As we were walking toward the lake beach this morning, we chanced upon a colony of ladybirds playing in the wild plants growing alongside the pathway. I have never seen this many together and in fact, I don't remember ever seeing more than two collected before, so I was a bit excited. weirdly, my wife and daughter were far less so.
I didn't have my camera on me at the time, so we went for a swim and then headed out for lunch at a local burger place. We have been taking advantage of our daughter able to eat off the menu - perhaps a little too much. Eating out is really expensive in Finland and for a couple burgers and a kids meal of chicken and fries, it was 50€. That is crazy in my opinion for what it was, but I am giving a little leeway on these things of late, considering what the last month has been and how changed the holidays have become because of me.
It is weird. I feel like I have let my family down in some way, even though there was nothing practical I could do to prevent what happened. It wasn't because of my diet, or lack of exercise, it wasn't because I was doing anything I shouldn't have been doing - yet still, it feels like my fault.
However, I guess this is part of living with the responsibility of a family, as well as the conditions of a family too, where we have to look after each other - "in sickness and in health". I really wish that we had far more health than we have, but we have managed through sickness too.
Tomorrow morning I have my scheduled infusion treatment and my daughter was a little worried, hearing that I am going to the hospital again. Even after I reminded her that this is a normal thing I have been doing for a long time, she wasn't fully convinced. She has been more observant of me since I came out of hospital and every time something comes up that is doctor related, she goes quiet and watches me. She is a sensitive little girl.
And, it is because of that treatment that I decided to go out with the camera before we took our second swim of the day, even though it was too windy. I am not great with macro, making shooting in the wind a massive challenge for me and when the ladybirds are sitting on the long-stemmed glass, they wave around like crazy. Getting them in focus is difficult.
This fly was still though.
And I did manage to get lucky a couple times and get them mostly in focus, but not quite what I was after, so decided to play around a little with the cropping and editing in Lightroom instead of leaving them the vibrant orange and green they were. As I have said before, normally I like to have my shots more as I see them, but I don't mind playing around a little bit in post-editing in order to bring in a different feel.
I am also thinking about what I am going to put on the walls of our house, since we don't have much that suits from our old place. I painted a quick abstract years ago, but not sure if it has the right feel. Normally, with good art, it doesn't matter much, but this is my painting and it isn't what I consider good.
But, having a photo or two printed onto canvas might do the job and I have one of my favorite ever pictures taken in Barcelona on the wall already. My wife doesn't want the pictures on the wall to look like they were bought from IKEA though, and some of these can, as there is nothing really personal in them, other than me having taken them.
The other day I was talking about content and thinking on what it brings the audience and this in itself is personal. There is no right answer, but it is good to remember that consumption of content on Hive isn't forced, no one has to read a post or look at a picture. Just like the choice to be on Hive, content consumption here is all opt-in and that means there has to be incentive.
That incentive can come in many ways on Hive, including curation return, but as I keep saying and especially now, curation return can be earned on anything at all relative to stake, so there has to be a reason to choose one piece over another. The "why" of it is up to the viewer, but it is up to the creator to inspire them to ask the question. This is what an artist does for the audience, but not every consumer is going to have the same question or be inspired to ask one at all.
My ladybirds ^
A lot of creators I have come across on Hive seem to blame the audience for the lack of consumption and interaction on their content, without looking at how they influence the outcomes. Or more likely, don't influence the outcomes. It is like the artist that never exhibits their work and hides it away in the attic, no matter how good or bad it is doesn't matter, because no one is going to consume it enough to care anyway.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Camera:
Olympus EM-1 MkIII
Olympus 60mm 2.8
