Just Plain Awesome!

This is just plain awesome!

There is a pair of Twelve Spotted Skimmers that have been hanging around my garden and ponds. I knew I could get some shots of them using my 300mm. I have taken many over the last few days, but today this Male was kind enough to let me get close enough to use my macro lens. As I worked my way close I became very frustrated with the gnats buzzing my head. As I sat down he flew up and grabbed one right next to my ear. He then flew right back and landed on the perch he was using. I was now less than a foot away and began shooting. I moved in slowly and carefully and was at the end of the focusing range..only inches away. Suddenly he flew up and grabbed another one and landed on my head. I froze and he flew off back to his perch. It was than I noticed something on his leg. When I uploaded the images...I discovered it was a strand of my hair. I guess I'm loosing my hair in my old age....LOL. Anyways, he stayed there for about 20 minutes flying back and forth grabbing gnats from around my head. He landed on my arm once, but not for very long.

So it has been a very good afternoon. 

 Notice the strand of hair

What does it mean?

What does photography mean to me?

I have given this some thought and it hit me today...

What it means to me is that I can share with others what I see through my eyes and lens. I don't care if it is perfect, because we live in a not so perfect world. Just sharing with others, images of the beauty that surrounds us is why I enjoy photography. So many things that we pass by everyday that holds some sort of beauty. I'm not out to try to impress people with my photos, but to share how I feel and what I see. Everyone sees different and has different thoughts about photography. It becomes so confusing sometimes...just in the last couple of days I realized that I am trying to hard to  "Make" an image that I have lost the real reason I am doing this. After uploading the images and looking at them I noticed a big change. So I'm going to pursue this new discovery and see how it goes. I'm not perfect and my photography is not perfect, but at least I am enjoying something that means so much to me.