Maple Blossom: Kennebunk, Maine, April 2026 — A week ago today, when the sun was shining in the window, I posed this cluster of maple blossoms against a relatively dark background to take its portrait. I moved in really close, using a 1.7 close-up lens on the already close-focusing Sigma 16-300 Contemporary to achieve a slightly larger-than-life-size view—that is, slightly larger than the closest focus of my unaided eye, and this is what I saw. A whole bouquet of tiny flowers. Most have dropped their pollen—or more likely, I bumped the anthers with my lens. Those anthers are the size of poppy seeds, just for scale. Isn’t it wonderful what you can see if you really look? And the seeing goes all the way through you and lights up your mind, illuminates your soul by illuminating the world. Or that is what happens to me. Sony a6700. Sigma 16-300 Contemporary with 1.7x Sigma close-up filter. f/2.0 for depth of field. Aperture program and auto-focus. Processed in Photomator.