The other week I gave my first in person talk to a camera club in a couple of years. It was so lovely to be out and about. The usual underlying fear of leaving the house and heading to a group wasn’t there as the excitement of presenting was much much greater.

It was so lovely to be presenting in person, rather than through zoom and the internet. The talk was about photography advice from someone whom comes from an artistic background. Actually Brooks Jenson had a lovely piece on that this week saying he’d rather look at the work of an artist that chooses a camera as another tool, rather than from a photographer whom is trying to be artistic. Interesting thoughts.

During the talk I was looked after by Jennifer, offering a glass of red, and introducing me. At the end, after I had talked about some of my ongoing projects, photographing native Australian Flowers in the wild in monochrome in particular, she told me about some rock orchids blooming locally. Isn’t that just so lovely, that people share their discoveries, and are so incredibly generous?

Yesterday, Anissa and I tracked them down, and without Jennifer’s directions we would never have found them. We only found the two very sprays she had sent us too. Many appeared to be over, and a few yet to bloom. I have seen this orchid a few times, and I don’t think I have any successful photographs of it from before. An hour latter it was time to wander around and see what else we could find.

I wanted to thank Jennifer for these. It is greatly appreciated. You may see her out with her camera in Sydney or in the snow skiing the backcountry with her camera. I hope you enjoy them. I thought they were Sydney Rock Orchids, but a quick search proved me wrong. I am yet to identify them, so if you know please let me know.

Photographs and text copyright © Len Metcalf 2022