature.