SEC19 W5: “A change is as good as a holiday”

_{Edited using canva}

Dear Diary,

It was all about my Day and change in activities

It was a day of change on Monday morning. I never thought I would actually think of what I'm about to share in this post, as I do view it as a waste of time. Nature. Since I started using my phone, I've never had a day with nature before because I feel it's time-consuming. This is what made my day different and special. Let me share what I did that shows the difference from my normal activities.

My normal activities do spring from waking up, doing chores, pressing my phone, going to school, snapping people and myself, coming back home, pressing my phone, mentoring Steemians online, and sleeping. But today I decided to do something different to make my day exclusive and perfect. I went deep into photographing nature.

This was the first time I tried this. I had to enter the bush to look for natural things like butterflies, birds, crawling organisms, flowers, etc. I had the perfect camera for the job, so I need not worry.

From my research, I noticed it is difficult to get things in focus, especially flying insects and some moving animals. I had to give it a try. The first insect I saw from a distance was a fly on a cocoyam leaf.

A fly on a cocoyam leaf

I never had intentions of capturing this fly but was motivated by past experience, as flies don't stay in one place when they sense humans. You barely see flies focus when humans are close to them. They'll take their leave immediately. I was kind of surprised when I saw the fly with maximum focus. I had to stand at a distance and then zoom my camera lens to where the fly was perching.

It wasn't really giving me clear visuals, so I had to go closer to the leaf where the insect perched. I tried zooming out, and this is what I got as a result of this. This was my first trial. It wasn't really giving me the clarity I wanted, as factors like wind and my shaky hands contributed. I then gave it a second try to see if I could get it clear from where I was.

	First Trial

It wasn't too clear, so I moved closer, and to my surprise, the fly was just there, unaware of its surroundings. I moved a little bit closer, and the fly was still there. Oh my, I got the perfect view, as you can see below. This makes the fly appear very clear, with its wings visible. This makes me think of how photographers capture wild life.

	Second Trial

Anyway, they always have their ways. After capturing the insect, I had to edit it to make it look much more natural than it appears. These are the before and after pictures of the insect. You may doubt that I was just able to do clean editing.

Before Edits	After

He who has a good mobile phone camera, and he knows what to do with it has a good thing. After editing, I ventured into the next natural picture. If I tell you this insect is as small as an icon, you won't believe it's this big and enlarged. The results of natural photography can be eye-catching.

When I was done with the fly, I saw a beautiful flower directly underneath me. I had to stoop low to where the flower was so I could get good and clear visuals.

A beautiful blue Lilly flower

The flower is dark blue in colour, and I made use of water to make it more exclusive. I had to pour water on the single flower to make it have rain droplets when I wanted to capture it so it would look more like a natural photograph. This was far better than the insect, as I could go close and even touch the flower.

I made my first capture, and it seems the wind factor didn't give it the stability I wanted. I had to retake the picture. This is the picture I took when I zoomed out my camera to capture the flower.

	First Trial zooming out

It wasn't still giving me nature vibes, so I had to set the camera in portrait mode and then use X2 to make it attain the clarity and fineness I wanted. This is the second trial I made from this flower. It was just so cool and nice. The water I poured made it more like rain droplets. I didn't stop there.

	Second Trial using portrait mode

I went straight into editing the photo. I made some cool changes, as this contest topic demanded. Just as I changed my activities to explore nature, I had to change nature to nurture.😂

Editing it was not as difficult as capturing and maintaining the focus of the photo.

I then moved on to capture the last of the day. There's this plant that doesn't hold water. If you pour water on the surface of the leaf, it does take the water out of its surface, and it doesn't get wet. You may doubt this possibility, but that's the nature of the leaf. It doesn't retain water, but when droplets of water make their way to its surface, it becomes cool to view.

I had to make these droplets available by pouring water on the leaf and then capturing them multiple times so as to get the splash from the poured water. This is the before and after of the nature photo before and after. Just imagine how cool and beautiful it looks. The change in colours through colour grading doesn't look shouting or extreme. It's just cool and perfect.

Before Edits	After
Before Edits	After

These are the major activities I spent my day doing. I spent almost 10 hours exploring nature before doing other things that I didn't capture. These were the only activities I captured. To me, I would have used that time to do something else, but I had to spend time with nature and appreciate the creator. I invite @irawandedy, @whizzbro4eva, and @professorlenz.

Dated	4th August, 2024
Photographer	@bossj23
Device	Redmi Note 13