Still Gathering
Your own purpose still counts in the middle of someone else's day.
Still Gathering is for the person who spends the day inside other people's plans and misses their own.
I made this at a wedding in Ireland. I'd been photographing the ceremony and the reception, and at the reception I stepped back for a moment to take in the garden. There was a daisy bush, and in it a bee, perched on the flowers, gathering pollen. I could line the flowers up around it. It was a chance to shoot to my own brief, if only briefly. Acoustic music was playing nearby, and the bee wasn't in any hurry. It held its own sense of flow.
When I photograph a wedding, I'm shooting someone else's memories. I tune my eye to a story they've already told me, and I'm careful about how I add to it. So this was a few minutes outside that, back in my own mind. The bee seemed to be doing the same. The biggest day of someone's life was happening around it and it simply carried on, gathering. I like to think it was also enjoying the music.
Still Gathering is for the person whose days are full of other people's occasions. Your own purpose doesn't have to wait for the day to finish. It can carry on, quietly, in the middle of everything, while you stay part of the celebration. Live with this bee long enough and notice where your sense of purpose and the flow of the world begin to line up. You may find you can keep gathering, and enjoy the music.
