This is a series of photographs that I shot while living at a home in Hampton Bays, NY. I was fortunate to be a guest in this home and even more so to spend my mornings and late afternoons sitting beside a beauty bush, whose flowers bordered the deck in the backyard. At first, I didn't think much of the bees visiting the plant. I would shoot macro photos of them landing on the petals. Then came the black and yellow butterflies, Tiger Swallowtails. When I got home from work I would spend the remaining daylight in their presence. Mindful to maintain a balance of observing and documenting.
Early on, I was following a Swallowtail as it fluttered from flower to flower, when my attention shifted to an insect I had never seen before. It gave the impression of a small hummingbird, but faster and very sensitive. Within a second or two, I attempted to take a photo but didn't have any luck getting it in proper frame or focus. I googled "hummingbird butterfly" and reasoned that was I encountered was a Narrow Bordered Hummingbird Hawk Moth. They are the second fastest flying insect behind dragon flies, they cannot hear, and they blew my fucking mind. For the rest of summer, I spent my mornings waiting beside the beauty bush hoping to witness another hawk moth. I became obsessed, I would have dreams of waiting for them.
I shot this series with Sony's full frame 7RII and a reverse mounted Helios 44M-4 58mm F2, a lens built in 1983, in the USSR. The lack of auto focus made it difficult to document agile flying insects because the window of focus was thin. I typically shot at F/8, left ISO on Auto, and left shutter speed anywhere from 1/1000sec to 1/8000sec. I used extension tubes to increase magnification. The farther away the lens is from the sensor, the closer the image.
The bush taught me of the discipline of animals and how beneficial it is to synchronize with the pace of nature. The insects show up everyday to fulfill their duty. While making this series, I listened to lion tracker and author, Boyd Varty's audio dispatches he recorded while spending 40 days and 40 nights alone in a tree house in the South African bushveld. His insights resonated with me and the energy of the mystic in nature is present in these photographs.
