Be Tenacious, be passionate

by Christine Majul
(Grapeview, WA)

Why did I choose that title? It is because I used those qualities to take bee photos. I got my first digital camera from ebay that was a used moldy Olympus 3.2 MP oldie that took great photos. I was playing with the macro feature on the camera and took some bee pictures. They did not come out but I was determined to get one. As time went by, I saw that for every 100 bee photos that I took, 80 were rejects, 20 were OK, and 10 were good and three were fantastic. It became a numbers game, and in time my technique improved and the reject pile started to become smaller. The beauty of digital cameras is that you can delete the undesirables. But bees do not stay still and just when you think you have the shot, the bee moves or flies away. Being discouraged can creep up on you and you will have to realize that on some days your photo project may not have one usable photo. The next day might be another story. The moral: Do not give up, opportunity can come up every minute.