Weekend Warriors!

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So you’ve got a new camera. (Or an old camera. Or a phone with a camera. The best camera is the one you have.) Now what?

Well, now you need something to take pictures of. Pick a time, go somewhere you don’t go very often, and play around with framing, color, light…whatever you’re most interested in.

I chose birds. I don’t have a lot of experience shooting moving targets. Most of the time, I go somewhere pretty and shoot landscapes, which is all very well and good but not much of a challenge. They’re just sitting there, waiting for me to come along, frame them the way I want them, get the settings exactly right, and press the shutter button.

Moving targets are a lot more difficult. I splurged this year and bought myself a mirrorless Canon R6 Mark II, which has some incredible image stabilization properties. You don’t need that cheat, though. You can develop hand steadiness and action shots should be taken faster than your hand can shake anyway. Still, if you’re like me and start trembling a bit after exercise, the image stabilization makes things a lot easier.

I found myself in a lovely, quiet spot by a stream and decided that, instead of taking photos of still subjects like trees and rocks, I’d shoot birds. This is easier said than done and requires a lot of patience.

I’m not a patient person. Still, I caught this cute little beastie.

Taking the time to get outside is extremely important if you want to maintain your day job. I was out for three hours on a Saturday. Even an hour, though, would have been incredibly refreshing. Taking the time to line up a shot, to imagine how it’s going to look when you’re done with it, to just sit there and think about what you’re going to shoot next, is an amazing exercise in mindfulness.

I mentioned I lack patience. “Mindfulness” in the sense of sitting down and meditating purposefully and regularly has never worked well for me. But anything that brings you to the present moment is good mindfulness practice. I get there through my camera lens. I had been desperate for a sense of calm after the holidays. Half a day in nature, and I’m ready to tackle whatever 2024 throws at me.*

*I wrote this post on December 30, 2023. At 2 am December 31, 2023, I woke up coughing with pneumonia. I may be ready for 2024, but I was not ready for 2023’s last kick in the pants. Five days in, enjoy my New Year’s post, now that I can finally leave the couch.