The Older Outdoor Photographer Part 2: Five Helpful Tips to Sustain Your Motivation

 The previous BTC post reviewed the importance of staying motivated and provided a few tips and pointers on how to start a physical conditioning routine as an older outdoor photographer. As part two of this series I'd like to offer a few more tips that helps to sustain your motivation to get out and explore the outdoors.

Tip One: Start simple..and discover outdoor opportunities close to home. I'd love to spend time in Yellowstone NP, or Yosemite NP, and maybe take my canoe to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota for a week of backcountry canoeing. I'd even love getting back to the Tallgrass Prairie region in Oklahoma or the Buffalo National River in Arkansas. However, right now those desires are simply not possible for me to fulfill. Once I determined that being able to make those trips anytime soon were not likely to occur, my outdoor options became a lot simpler. I started looking more earnestly for opportunities closer to home and discovered just how abundant those opportunities were. I asked myself, If not those exotic adventures, what then can I do close to home? Since that time I have discovered the joys of canoe camping on Barren River Lake which is about a thirty to forty-five minute drive from my house. 

I can experience pretty much the same kind of outings I'd find in the Boundary Waters area, it's just a matter of perspective. I also discovered numerous backpacking opportunities in the backcountry of Mammoth Cave NP, about a 45 minute drive north of my home. It's a near wilderness adventure with ample miles of trails and primitive camping locations. I also spend time in the woodlands and cornfields behind my house watching and photographing the local deer population. These and other opportunities await me almost everyday virtually right outside my backdoor. It just requires a mindset shift to accept the idea of making the most of what I do have available close to home.

Tip Two: Slow down and Be In The Moment. Photographing nature requires a degree of patience well beyond other types of photography. Sometimes, maybe even most times, wildlife and nature in general simply do not cooperate. That is when you need to slow your mind down, and start looking for the other intrinsic values of being outdoors. When I do, I begin to hear more clearly the birds singing and see with renewed interest the graceful soaring of a hawk across a blue sky. I hear the wind searching through the trees, and feel the relaxed sense nature provides for taking time to simply be there. There is more to outdoor photography than taking pictures. 

Enjoy the process. Empower the moment. Allow what you do to find its own path. There will be times nature will present herself to you in all of her glory, and there will be times when she tells you to wait until next time. Even when that happens, there is always something to gain from the experience, so slow down and allow yourself to simply be in the moment.

Tip Three: Keep a Journal of your activities. I recently discovered an old journal I had kept well over twenty years ago. In that journal was written many of the hunting and fishing and camping stories I experienced with my good friends Rocky, Curtis, and the now late Mr. Ralph. Rereading those simple entries brought many vivid memories back to life. It was as though I could feel the cold wind in my face again as we faced freezing temperatures and spitting sleet during a duck hunting episode. I recalled with delight the sites and sound of several  thousand snow geese as they winged their way overhead at first light on a bitterly cold January day. When that huge largemouth bass broke free of the surface right next to Ralphs old Grumman canoe and snapped the line, well it was all captured in that journal. Those and other entries were special moments captured in simple prose when the memory was fresh. None of them were particularly well versed, just simple entries of what happened when and where. In more recent times, I've once again began to journal about my outdoor activities and have thoroughly enjoyed the process.  

Back in 2010, I started this blog to chronicle the outdoor photography stories I experience  and share some of the events and photography concepts I've used and learned about over the years. Sometimes, I go back and reread some of those early entries and almost always finish with a smile on my face. I've also started to create video productions about my outings. Doing so has taught me a great deal about just how much there is to learn about attempting such things, but I still enjoy the process. Those productions are visual journals...extensions really from those simple first entries I made so many years ago and are not intended to replace my outdoor journal entries, but to expand on leaving a legacies of stories for family and friends to share.

Tip Four: Try New Things, Avoid Falling Into A Rut. I floated along in my canoe last summer hugging a long, curving, ridge lined with rocky bluffs, and discovered an amazingly beautiful location on Barren River Lake. It was the kind of place easily overlooked, but by simply slowing down and allowing myself to explore a new location (for me) I was rewarded for my efforts. I tried something new that day just to see what was there. Not everyone can take off in a canoe. I've been doing it for close to fifty years now so I've gained through experience a sense of confidence in my ability to handle the situation. 

The idea here is to not allow yourself get locked into doing the same ole thing the same ole way all the time. It is a easy habit to get trapped into, and yes...that was me for a very long time. But a few years ago I began to realize because of career related obligations, just how many years, and months, and days, and how many thousands of hours had gotten away from me. Somewhere along that timeline, I all but lost my identity. That is when I made a conscious effort to backup and rediscover who I was...and it became a revealing and rewarding path that lead into a new and refreshing timeline of discovery.

Tip Five: Seek Out Small Pleasures. 'It's when the cool air of morning hovers over the quiet hours is when I feel most at home, most in tune with where I am. Before the rays of daylight evaporate the darkness, while the last remnants of pre-dawn cling to life and fatigue continues to invade my eyes is when I realize just how important are moments such as these...' Those few words are the beginning of a Beyond the Campfire post I made way back in 2010 (The Gift of Small Pleasures). They rang true then...maybe even more so today...and remind me of how important it is to simply commune with nature at its simplest level. Sustaining your motivation as an older outdoor photographer can often become diffused and subdued as life's challenges take their toll. But, when you begin to seek out the small pleasures of life, well sometimes and maybe even most times, those challenges begin to take a backseat to how you face adversity. 

Slowing down, reducing the busyness of your life, making time to step away from the routine and explore new adventures close to home or a ways off...well, a great many of life's rough edges can be smoothed over. It is not always the big things that matter the most or produce the most lasting impact. What really matters most are the small personal moments of our lives. 

Watching a sunset reflect across the mirrored surface of a lake, listening to the voice of a stream as it chases its path over, through, and around the stones along its course, sitting in front of a campfire and feeling its warmth on a chilly fall evening...well, these are the kinds of small pleasures where infinite value is placed mostly upon the experience. Seek them out in your own life, and you will discover where they lie.

I hope these simple tips encourages you as an older outdoor photographer, or maybe even if you are still relatively young, to make time and experience a quality of life that enhances your desire to get out. Hope to see you out there...!