Smitten and Bitten. This image was the start of it all. I had setup my Father's little sunshine tripod with his old Argus/Cosina 35mm camera, and nifty 50mm lens. I was 13 and had burned through a handful of rolls of film leading up to this moment. Still working it all out, working out how to actually use the camera, I had spent my youth at the park with my Father framing up images with our hands, talking focal points, rules for framing, quality of light, mood, the smell of the grass. Then he handed me his first 35mm camera at the kitchen table and said, Go. No in-depth guidance on the physical mechanics, just where to adjust knobs and set the ASA(iso).

The neighbors Sam and Shirley always had prided themselves on their lawn and flowerbeds. I got low. Dusk was creeping on fast in the early Summer evening and I knew I had moments left before the darkness. Kodak gold 200 in the camera with one final frame left in my spool, I sprawled out on the grass like some kind of Nat Geo photographer. (Steve McCurry would have been proud.) I metered and listened to the wind blow. 1/40th of a second for shutter speed, I needed it to count. The wind swelled and then died off. Calm. I held my breath so as to not cause shutter shake. Actuated the shutter. That iconic click, I knew I had it. My body resonated. I was hooked.

It didn't matter if the photo developed. It was almost an after thought. It was the first taste of love for the craft. The romance of it, setting up, viewing the subject, taking the time. I had been snapping photos since I was 7, but this was that moment where there was no going back. The moment had been burned on to my brain like sunlight to celluloid. The roll processed and most of the photos were, meh, as expected except for this. Surprisingly, I loved the photo so much that I discarded it only to stumble upon it years later to bring it back to life. The moment however,... the moment that has never left me.

One of my early moments as a floral photographer, only to expand the obsession over the past few decades. Available in a variety of sizes and prints.