It find it exciting that I still meet new people up here in my little village with its 263 inhabitants, especially when they’re avid hikers and nature lovers like me ☺ Recently I made the acquaintance of Valérie, and some days ago we went up over 2.000m to pick arnica flowers for an oil infusion.
We did not only have a wonderful hike, find enough flowers to fill her jar and spend a lovely day in the mountains, but it was also the moment of a Great Revelation – Valérie’s clip-on cell phone magnifier! It works like a good macro lens and I was stunned when she showed me the photo possibilities it opened up. Suddenly I got infinitely close to a seemingly ordinary butterfly and discovered how it was all furry in vivid pink and green. A tiny, shimmering beetle turned out to be all dotted and the mullein flower suddenly revealed its intricate pattern of stalks and pistils.
These days I think thrice before buying any gadgets, but this loupe passed the test. Some days later I went to the city, bought it as a little gift to myself and felt like a kid at Christmas: the rest of that day was spent with this wonderful new present! I had a closer peek at flowers, insects, trees – anything that didn’t move too much! However, it became clear how difficult it was to get that close up, how shaky my hands actually are and
how much practice I still need.
This little device really opened up a whole new world to me – it’s like I get a completely different relationship to the objects of my close-up photos. Suddenly a bumblebee feels like a fluffy little friend, and the center of a flower as the amazing piece of art that it is. Even more than before, I realize that Nature is the greatest artist of them all and that even the tiniest part of it is noting less than a miracle. I am so immensely grateful to be alive among all this beauty.
I cant even tell what butterfly it is…💗💚
Shimmering like a jewel
The inner life of a mullein flower