The Lazy Photographer

I often think of myself as a lazy photographer.

I do not set an alarm to get up at two o’clock in the morning to drive to that beautiful spot where the sun comes up over the land just so, to capture those brief, perfect moments of a new day.

I do not actively track the phases of the moon so I can get that stunning image of the giant disc breaking over the horizon in just the right spot, or pinpoint that place where her silver face is perfectly framed by the dark shapes of the forest.

Perhaps I should.

But I find that over the years of taking pictures and honing in on nature as one of my favourite subjects, I am more of a “oh, this moment, right now, this is what moves me” and I use my camera to capture those unexpected moments, those almost surprise encounters.

Does this make me less of a photographer? I sometimes think so. But photography can be different things for different people. I find I have always been drawn to exploring the tiny details of the world. It is the image of the leaf on the ground curled just so and reflecting the sun in a particular way that excites my senses in the moment. Or, a bird that lands on a branch with the light enhancing details in feathers, sparkling in the eye, that can catch my breath and demand to be captured by my camera.

Don’t get me wrong, I do love a good sunrise, I do love images captured during the golden hours of the day when the sunlight fills a scene with the perfect glow, and I am quite taken with the idea of astro-photography, those images of the milky way lighting a path across the sky, a genre of photography I have not really explored myself.

I deeply respect photographers who have that kind of discipline that does allow them to capture some pretty stunning images, and perhaps it is something I should aspire to,

But, in the mean time, I get pretty excited about finding images like the one at the top of this post.

This is one of my very favourite images. It is at the top of the list of photos I am proud to have taken. And it was very much a stumbling upon a crowd of tiger swallowtail butterflies mud-puddling for mineral salts that resulted in this image.

When I approached the group of butterflies, quivering with quiet activity, they took to the air in a drunken sort of mass and then settled back to the ground where I joined them for a while.

It is also one of my favourite memories, lying on the damp, dirt road, zooming in on wings and faces and legs as the butterflies milled about together in their own world. They reminded me of sailboats drifting past each other on a quiet pond on a summer day.

I got some interesting images of those butterflies that day. The thing I liked most about the pictures was how much detail and colour I discovered on their wings, something I wouldn’t have seen unless I took the time to look.

So, if being a lazy photographer means I get images like this one, I’m okay with that for now.