The world is more complex today than what it was ten or twenty years ago. Technology has become so advanced; we now carry phones/computers in our pockets. We have vehicles that can drive and park themselves and watches that tell us our heart rate, how many steps we’ve taken and how many calories we’ve burned. We are instantly connected to people we don’t personally know in other countries with social media, we can make video phone calls to our loved ones who are thousands of miles away. Yes, the world is more complex and technology is everywhere, but have we lost something in the process of all the advancements? I ask this question as I see generations of families in restaurants, stores and even walking down sidewalks or at the park attached to their devices, talking, texting, snap chatting, playing games, searching Google, Facebook, Twitter or a number of other social media outlets. What is being lost is the personal connection that we once had with the people around us or of seeing the wonderments that God has created in nature. Conversations are now held with a screen instead of face to face. We engage in discussions through a keyboard rather than using our voices to talk to our spouses, children, friends, neighbors or coworkers. We’ve become consumed with what is streaming through our news feed on Facebook or how many likes we have when sharing at any given moment, where our location is when we go somewhere and what we
are eating for lunch. Have we become so dependent on being digitally connected at all times that we are forgetting to look around and see what beautiful exchanges that are taking place among people around us or the amazing wonders in nature? Like a young man helping an elderly gentleman with his car door on a blustery afternoon at the gas station. Or two little girls skipping and singing down the sidewalk while their parents follow laughing with each other and being pulled by the family’s dog on a leash. And even the young father at the local fishing pond teaching his son how to put bait on a fishing hook while grandpa waits patiently to help cast the line with his young grandson. Or the ripples on the water in that pond picking up the blue skies reflection that are now dancing about and the momma duck with her one and only baby are even having conversation with one another as they slowly drift by. There are conversations happening all around us, all the time, not just with human beings but in nature as well if we just look close enough and listen.

I myself have fallen into the digital devices trap and needed to get away from it, so one year I spent months focusing on how to achieve macro photography. I wanted to show the little details that make up the interactions that take place in nature that we don’t see with the naked eye or what we just simply over look as we haven’t put our digital devices down long enough to focus on what is going on around us. Some of my proudest moments of photography that I have captured were when I slowed down and listened and looked closely at what was around me.

Macro Photography is the art of taking close-up pictures that reveal details which can’t be seen with the naked eye. For example, while we can see the fly on the wall, our eyes aren’t equipped to make out the fine details of the hairs on it’s face. This is where macro photography

comes in. It gives us a glimpse into the world of the very small, which goes largely unnoticed by us as we hurriedly shuffle through our day. Common subjects include small insects, butterflies, rain drops and small objects. Inanimate objects are fairly easy to photograph as they don’t move, but insects and bugs can be a lot more challenging.

Being so close to the Missouri River, I have had the opportunity to get most of my wildlife and nature pictures along the shore lines at many different locations of our winding river that separates South Dakota and Nebraska. I learned really fast in the process to achieve the macro photography art form that time did not dictate to me, that rushing about would be futile, that in order to capture the smallest of creatures to even larger animals I would need to have patience and learn to be still and quiet. One weekend I spent hours following dragonflies, standing in swamp grass well over my head, waiting for them to land on a single blade of grass and snapping nearly two hundred photos in hopes to have one or two shots picture worthy. I came home with many bug bites and a sunburn, but once I saw what I was able to capture it made it all well worth it. Being so close to insects and other animals to achieve the macro photography look doesn’t always work when you start to invade their surroundings, so I learned to improvise my technique by using a much longer lens, a zoom lens to shoot with keeping a safe distance to avoid scaring them off. This was especially important on a Sunday afternoon when my husband and I went

fishing on the “bottom road”, as we call it down by Springfield, S.D. Of course, along with our fishing poles and gear we had our cameras. Down the shore from where we were fishing was a young mom with three boys. Something in the river

fishing net the culprits were pulled out of the water one by one. First a large soft-shelled turtle the size of a small car tire and the second a snapping turtle whose shell and claws looked prehistoric. Keeping a safe distance, I captured with my camera such amazing details on both turtle’s shells and faces, and the jewel colors that reflected off them when the sun hit them just right. A little talk with the young boys took place that day to allow the turtles to go on their merry way with out any harm coming to them. Several other times I was blessed and fortunate to capture great interactions with many different breeds of birds along the way. I’ve captured some in midair, resting on a branch or a weed, and some even as they walked past me. One of my favorite moments was an enormous Eagles nest along the shore line of the river that had baby Eagles in it. I set up with my camera on a tripod and sat on a fallen tree’s stump to camouflage my presence. I had my longest zoom lens on my camera to capture these babies peeking out of the nest that was well over fifty feet in the air. Both mother and father Eagle work together in feeding and watching the nest, never leaving the young ones alone. I sat in silence for nearly two hours listening and capturing with the camera their interactions and conversations with one another. I thankfully was not dive bombed by either Eagle as I left and headed back to my truck, like many birds they are very protective of their nests.

During the spring time I didn’t need to go very far but out my own front door of my home, to my yard to capture up close and personal the insects engaging in their routine of collecting pollen, building a home or even looking for a mate. I simply just watched the different plants and flowers in

my yard and was amazed at seeing a lady bug in the center of a dried-out dandelion, or the bumble bee fluttering along the cherry blossoms. Even a moth resting on the side of the shed is picture worthy seeing the pattern on his wings so vivid up close. And the spider weaving his intricate web even gets a place in my photo book. I am lucky I don’t have a fear to any bugs or snakes or even most critters or I would not have any subjects to photograph!

There are going to be distractions throughout our lives, from work to family, but let not the digital world that we live in consume us that we lose the personal connections with one another, how to have conversations with each other, listening and hearing each other. Taking the time to listen to the sounds and conversations in nature and seeing the intricate details in the creatures big and small each one unique and beautiful. Once you get up close and personal with mother nature you will find a connection that no digital device can give you.