How This Picture Was Taken - Harrison McCall #9

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, let's just hope this one is worth 350. The short story I pointed the camera and pressed the button. Long story, well it's a long story. I woke up at the break of dawn and quickly got dressed and gathered all of my gear into my camera bag. Muck boots on and ready to go I set off to see what today's journey has in store. As I step outside I realized it was good that I decided to wake up early because there wasn't a cloud in the sky. This meant that by the middle of the day the light from the sun would be too harsh for good photos. Not wanting to waste any time I head for the field row behind my house and started hiking towards the levee. Watching the tree line vigilantly as I went. I walk pretty quickly through the part of the walk that goes behind the other houses on the street because I don't think hiding in bushes around people's houses with a camera early in the morning is the best image to present to my neighbors. Once I get to the break off point from the residential area I really zone in, scanning every tree for movement or an out of place. I would peer into the dense thicket of thorn bushes and tall weeds looking for a color that didn't belong or listening for movement. About a mile into my walk the tree line ends and another begins going perpendicular, but there is this big chunk of bare ground where nothing grows between the two, except for a few weeds around a puddle that always seems to have water in it. When I got to this spot a little butterfly flew from the grass by the puddle and landed right in the middle of the barren ground. Since I had seen practically nothing the whole day I decided to go for it. I walked as softly as I could to get as close as possible without spooking off the butterfly. I snapped some photos with each step getting closer and better images each time. Until, finally, the butterfly flew off because that giant object that kept making clicking sounds was getting a little too close. I finished walking and headed home. Now the tedious task of importing all the photos and going through them to pick the best one, then proceeding to mess with different aspects of the photo to add contrast and bring out certain colors and details. After this is finished I was done, a finished product of my labor on the screen before me.