Melville Snapshot: Fly in My Backyard
Third post in my Melville Snapshot series. Read posts 1 and 2.
When I first started this blog in June 2010, hardly anyone read it. I blogged mostly for myself and my close friends and family who were curious about my new life in South Africa.
A lot has changed in four years. While I try to approach blogging in more or less the same way that I did four years ago, I really don’t. I have more readers now and blogging has become part of my career. Thanks to my blog I’ve been able to experience lots of amazing, mind-blowing things (my recent helicopter ride over Joburg is a perfect example), and I feel like I have to uphold my reputation as a Joburg-based cultural adventure-seeker. Sometimes I feel like I can’t blog about “just anything” anymore.
But my life isn’t really about helicopter rides and Soweto cycling tours and exploring weird places in Joburg. At least not completely. Truth be told, I’m kind of an introverted homebody. I love hanging around my house in Melville, which I call the Lucky 5 Star Commune, and walking around the garden with the Melville Cat.
This weekend I was doing exactly that, playing around with my new olloclip iPhone lens that I received as a freebie on the above-referenced helicopter ride. I attempted a macro shot of a fly sitting on a tiny wildflower.
Macro-fly Instagram. Shot (amazingly) with my iPhone and attached olloclip.
Sometimes it’s the little things…Okay, I won’t torture you with the rest of that cliché. You know what I mean.
I’m endlessly grateful for the amazing life that I have in South Africa. It’s not always easy, but every minute of it is 1000 times more rewarding than the lives I could be leading anywhere else. Thanks to everyone and everything who makes my life here awesome. Even the fly.
Thanks to @igersjozi for featuring this shot on Instagram today.
amazing click……….
Thank you!
Great capture.
Thanks Debra, hope you’re well.
Wow! Love the fly! Just keep blogging, with the occasional guest post by Smokey :-)
Thanks Enivea. I’m sure Smokey will be back soon :)
To be honest I usually find macro photography a bit ‘meh’ but this is pure awesomeness. Keep blogging all the good stuff x
Thanks Ang. Everything came together at the right moment. But you’re right, it’s kind of a limited genre. I feel like I’ve already exhausted most of the opportunities in the backyard.
Superbe, j’adore
Incredible shot with a phone, I battle to get that with an expensive macro lens on my Canon.
Thanks Gail. I really think I got a bit lucky. It was a really sluggish fly :)
Thank you for being adventurous and blogging about all you experience! I’m from the States (once lived in Logan Circle in DC) and I’ve also worked in HIV/AIDS. My husband, a TB researcher, are going to be alternating between Jozi and the US every three months for a while and have been here about a month. Thanks to you and your blog I’m taking an art course at the Field and Study Center and we are investigating as much as you write about as we can. Can’t tell you how much I appreciate your perspective and information. Please don’t stop!
Jonnie, I can’t tell you how great it feels to receive a comment like this. Thank you so much. And I’m glad you’re enjoying your time in Joburg.
i-phone! Whooo! Those tiny, tiny camera are amazing! We love following your stories and pictures - Always looikng forward to more. M
Thanks. I know, iPhone cameras just keep getting better and better.
Holy crap, that’s an incredible photo! But I know how you blogging can change–for the good. But still it’s change.
It’s going to be a busy month for me–traveling to the beach, teaching a week-long workshop, and having friends visit from the US. Fun, but YIKES!
Hugs from Ecuador, Kathy
Wow Kathy, that all sounds exciting. I’m especially curious about the teaching workshop. Can’t wait for the blog posts. Have fun!
Always good to read, whether its about jet setting around Jozi or capturing creatures with intimate details. Thanks for always entertaining and your absolute honesty. Don’t stop.
Thanks for sharing your blogs with people like me who are outside your immediate circle of friends. SA born and bred and your blogs help me to see SA through new eyes
Amazing
Thanks!
Stunning! It’s unbelievable, the stuff that can be done with an iPhone.
I know. It really is better than a DSLR sometimes.