Birding
As a child I grew up watching National Geographic, doing a little bit of hunting and of course, Pokémon, birding has found a way to blend all three of those activities into one. Seriously, you can act as a Nat Geo photographer, sneak up and stalk your prey and catch ‘em all. Who would have that at the ripe age of (nearly) 38 I’d be reliving those dreams.
Now, I am a very goal orientated individual, I set a goal and push myself to achieve it as quickly as I can - I am not sure why goals are so important to me, but generally once I set a goal, nothing will stop me achieving it. Fortunately for my personality, birding allows me to have a very specific, yet simple goal - capture a picture of them all. I am confident this very well may take the rest of my life. To make achieving this goal a little easier and give myself a sense of accomplishment along the way, I am going to break it up into a few different chunks.
First, my focus is capture all the birds that live in my backyard. Chickadees, wood ducks, cardinals, various finches and woodpeckers and a plethora songbirds. Next, birds that live in my area of North East Wisconsin - pelicans, gulls, eagles and more. Last, and certainly most difficult, birds of Wisconsin as a whole. To accomplish this I will need to travel around the state to various parks and cities and check them off the list, one by one. Again, this is going to most likely take my lifetime and has a high chance of failing, but it’s something to strive for, something to ensure I keep getting out there, behind the lens and in the world.
It’s important that we set goals for ourselves. Sometimes, those goals are simple; take a photo today. Perhaps, they’re in the middle, like learn to bake a cake. Others, are difficult or have very long run ways, such as take a picture of every bird in the state of Wisconsin. It’s important that our goals align with our ambitions, time and ability to achieve. No one wants to fail, but we also need to push ourselves, to be better, to work harder and to give ourselves a sense of accomplishment.
I look forward to sharing updates on my goals with you.
As always, thanks for reading.
-Nathan