This was the last photo I shot while on a school trip to the Joliet Bird Sanctuary. I had spent most of the trip walking along the forest preserve trails, and decided to turn back and actually check out the green house and gardens. And while I thought none of my photos from the trail or even the green house were great, this one was just amazing, and completely shot on chance.

My Nikon Coolpix E4200 was a bit tricky to get to work with close-ups and macros. And every time I tried it would always seem to not work the way I would want.  I’d either need the flash because I shook too much (and at the time setting up a tripod for a single passing photo seemed ridiculous) or I would need the flash, or the camera wouldn’t focus on the object I was trying to photograph – either because I was too close to it, or there was just one other thing that was in the way….  Every time I tried, I failed.  I could get the close-ups I wanted with my film camera, just not the Nikon point and shoot. I began to think it might be just one of those flaws you had to deal with when you didn’t have an actual Digital SLR.

But for whatever reason, I decided to try it one last time before leaving the green house.  It had rained through the night, and I only thought about it after getting dripped on as I brushed thought a few tree limbs that the water was still clinging to them. And I just happened to find a low hanging branch in front of the flower beds, with two perfect water droplets clinging.

And one of my more favorite parts, despite the two water drops, is you get a blur of color from the flowers in the back ground, and on a proper print you can see the detail in some of the smaller out of focus droplets as well. Despite them being out of focus, the light they reflect and the way they balance out the massive green color just makes those details even better, and I appreciate them more. I couldn’t have been more happy with how it turned out, especially when I didn’t think it would happen with the P&S. One of the few times that little camera really surprised me.

A side note about photography….

I find photography to be more of an artistic release, and tend to shoot for that purpose, rather than for commercial reasons or uses.

I engage in photography because I want to capture a secret split-second moment, and I want that moment to mean something.  Even if it’s something most see as trivial or mundane, it’s what I see and what that image means to me. Some of my images I have found to be able to transverse the artistic to commercial, but its only been in rare cases and never been the sole focus of this kind of work.

I was taught by my photography teacher that you can’t judge one’s photographic skill solely based on the gear they use. Sometime the best pictures can be taken from a simple point and shoot, and just because you have the latest model DSLR with the best lens does not mean you have instant photographic gold.

My photographic arsenal is equipped with a Cannon AE-1 SLR with multiple lenses, a Minolta Maxxum 7-Xl, a Vivitar film SLR, a Nikon Coolpix E4200 point and shoot, and Nikon Coolpix S4100 point and shoot, and occasionally the iPhone7.