Photographer. Painter? POET??

"Painting with light" takes on a whole new meaning for me in the garden.

I remember the days, not long ago, where I constantly chased the “perfect” photo. I HAD to have the best cameras and lenses, and then take photos that were “tack” sharp, and I’m not even sure what that means.

I was a pixel-peeper and would examine each photo for critical sharpness. If it wasn’t perfect, I’d nuke the photo into oblivion with the delete button.

Photography was not super fun back then. The constant push to be perfect wasn’t driven by my internal artistic vision. Instead, I wanted things perfectly sharp because I thought that’s what everyone else wanted.

This photograph I made a few days ago, I’m proud to say, would have made the cut. It’s a good one! It’s made with awesome equipment (OM SYSTEM OM-3 with the 90mm f/3.5 Macro) and the detail is INTENSE. But… who cares?

Even this one, also made recently, is a good example of being technically pretty good, but a little “meh.”

But you know what? I’ve got thousands of technically, boringly, “good” photos of flowers already in my library… and almost none of them have ever actually been artistically fulfilling.

Lately, the “art” part of my life has become increasingly important. As I get older, I want to keep trying to figure out who I am and what I want to do when I grow up.

I may never know the answers to those questions, but at least I’m gunna try, and I’ve been doing a ton of experimentation lately.

So, I switched things up with my garden photography and got weird.

I threw on a “spiral halo” filter I bought for $30. (not an affiliate link). It looks like this:

And it does THIS:

And it does this:

And this:

And all kinds of SUPER DUPER cool stuff:

ARE YOU SEEING THIS INSANITY?

I’ve been a “photographer” for over 20 years now, and I’ve shot far too many photos of flowers.

And for the first time ever, I’m smiling and giggling in the garden like a maniac. All because of a cheap filter that inspired me to “see” through the lens differently.

I started using my camera as a paintbrush:

I stopped clicking a shutter release. Instead, I was painting my sensor with nature’s colors.

My internal artist came alive and started speaking, and although I don’t have words to interpret what he said, I do have these photos.

Look… filters are old-school. I’m not re-inventing the wheel here. In fact, in the past, I always thought of them as a gimmick.

Why would I waste thousands of dollars on “perfect” glass when I was just going to throw a weird, cheap, gimmicky filter on it?

These photos. These photos are why, people!

During this little garden adventure, I continued to have fun with experimentation and proceeded to spray my lens with water:

It’s another trick as old as photography, but I feel like we’ve forgotten how much fun this stuff can be. We’re always chasing perfection. What happens when we let go of all that?

The energy I have had recently to discover new ways to play with light is providing me with a lot of artistic momentum... a drive to keep discovering new ways to “see.”

So I combined the spiral-halo filter with some water spray: pure joy.

After all these years, it’s finally become easy for me to name myself a photographer.

However, I used to say that I wasn’t an artist. (I am. So are you.)

I used to say that I wasn’t a writer. (I am. We all are.)

And I still don’t think I’m a poet. (That’s a lie. Our lives are poems in progress.)

The one thing I know more than anything else, though, is this: I have no answers, and I’ll never solve life’s big mysteries. But embracing everything possible in order to find our voice in the world, even by using a cheap filter and spray bottle, is worth the time and effort.

So here’s a haiku:

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All the photos with the filter and water were made with the OM SYSTEM OM-3 and two lenses: the 12-45 f/4 PRO and 20mm f/1.4 PRO.

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DEATH TO THE ROBOTS.

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