Thistle Fantasy is hot off the press. I photographed it yesterday (09.16.2022) afternoon as I was driving down a dirt road close to home. To be honest, yesterday I was “focused” (pun acknowledged) on the sky. The late afternoon sky, especially in the east, was a beautiful, deep blue and filled with perfect white clouds. The ditches had just been mowed and I came across a long strip of Canada Thistles that were going to seed. The mower had taken out most of the patch, but left a row of thistles still standing. I’m still enough of a farm boy to have my “weed” alarm go off when I see thistles and I’m not inclined to see them as something to photograph. BUT, I’ve learned that creativity can grow out of moments where one pauses after one’s initial reaction and takes another, deeper look.

One little photographic rule I made up is “move back, move close”. Sometimes I’ll see something interesting but won’t be able to make it work visually. This is where “move back, move close” comes into play. Physically moving back or switching to a wide-angle lens changes the perspective and shows the subject in context. This view combines the interesting visuals of the subject with the story of its interaction with the world around it. Some of the photographs in my Lonely Tree Gallery follow this rule, showing lonely trees in their prairie context. When moving back does'’t work, I move close, sometimes really close. I’ve learned that I can find new visual worlds when I move into the macro world record seldom-noticed shapes, colours, and textures. I followed the “move close” rule for many of the photos in my Monochrome Flowers Gallery, where I explored macro shapes and textures of flowers. The “move close” rule helped me to find the world of exploding Canada Thistle seeds represented in Thistle Fantasy.

Nikon D750 @ ISO 100, Nikkor 105 f/2.8 Macro