Some King Proteas: A Series of Photographs and Musings

It is not that often that everything in the universe aligns. Sometimes you just stumble upon something with the perfect lighting that just begs to be photographed. I think as a photographer we are always on the lookout for good lighting more than we are on the lookout for photographic opportunities. In other words, as a photographer I am always on the hunt for the sun to fall just perfectly. So many shots are ruined because the sun and the light did not play nicely. But when everything aligns, it is just the most perfect thing to work with.

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At a recent place we stayed for the night, there were a couple of king protea bushes growing seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We arrived at the right moment. Or, I had my camera ready with me at the perfect moment. I pulled it out, and started taking photographs of the various budding flowers and some of the open flowers.

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Yesterday I wrote about the mundane, the everyday, the common. But today, these king protea flowers are anything but ordinary. The moment itself was something extraordinary. The light does not always fall in such perfection. But this time it did, and more than that, the flowers danced along with me in perfect reciprocal give and take: I took the photographs, and the flowers gave me their “best sides”. I took so many photographs of these flowers and every time I looked through the camera screen, the photographs looked almost like sketches that hung in art galleries. They almost did not look real.

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In contrast to the common, the mundane, these flowers totally threw me out of the window into a strange world. I could not keep my joy to myself, and I could not contain myself. The moment was strange, different, it challenged my perception of the normal. It took me out of my world and inserted me into the strange and uncommon. It was a beautiful sight, one that few people will ever see. I am not sure even how common this plant is in the wild any longer. And having so many perfect buds next to each other is even more unheard of. So many people farm these flowers like any other mono-culture crop. So, if you are lucky enough to be able to visit such farm, then you will see row upon row of these plants and flowers, but this is not natural. As I am certain that these flowers do not look like this in the wild.

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But here I was, standing bathed in the perfect like, looking at these flowers and contemplating what life even is. This was a rare moment, one in which I wanted to stay drenched for even longer, but this would then be counter intuitive, as I would throw the uncommon into the common.

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So, I stepped out of the perfect light, and I walked back into the common world. I looked at the flowers for a last time, and I then again greeted the mundane.

Happy photographing, and keep well.

All of the musings and writings are my own, albeit inspired by the most beautiful flower. The photographs are my own, taken with my Nikon D300 and 50mm Nikkor lens.