Microscopic wonders bring unexpected sense of peace to local photographer
Holly Mead, of Jefferson Township, regularly explores her own backyard in search of peace through the lens of her camera.
While Mead has been a photographer for more than three decades, also working as a freelance photographer for the Butler Eagle, she recently discovered a passion for macro photography, which can be best described as extreme close-ups of small subject matter.
“I had never done it before,” Mead said. “After 30 years of being in the business, I just thought it was cool just to see the little details, and now I’ve become obsessed with it. I look for those little details, and they’re all around us. It’s stuff that you don’t really notice.”
One of her main sources of inspiration has been capturing snowflakes that land upon an assorted host of objects.
“When I started taking them, I had no idea what I was doing,” she said. “But over the years, I’ve now gotten to the point where I kind of know what they (the snowflakes) photograph well on and what they don’t.”
Mead said she’s always seeking new items to experiment with and has found a few that work best when it comes to seeing the intricacies of individual snowflakes.
For example, she races to find deals on dark-colored winter attire that she affectionately calls “snowflake catchers.” While a lot of her work depends on the right kind of snow falling from the sky, she takes every opportunity seriously in an attempt to acquire the best shots.
“I have photographed them on pieces of colored glass, which is just gorgeous, but it’s a little harder to get,” she said. “Any kind of scarf, hat or whatever that’s a darker-knit color, that works really well.”
However, some of Mead’s favorite artwork combines some of her other passionate endeavors.
“By far my favorite thing to take the pictures on is feathers,” Mead said. “It combines all of my loves because I rescue chickens, ducks and geese.”
She collects their feathers all year, and if they’re especially interesting, she throws them in a box.
“Then, sometime in the fall, I sit down and start sticking them in Styrofoam and making balls of beautiful feathers,” she said. “Those are my snowflake catchers, and I love them.
“It’s actually easier to catch them on a feather, too, because you can catch just one snowflake.”
She now has accumulated thousands of snowflake photos over the years. Friends, family members and even people she does not know all that well began taking notice after she started posting her art online.
“I’ve never done anything with those photos other than post them on Facebook,” Mead said. “I just do it for me more than anything. But people have loved them so much and have been asking me for more snowflake pictures.”
While there are no plans to sell the photos, she did raise the possibility of creating a book one day that would be in memory of her late father, who thoroughly enjoyed the art.
“This is my way of finding happiness and peace,” Mead said. “We’re surrounded by depressing stuff constantly. We each have to find things that can bring us out of that and give us comfort. This is just my way of doing it.”
