creative pursuits
Here’s that luna moth again.
I took quite a few pictures because it’s so rare to see them and I wanted to make sure I got a good one. The only ones that I really feel are worth showcasing are this one and the one I took as a self-portrait. The others were more so I could get a clear image I could isolate in photoshop and use in other projects.
This one is actually recent (I just took it three or four days ago). This gorgeous luna moth was on the door in the morning when I got up so of course I couldn’t help but take a thousand pictures of it (I’ll probably put up one or two more later).
As I was trying to line up the perfect image I realized I was being reflected in the glass of the door. It made me think back to a photo I saw years ago by an acquaintance who snapped her own image in an antique mirror. Something about the way she set up that image always stuck with me; the focus was clearly the mirror frame and the wall behind it, but her reflection–even though it was incomplete–made it a self-portrait, and that is how she presented it.
I always loved that simple image and the concept of it has remained with me.
I’m not a selfie-taker. Never have been. But I think it is important for an artist to be reflected in their art occasionally. I liked the idea that I could be in my own photograph of this beautiful insect without overwhelming the photo. That I could be present, as me, but still remain kind of a secret unknown. I could show myself without being really seen (if you know me you could probably recognize me, but it you don’t you won’t be able to put me together very well from such an ambiguous image).
This is also the photo that prompted me to do this blog! I had posted it on a private Facebook group and a family friend–whose work I also admire–complemented me on my photography and suggested I start a photoblog. After years of playing with the idea it was the boost I needed, I guess, so here we are.
This is one instance where subject takes precedence over artistry for me. This (huge!) tree frog was sitting in the leaves right next to my infinity path out back under Moss. I thought she was a toad at first but remembered the coloring of the gray tree frogs. Very glad to have been able to photograph her! I was pretty sure it was a male tree frog we heard calling occasionally from Moss’s branches last summer, and this confirms it. I’m happy to know they’re around.