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One of my titles as a working photographer is “Nature Photographer”. Loosely translated it means a guy that shoots stuff in Nature that is part of Nature and not part of some non-nature place like the 5 Boroughs. Not that there is anything wrong with the 5 boroughs that a HFA of nature wouldn’t cure, but some folks simply don’t need Nature or even like it. OK for them.

There is a lot of space out there that surrounds non-nature places and it has got to be filled up with something, otherwise everywhere else would just look like Detroit. Much of what was used to fill up all the other space that wasn’t concrete, was growing stuff, or plants, to use a scientific term, and some of those plants have become known as flowers. As there are still some people who don’t realize that flowers in all their many shapes, sizes and colors are part of Nature, it is my job to photograph them in all their glory so those folks can see them and be impressed with not only flowers themselves, but Nature in general. What they don’t realize though is the many difficulties faced by the photographer in pursuit of that endeavor.

First of many problems is just finding flowers, they just don’t grow on trees you know, wait, some of them do actually, I forgot about that, but you get my drift. They can occasionally be difficult to locate so when you do find some you need to be ready to shoot them immediately because you never know how long they’re going to be there. Some big stupid-hoofed ungulate may come along and just eat them. Then all you have left is stems and what good is that? Nothing I tell you so shoot’em when you see them.

Another problem is one that is of a more technical nature, a complication or a botheration if you will, and that is the auto-focus used on cameras today. A short explanation of the problem is this. There is a tiny little wizard, more like a genie really, that lives in your camera and he never gets to come out, not ever, and that can make him peckish at times. In Nikon cameras it is always a male genie. I think Canon has a female one but I’m not sure as I don’t shoot Canon stuff. His job is to look at the scene you have selected in your view finder then after making some sarcastic remark like “What, you’re going to shoot that? Are you nuts, that looks like a dog’s breakfast.” etc., and he always has an accent like one of the guys on that car show on NPR. That is so freaking annoying. He then picks out something within the image area you’ve selected and arbitrarily makes up his own mind on what he thinks should be in sharp focus. The fact that he is leaving the really important feature in your shot completely out of focus doesn’t seem to bother him in the least. He can be quite obstinate in his selection and will occasionally need a stern talking to where you explain to him exactly ‘where the bear crapped in the buckwheat’ and what will happen to his little decision-making apparatus if he doesn’t straighten the hell up and focus on what you want to shoot. Sometimes if he really doesn’t want to listen to reason, banging the camera he lives in against a rock a few times will loosen him up to where he feels cooperative again. It also makes me feel a lot better.

Unfortunately in the shot above the yellow flowers, which were quite lovely by the way, were left out of focus but their buttery yellow color was so gorgeous I felt the need to share them with you. It is my hope that you can see past the distractions and appreciate this little bit of Nature in all it’s glory. I guess I’m just a flower child at heart. Now if you would excuse me I need to have a conversation with my camera again.