Intimate natural scenes have the potential to instill a sense of peace and harmony. They offer a counterpoint to the hectic, often chaotic world that surrounds us. Far from the cacophony of political strife, or the press of daily obligations, such scenes invite a calming perspective.
This image, of ripe berries on a green-leafed dogwood tree, is in a sense quite ordinary. One can easily see such a scene by strolling through a wooded glade, in a park or woods, in a backyard. And yet, it’s special for its gentleness, its comfortable presence, its delicacy.
You may be interested to know how I made this photo. Lately, I’ve been experimenting with a series of legacy lenses designed some decades ago for use with film cameras. Some of these lenses, now inexpensive because they’re normally overlooked, have special optical qualities that have been designed out of newer lenses made specifically to meet the demanding requirements of the latest digital cameras. Newer lenses are built to be razor sharp, to fit the high resolution of modern mirrorless cameras. The older lenses, by contrast, often have design flaws that give them character that’s lacking in newer lenses.
Such is the case with the lens I used for this photo. It’s a Pentax Macro Takumar, a 50mm lens designed especially for close-up photography. While capable of rendering details sharply, when used at its widest aperture setting it allows a gentle falloff in focus that helps isolate attention on the main subject. That’s the case in this photo.
Here, the subject of principal interest is the cluster of red berries at the center of the image. The berries are in sharp focus, as are some of the leaves that cradle it in a gentle, almost loving, hold. But notice the background. It’s highly diffuse, bright in tone, and spotted with nearly circular highlights known in photography as bokeh. Bokeh is a Japanese term that refers to the circular highlights caused by speculars of light reflected by the shape of the lens’s diaphragm. No doubt this is more detail than you wanted. But the upshot is that this lens is capable of creating a subtle and at the same time enchanting backdrop for the berries and leaves. This effect distinguishes this lens. Other lenses would have rendered the scene differently, in their own unique ways.
As I said, there’s nothing very special about this photograph. It’s not dramatic, certainly not spectacular. And yet, its simplicity and, if you will, gentility are attractive. It’s a calming image that invites a sense of peace, and perhaps of reflection.
For that reason, I’ve chosen to add this image to my Nature, Up Close collection, where you’ll find other images of natural things photographed at close range.
I hope you’ll enjoy this photograph and that it inspires a calming presence for you, as it has for me.
Let me know what you think about this and my other photos in the comments section. And, if there’s something else you’d like to see, let me know that as well.