Neglected!

Yesterday, I decided to embark on a spontaneous trip to the school garden of the city park at the Außenmühle lake in Harburg.

Already during the Hamburg Hafengeburtstag, dark spots irritated me when I looked through the camera’s viewfinder, which did not appear in the photos for god’s sake. My attempts to remove them were only partially successful. Since I was tinkering with the interior of my camera a lot and definitely breaking all the rules, I kept testing it intermittently. The dark spots got better, smaller, but remained and moved around. No matter what I tried, I could not get rid of them. And the test photos in-between the cleaning action failed big time. The first ones were overexposed, and when I changed the camera setting, I could only capture black photos, which should not have been possible. So I had one option: going out and test the camera in a real nature-shooting.

And that is what I did.

I would not have been me when I had left the house without high expectations and I hoped a lot to capture the blooming diversity of the garden, which had been my testing ground back in 2014. However, on the location, I encountered a different picture than expected:

The flowerbeds looked run-down, completely neglected, and overgrown with weeds. Just a few plants were in full bloom. Instead of the paradise I remembered, dry hedges and brown, unsightly areas dominated the garden's appearance. In one corner, a sleeping, obviously drunk homeless person further highlighted the state of neglection.

And to my astonishment, perhaps even horror, I had to learn that my previous foresight and the accompanying sense of perspective had vanished. I saw the elder man before I entered that garden and he acted strangely, yet I ignored that completely. After I took a few photos, he came to me. On a positive note, it was a nice and interesting conversation we had. He was concerned about the sleeping homeless person; however, he was afraid to wake him up to check if that person was okay. Without him, I wouldn’t have noticed the homeless sleeper, although the one lay in a prominent area I normally could not have overseen. I was way too focused on the plants and the neglection of this garden. After we both decided that the homeless person seems to be okay, yet totally drunk, we changed the conversation and exchanged our disbelief about this condition of this former beautiful laid-out garden.

Despite these unexpected obstacles, I wanted to make the best out of this situation and reminded me; I was there only to test my camera. Nevertheless, I searched for interesting details and unusual perspectives, but the results of my effort fell far short of my expectations. The photos reflected the bleak atmosphere and could not capture the beauty of nature. Even though the results were not thrilling, the problem with my camera seemed to be resolved. The equipment that had previously failed worked flawlessly. What I cannot say about myself.

The results were rather disappointing. In many areas, I failed to achieve the desired shots, unable to execute it as I was used to. Anyway, a positive feeling overcame me: it just felt good to be out in the field with my camera again, engaging in the creative activity I hold so dear.

Once again, I realized that I still have a lot to improve before the trip to Amsterdam, because I doubt I will have any room for individual errors when I am there next month. However, I am very excited about going on an exploratory tour at the Vogelkijkhut IJdoornpolder.

After I returned home, I realized, I did not fail as big as I thought. At least one photo was good enough to be published on the stock market. I had another one that I could easily use for my online gallery. And most of all, I am looking forward to the next tour with my camera; there can be nothing better than this, ever.

This experience showed me that not every photo-shotting had to be perfect to be good. Sometimes the true worth lies in the experience itself and joy of pursuing one’s passion, even under adverse circumstances.

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