Nature from Up Close

When I was a kid, I had an art teacher who used to tell me all the time that "less leads to the best". What he meant by that is that we make better art when there are constraints because it pushes us to the limit of our creativity. Although I understood what he was saying, I couldn't entirely grasp it until I took this shot you're looking at right now.

I consider myself to be a good photograph. I mean, not THAT good but good enough that all my friends' profile pictures are taken by moi... So anyway, if there's something I'm especially good to take photos of, it's nature. Whether it's a breathtaking landscape, the deer I crossed path with during my hike, or the single rose that decided to grow in a sea of high grass, I know I'll come back home with some good pictures every time I go to the country. But when a crazy little thing called quarantine forces me to stay home in the suburbs, photography becomes a little bit tricky. I would even say that it's my WORST NIGHTMARE. I hate the suburbs, it's ugly to look at, and even though I'm trying my best to find a decent thing to photograph, I can't find any! But a month ago, a miracle happened...

I was in my backyard staring at my tree. "If I squint hard enough at my tree, I could make myself believe I'm in a forest," said I to myself. Then it hit me... If I focus on the small parts of nature that the suburb has to offer, then I can finally take a good picture. So I went to my room, took my macro lens, and came back outside, scrutinizing my tree for a good macro shot. After a while, a beetle flew by and decided to lay on the very leaf I was looking at. Rapidly, I put my lens on my cellphone camera and took a shot. At first, I wasn't happy with the picture. You could see my shadow, the tree branch looked weird, the beetle wasn't close enough and the lens gave my picture a "wavy feeling". Overall, it wasn't a picture I would've been proud of showing to others. I got mad at myself for not being able to take any good pictures and for buying that lens that didn't work as well as advertised on Amazon. Before giving up photography for good, I decided to crop the photo so that it could only show the leaf and the beetle. To my astonishment, the photo didn't get blurry at all, in fact, you could see all the small details of the leaf. Usually, I hate being wrong, but this time, I was happy I was because it meant that the lens actually worked and I just didn't know how to use it properly. After a quick retouch on Adobe LightRoom to make the colours stand out even more, it was time for me to share it with my friends (and the world via Instagram).

This picture is according to me the best one I've ever taken. The photo is so beautiful that some of my friends didn't believe I took it with my cellphone. Some of them even though I just stole it from the internet and claim it as mine. Not only I am proud of the picture itself, but all the work and effort I put to take a good photo in the suburbs makes it so special to me. My art teacher was right all along! If I never had the constraint of not being able to go to the country, maybe I would've never taken a shot that looked like the one above. Reflecting on that experience made me realise a valuable lesson that is cheesy but true: in life, it's better to focus on what we have instead of dwelling on what we don't.