chasing answers newsletter #58

I'm finally doing it

“We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone.” - Katie Thurmes

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Happy Sunday!

I’m really excited, folks.

For the next two weeks, I will be taking part in cohort 2 of

Steven Foster

’s Photography for Creatives course. Photography, particularly wildlife photography, is something I have wanted to learn for a long time.

If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you know I love nature and being out in it. Many of our family vacations consist of long days on hiking trails and then crashing on an air mattress in a camping tent at night.

Years ago, my wife and I thought it would be a great idea to buy a nice camera and some fancy lenses to capture all the amazing wildlife we came across on our hikes.

After buying all the equipment, we thought the photography would take care of itself. I thought for sure I was going to be the next great wildlife photographer, with my shots featured in wildlife magazines around the world. Just buy good equipment, and you magically get good results, right?

Turns out, that’s not how this photography stuff works. Despite having the equipment for 13-14 years, I have never put in the effort to really learn how to use it. I’ve taken a lot of pictures, but unfortunately, most of them aren’t of the greatest quality.

Learning the craft is one of those things I have wanted to do for so long but haven’t made the time for. Now I am, and I’m incredibly pumped about it.

Because of this, I have found the perfect replacement for my Best of Twitter segment in the newsletter. I'm going to end my regular Sunday newsletters with the Photo(s) of the Week segment. This will give me additional motivation to keep practicing and learning long after the course is over. You can check out the debut of Photo(s) of the Week below.

Why Photograph Wildlife?

“Wildlife is something which man cannot construct. Once it is gone, it is gone forever. Man can rebuild a pyramid, but he can’t rebuild ecology, or a giraffe.” - Joy Adamson

There is nothing as beautiful as what we can find in nature. No building, painting, cathedral, or other work of art can touch what nature has to offer. That’s a hill I’m willing to die on, and it’s one of the reasons why climate change and the constant development of wilderness for agricultural and industrial use is such an important topic to me.

I’m terrified that my grandchildren won’t have the opportunity to experience wildlife in its natural habitat the way I have. That they won’t be able to walk down to the lake and see deer drinking from a brook or an eagle swooping down to grab a fish.

Attempting to capture these things while they still exist is important. And hopefully, combining images of those events with my newsletter will help me play some small role in bringing attention to the issues that concern me.

It’s also incredibly relaxing and therapeutic. A certain sense of calmness comes from being out in nature early in the morning, as dawn breaks, when much of the wildlife is most active, that can’t be replicated.

I’m really not a writer at heart. I always say I’m just a guy who writes. But I think I am a photographer at heart, at least of certain subjects. So, I hope that with some training and practice, I’ll become more than just a guy who takes pictures and finally feel comfortable calling myself a photographer.

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Photo(s) of the Week

I’ve been bringing my camera with me on all my morning walks lately, and the other day I was down by the lake and grabbed these shots of an eagle coming in to land in a tree. Once he landed, I tried to move in closer, but I was making him uncomfortable. He kept shifting his position on the branch, and he was as busy watching me as I was him.

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I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy