Nature has got it right … who has never used this expression once in their lives …

Observing nature via a macro photographic camera lens allows us to discover a new world, a Lilliputian world where the animal and vegetable kingdom cohabite invisible to the naked eye.  The mega intensity of Springtime is the best time to discover this microcosm.  The beginning of March when nature awakes from its winter sleep is when I start to search for wild orchids on the limestone plateau where numerous specimens can be found.  At the chosen site, I am sure to find the orchids most commonly found in insular or Mediterranean lands and ideally some local endemic species.

As the orchid awakes passion … this elegant flower has over the last few years become one of the major flower sales. Its stately demeanour, its straight stem without ramifications, we are seduced by its long period of blossoming and natural elegance and it is rare today that a home does not have a white or mauve commercial orchid.

On the heights, at the back of the cliffs, there is one in particular that I love to look for.  I leave my photo equipment at the foot of a Thorny Broom bush with its spiky thorns protecting my precious bag, and above all, its contents.

Liberated from this invalidating weight, I set forth along the paths in the heart of the scrubland in the search of this rare habitat and susceptible ground for this chosen species and enjoy the intoxicating floral scents.

My object of my search is discrete, I would even say a little luxurious.  Often small in size, the most beautiful specimens of orchids offer an imitation of the surroundings. Most of them exhibit violet or purple flowers; the object of my search is dominantly yellow and green.  It is called Ophrys Corsica and flowers between mid-March and the end of May.  In the centre of a group of Astragales (Milkvetch) and low rockroses, I finally discover my favourite revealing its advantages accompanied by some cousins of the Marmorata species.  I excuse the Thorny Broom from its supervision mission and set my camera with a 100mm lens at a short distance from their feet.

I now have to face a true exercise of patience.  Fine-tune the angle of my shot of the flower as well as the light, waiting for the key moment to shoot, the moment when the wind stops agitating the flower stems, adjusting the collimators on the parts to be revealed. Apart from the soft bristle covering the lobe to the perfectly bilateral symmetry of the Ophrys Marmorata, a hymenopteran lands on a first-class landing strip under the lens of my camera. With its wings spread, it pollinates the specimen and without realising contributes to the rebirth of this marvellous floral plant every year; it imagines to have found the ideal female ready to share a moment of shameless eroticism and arduously satisfy its springtime passions.

Under my amused and delighted eyes, I can only think nature has got it right!

11°C Clear

Bonifacio, Corsica