I have a tiny obsession with macro photos of flowers.
I think part of the allure is that they are so impermanent: if you don’t take the picture when you have a chance that moment is gone. The same could be said for so many things that I would love to take photos of everything, but that’s not really practical so I specialise 🙂
I’m not very good at these pictures but here’s one I took on retreat in Wales last summer.
The feeling of having to record things immediately is one I’ve been developing for the last few years in writing – I’m sure we all have the tale of ‘the one that got away’; the great story opening or line of poetry that we didn’t write down and it disappeared like a whiff of smoke. Even with notebooks everywhere, you can’t capture everything!
Sometimes I use photos instead of books. I use them like a painter would, as a reference point to draw my image. This works well for me for things like sunsets, the colour of the soil, the shapes carved into a wall; things that require some better description than the off-the-cuff notes I scribble as I wander around. That’s another benefit of the macro photo too – you see a level of detail you might not have seen in person.
If you want to see what I mean, have a look at some amazing, properly macro, photos here!
Happy writing
EJ
🙂
Becoming a writer 