Spring Buds
Working from home has changed how I experience each season. During the summer, my office moved to the deck and I became more familiar with the birds at our feeders. During the fall, I spent hours pondering and planning while wandering my yard and neighborhood collecting brilliantly colored leaves. During the winter, I discovered many lovely treasures in our neighborhood when we shifted to daily noon walks in the daylight, rather than after-dinner walks in the dark. Recently, I have been experiencing spring “up-close”.
Using my new macro lens requires placing my camera really close to the subject. This means leaning in really close and really looking at the object. It also leads to my phone and my head blocking the sun or light. As a result, I have to carefully consider the angle of my phone, my body, my light source, and the sun. Sometimes I just have to wait to try a particular shot until a different time of day. As a result I am drawn back outside repeatedly to check on various flower and tree buds as I experiment with capturing the best shot.
Here are some of the tree and bush buds from my yard. Watching them swell fills me with anticipation and hope. As I share these photos with friends, I have been asking them what they are hoping for this spring. The answers are varied and interesting. They inspire me to spend more time not only observing spring unfold this year, but to take more time considering what I am hoping for. If I can identify what I hope for, I can begin the hard work of making my hopes bloom into reality.
