Transience

All things change. Some so quickly we never knew till we built timing devices swift and accurate enough to measure the decay in atoms. Some things may appear unchanging and eternal, like the sun, yet we know what will happen to it eventually, and on a more detailed level it's constantly changing.

On a more human scale, photography has been opening my eyes to the transient nature of our lives. Of course I see it in myself. In some ways my brain still thinks it's the mid 80's, and I'm in my mid 30's. My body is sending regular communications that this is not so.

Flowers grow, bloom, and die back every season. Some come back next season, same plant, but looking different.

The camera is showing me a world that I didn't really know existed. Mostly it's the small. As regular readers know, I marvelled at how hairy ant butts are, and there's been any number of photos showing how hairy plants are. You won't have to look far to find them.

Then there's time. Photography often concerns itself with really small fractions of a second, and more rarely several seconds at a time. The world starts looking different. I haven't done much motion blur, but the other evening I was experimenting. In that photo the woman is standing still, looking at a white blur. She and I know it's a vehicle because we saw it in real life, but anybody else looking might have to think about it.

Fireworks are another example. We see a rocket shooting up followed by a burst of colour. Looking at a photo we see all of it at once, the rocket trail and burst, leading to quite a different view of the show.

Even things that happen quickly can be frozen, like the bee in flight here or dragonflies in flight. I didn't think that was going to happen to me. I guess I can now dream of capturing a hummingbird in flight.

Then we can get photos where it's not clear at all what we're looking at. Like this. Yes, water drops, but on what? And why isn't there a background?

Celina, as pretty as ever, and as difficult to photo as ever. I think she knows when the camera is pointed at her. Still, this light is very flattering for her fur.

A field of white polar lilies. So cheerful and such a lovely scent on a calm evening.

Reflection shots can be boring or interesting. This isn't quite as interesting as my kettle shot, but there's lots going on, and I love the colours.

On the running front, today was lovely. Sophia joined us for 5K, then BRBE and I did another 5. Linda tagged along on her bike. Such a nice way to spend the long weekend. Now I'm deep into apple pie and blackberries, with wine coming in a little while.