Look for the Beauty

With so many abhorrent things being perpetrated by our current administration, I often think of this quote by Fred Rogers:

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping'”.

Great Egret on a foggy morning in Florida

She was teaching him a strategy to cope with fear and anxiety by focusing on human goodness rather than on the distressing event itself.

Spending time in nature with a camera in hand is my strategy for coping. Instead of looking for the helpers, I’m looking for the beauty. For the two or three hours I’m out on a walk, I’m totally absorbed in the picture-taking adventure. There’s absolutely no room left in my brain for the scary things to seep in. Even without a camera strapped across my shoulder, time spent in nature is always time well spent.

Great Blue Heron along the Gulf of Mexico

A 2019 study in Frontiers of Psychology found that as little as 20 minutes a day immersed in nature can significantly lower your stress hormone levels. There is, in fact, extensive research across several disciplines including environmental psychology, neuroscience, and epidemiology that demonstrate the significant mental, physical and cognitive benefits of spending time in nature whether you’re in a deep wilderness, an urban park, or your own backyard. You don’t even need a camera to reap the benefits, you just need to be paying attention.

My picture walks have that effect on me. As soon as I’m out among the trees or near a body of water, I experience an immediate sense of calm, especially if I have my camera with me; it makes me pay close attention. For the next few hours, I’ll be totally focused on all the things I see and hear, hoping for an interesting picture or a beautiful shot. It might be a colorful flower, a tiny bird, or an elusive butterfly. When I’m that absorbed with looking, and that absorbed with the whole process of taking a picture using manual settings, the world beyond the reach of my camera completely disappears.

When I arrive home and bring the pictures up on my computer, I’m once again transported to the wonder of it all: zooming in on each plant or creature to see the intricate designs on a butterfly’s wings or the colors around a bird’s eye; the delicate nature of a dragonfly’s wings, or the amazing construction of a spider’s web. It’s all so incredibly interesting.

Just twenty minutes a day…

spent in nature’s embrace…

paying close attention…

…can have a profound impact on your mental health.

The Peace of Wild Things

September 19, 2020

This poem by Wendell Berry was posted recently by a friend and it really resonated with me, especially during these very stressful and troubling times. It speaks volumes about the peace we can find in nature and of the comfort it can provide.

There’s nothing more that I can add to this beautiful poem, so here are a few of my wild things to enjoy vicariously…

Virginia Ctenucha Moth and Male Widow Skimmer Dragonfly

Cabbage White and Common Buckeye Butterflies

House Sparrow and Black-capped Chickadee

Eastern Phoebe and White-breasted Nuthatch

Red-legged Grasshopper, White-faced Meadowhawk Dragonfly, Familiar Bluet Damselfly and a Halloween Pennant Dragonfly

Painted Lady Butterfly and Spotted Spreadwing Damselfly

A Photography Journey

August 4, 2020

As I pondered what to write today, I was thinking back on my short but immensely gratifying photography journey.

**Barn Swallow and a Belted Kingfisher**

**Eastern Kingbird and Willow Flycatcher**

It started innocently enough in the fall of 2016, when my husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I had no idea! But, he likes finding things that surprise me, so I gave it some thought. What I came up with was “a better camera”. For many, many years, all I had was a very small, pocket-sized, Canon Powershot.

**Brown Thrasher and Female Red-winged Blackbird**

Once I told Mel about my ‘better camera’ idea, he went to work researching it. What he came up with was another model of the Canon Powershot –but a bigger, better version with a built-in zoom lens. I now refer to this camera as my ‘gateway drug’! As soon as I realized what was possible with a better camera, I was hooked!

**Eastern Giant Swallowtail on Bull Thistle and a Great Spangled Fritillary** **on Coneflower**

**Eastern Tiger Swallowtail** **on Butterfly Bush**

**Monarch on Butterfly Weed and a Red-spotted Admiral on Queen Anne’s Lace**

It wasn’t long before I was outdoors nearly every day taking pictures of birds, butterflies, frogs, turtles– anything I could find that grabbed my attention. Eventually, though, I started musing about what I might be able to do with an even better camera—one that could capture the birds that were even farther away, and would also have a faster response time.

**Blue Dasher and a Twelve-spotted Skimmer**

Since Mel enjoys doing the research and I do not, he’s the one who went to work looking for another camera, one that would take a detachable telephoto lens. What he came up with was a Nikon D3400 and a 75-300mm lens. Once it arrived, I was out the door!

Snowberry Clearwing Moth **(aka hummingbird moth)** **on Spotted Knapweed and Bee** **Balm**

I think another year went by, maybe less, and I found myself wanting to capture creatures that were even farther away. Mel took off on another search and came up with a 150-600mm lens from Sigma that would probably do the trick. But it was much longer and much heavier than the one I currently had and I was hesitant. When it arrived, I was still hesitant. It just seemed too big and too heavy for me to handle comfortably. But I was eager to take close-ups and quickly overcame my reluctance. I have not put it down since!

**Spicebush Swallowtail on Butterfly Weed and a Viceroy** **on Button Bush**

Eventually, the constant lifting and focusing with a lens that size made my back ache and I reluctantly added a monopod to my set up. It’s a bit of a bother sometimes to have the monopod attached, but I can now focus on a subject for an indefinite amount of time without having to give my back a break.

**This insect was a huge surprise! It’s a female BOTFLY laying an egg on a blade of grass. I’ve never seen one before and didn’t know we even had them in the U.S.!**

After the Nikon D3400, came a Nikon D5600, which is what I have been using for the last couple of years. This camera and I have gone on a picture walk together nearly every day and I have taken hundreds of pictures with it on each of those walks. Periodically, I have checked to see how much ‘shutter life’ it had left.

**Juvenile Great Blue Heron and Halloween Pennant Dragonflies mating**

My D5600 had been given a shutter life of 100,000 shots. When I last checked, I had taken well over 151,000 pictures! I felt as if we were on borrowed time and decided to start looking for a new one.

**Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (dark morph) and a Pearl Crescent Butterfly**

Once again, Mel returned to the drawing board to find a camera that was well suited for wildlife photography. What he found was a Nikon D500. It arrived a just a few days ago and we have already become fast friends!

**Red-spotted Admiral and a Silver-spotted Skipper**

With a shutter life of 200,000 shots, I’m looking forward to many years and many pleasant journeys with my newest walking companion!