© Brad Mangas

I sat down on my back deck last night with camera in hand and this Easter Lilly next to me. The lilly has multiple blooms open providing the view of beauty and life as all flora does. How does one go about photographing something? Do you just take a picture and what you see is what you get? Is there a reason to look further, look past the obvious and into the individual parts that make up the whole. Beauty is not one thing. It isn’t something that just looks good to you. Sure it “may” look good to you but what is it your looking at that looks good? One thing? More than likely it’s the sum of many individual parts.

So it is with all life, from flora to people many parts to make up the whole. It can become confusing when you set down to take a picture of something so delicate and beautiful as a flower. Just as it can be confusing to see the good, the possibilities and beauty of ourselves and others. Sometimes one can only see the beauty when time is taken to see past the obvious.

Nikon P80, macro mode, manual focus, aperture priority, f/4, 1/60, hand held anti vibration on. CS4, Topaz Adjust and Detail.