I haven't picked up my camera in weeks, but yesterday took it to the botanical gardens. It was a mild, still day and I sat by a lily pond and watched the dragonflies hovering over the water. I fitted the longest of my lenses and tried to photograph them in flight. It wasn't easy and I came away with precisely zero dragonfly pictures. But seeking them in my viewfinder gave me other gifts: as I followed the insects, the little world around the pond re-composed itself in my viewfinder time and time again.
This is why I take photographs: to see the world afresh . The long lens shifts the relationships between objects and reveals patterns I would not otherwise notice. And it reminds me that my accustomed way of seeing things is itself a fairly complicated edit of what is actually there.
