insects

Pollinating My Photography

Pollination
Pollination

I know this image is not very good but I decided to post it anyway. It is heavily cropped, grainy and not very sharp. So, why post a dud? Because it also reminds me of why I get out to shoot just as much as one of my better images. Paul Lester mentions why he presses the shutter in one of his blogs. He states, “Sometimes I don’t know why I click the shutter, but I just have to. And when that feeling hits, nothing but the click will do.” Man can I relate. I shoot and post images because of the change that occurs in me when I press the shutter. Words like therapy, healing, rejuvenation, quiet time, beauty, getting in touch with nature, getting away from the hustle of city life and pollination. Pollination? Yes, pollination.

Wikipedia defines biotic pollination as the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilization and sexual reproduction. This process of pollination requires pollinators: organisms that carry or move the pollen grains from the anther to the receptive part of the carpel or pistil. Okay, so what does that mean to me?

The birth and growth of my photography is similar to biotic pollination. The pollinators are the scenes found in my viewfinder. When each one of those scenes touches me, I grow as a person, as a photographer. Each time I venture out a scene enticing me to press the shutter will present itself. So, I’m being fertilized by scenes around me.

Retired. Having fun with photography. Journal daily. Meditate daily. Learning haiku. Have a love for fountain pens.

One Comment

  • QPB

    Monte, my second bee photo of the day–you and Anita are bee-coming twins!
    Lol–eight plus hours in LAX, waiting for the red eye home–excuse my puns.
    Well written and felt by this photographer too. Capture the image, pushing the shutter button–I find, more and more, that this is an escape or an expression or something, something very therapeutic. I get to be me. I get to see things the way I want to see them and display them either how I captured them or touched with digital processing. I don’t like every image I produce, but I own each and every one of them.
    Great post.