Waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss?

Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.
- Susan Sontag

On being yourself

To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.
- Thich Nhat Hanh

A photographer I follow on Twitter linked to a blog post Chase Jarvis wrote about this idea, on being true to yourself with respect to photography: Stop Trying to Get Everyone To Like Your Work.

In the post he talked about how sometimes photographers stop being true to their passion, and instead get caught up in comparisons, what-ifs and so on, ignoring their unique artistic voice in favour of these external (self-imposed!) constraints or trying to make work they think will please everyone.

Simply said, by trying to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one, especially not yourself.

I've read a zillion posts by photographers criticizing those who like to take pictures of flowers, or dogs, or do 365 projects or heaven forbid, take photos of their children (the infamous MWACs), even wedding photography has their share of scoffers. Name any subject in photography and I am sure you will find many photographers that poo-poo it, look down on it and chastise those who do it. So what do you do if taking photos of flowers is your passion? Or pet photography? Or <--insert subject here--> photography?

I have a hard time with this. It's actually one of the reasons I haven't posted in a bit -- I get caught up in analyzing my work and instead of enjoying it, it becomes a heavy thing. So it's good to step back, take a deep breath and remember that other photographers who I admire for their truly unique vision and perspective on photography experience similar struggles ... doesn't make it any easier, but it is reassuring.



People can smell whether you love what you’re shooting or not, love what you’re pimping or not, love what you’re doing or not. So you might as well effing love it for real. It’s all you’ve got.
- Chase Javis

Overnight the world turned to colour

It seems like forever during the long, grey winter spent waiting for the return of new growth and then all of a sudden it's here and it's hard to keep up with it (both gardening and photographically).



I still have many new growth / Spring photos to sort through (all the new leaves and flowering trees and first flowers of May).



But in the meantime ... Mother Nature hasn't slowed down. Things are growing and changing, and every day something new has emerged in the garden. It looks like summer now!

Just a happy day

My yellow iris budded a few days ago, and I've been keeping an eye on it. (The purple has been blooming for a week now, but the yellow is one of my favourite flowers in the garden.) This morning the first flower had opened! The cheery yellow colour is so soft, and I love the subtle white lines on the falls. It's a treasured sight each year when it blooms.

"After all," Anne had said to Marilla once, "I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens, but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string."
- L.M. Montgomery, From Anne of Avonlea, Chapter XIX, Just a Happy Day

I can't stop (more of the Japanese Maples)

Had a busy weekend - family came to visit, and while they were here we wandered over to the Ornamental Gardens and had an unexpected treat: Friends of the Farm were giving guided lilac tours. It was great to learn more about the history of the lilacs and their care, and learning more about the volunteers who look after them. (Hope to get the photos from that excursion up this week.)



In between the heavier bouts of rain, I've been trying to get out in the garden. It's an odd, but annual occurrence: garden looks sad and bare at the beginning of spring, and then it seems like overnight **whoosh** all manner of green things are 2 feet tall and we're on the verge of rain forest status.



Despite the forecast the rain held off on Sunday, so after the guests left around noon, I set to work. And work, and work, and work. 'Til about 7pm. When I realized that I might have overdone it for the first session after a long winter of hibernating.



Sure enough, Monday morning I had to literally roll myself out of bed, and hobble around for about an hour or so before my joints and muscles loosened up.



And in between all of the above, I've taken a few dozen shots of the Japanese Maples. Shallow dof, wet leaves, dry leaves, with the 50mm lens and the 105mm lens, etc.

I'm pretty sure I'm over it now.

Well, almost pretty sure.

UPDATE - Thanks for the emails re comments not working. I haven't changed any settings, but it looks like other blogger users and commenters are experiencing the same problem when trying to leave comments. Hopefully it's a bug that will be fixed soon!

And ... the other Japanese maple in the rain

Rain bringing out the colour in both the leaves and the pot.

(I potted my Japanese maples so I can bring them in the garage to over-winter.)

Japanese maple in the rain

The world is blooming

If you’ve never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom.
- Terri Guillemets

I've been juggling photography trips to the ornamental gardens and trails (each visit reveals something new growing), with working in my own garden. There is just so much happening with the flora and fauna these days. Even though we've had a lot of rain and overcast days, I must admit I do not mind them at all. I love an overcast day for photographing (the light is so much softer), and light rain can be quite refreshing when working in the garden. And really, I can't complain about the weather here when so many are suffering from such devastating floods, wildfires and tornadoes in Canada and the US. The weather has certainly been rough for many this season.

Calibrachoa and the bees

The bees are definitely back!

The greens are soft this time of year

Delicate.

Randoms taken during the month of April

It was a wet month.

A week of colour: Green [day 5]

Another extremely green place: Hameau de la Reine, Versailles.