After my last post, I’ve been thinking a lot about how much I used to love capturing photographs of my garden. How I’d watch the light as it passed through my perennials; how I’d play with different lenses to see which one produced the best bokeh, and how my favorite part of the day was enjoying a glass of wine (or not) after work while photographing my plants with my dog Major.

A lot has changed since then. For one, I no longer work in an office; I do most of my work from home. Two, I make part of my living as a photographer, so capturing images outside of my professional career can often feel like piling on more work. And three, I’m now joined by our new aussie Gibson as Maj has since crossed over the rainbow bridge.

But I had a breakthrough recently.

My garden is exploding right now, with the growth filling in all the gaps, and I was pulled to capture the chaos like I did all those years ago.

I began with my 50mm, but I kept thinking about how it all began–my love for digital photography–so I switched to my 24-105mm zoom, the first lens I owned in my digital journey.

It was fun to zoom in on little details scattered throughout the garden and in my many, many pots!

The more I looked, the more hidden treasures I found by looking for different angles.

I found old friends reaching their leaves up to high five the sun after their long winter nap.

Of course, there are new friends awaiting planting, seeds sprouting here and there and welcome volunteers growing in unexpected places.

Amidst the crouching and capturing, I bumped into one of my bleeding hearts and broke off a branch. Oops.

So of course, I captured it! I decided to shoot into the sun, to see if the old 24-105 could produce bokeh like it used to…and guess what? It did!

Later that evening I found myself singing and humming. I realized that I was looking forward to processing my photos. And it didn’t feel like work. And that felt like a big win.

Until next time,
Holly ~ Soupatraveler