I have stopped trying to get a grip on focusing on the delicate petals of this beautiful flower of the Duranta erecta or golden dewdrop.

You try to pin down that sliver of tissue so delicate that it defies revelation and definition. And you wish that its magnification will somehow transform it into a startling, magnificent specimen to behold.  

And yet, even with some escalation of modest gadgetry, and combining that with the modest athleticism of a photographer’s apnea you arrive at a breakpoint in your pursuit of that elusive definition.

You begin to question if that is the goal of this exercise, and the extent one would go to achieve that outcome and for what purpose.  

You then start to notice the lives that revolve around this velvet magic carpet, which defies clarity and precision, and start to focus on others that use it as a place of rest, activity and living. These we can see, define, and capture, with better clarity, rewarding ourselves with a sense of marvel at the delicate and slender limbs and eyes and antennae, perhaps not quite enough to be fully satisfied, because nature in motion, and in the present, should not be frozen by interventions that would be intrusive.   

I suppose many of us can see the world around us in much the same light – that those who provide the canvas for the rest to shine in focus is never be revealed in a way that would reverse that reality. Superficially, we see the stars and not the prop, but we are already wise enough to conclude that they are both needed for this world, and perhaps very much prefer to stay that way too.   

2020 November: Lumix GX85; Olympus Zuiko 40-150mm f4-5.6; Ryanox Macro 150 adapter.