New Series Coming Soon! Also, feedercam!

I am working on a new series about learning to appreciate the nature available to you – and myself. Some of us live in the mountains, or near the coast with forests that go on for miles, or whales breaching in the distance, while some of us (myself included) do not gaze upon picturesque scenes that could grace the cover of National Geographic from the moment they wake up. I am drawing on my recent trip to Washington (state) to teach myself to appreciate what I have around me.

When I first arrived back home to suburban Illinois, I fell into a nature depression, where nothing seemed as beautiful and full of life as the place I had just been. A photography podcast I found called LensWork pulled me out of my funk. The episode I listened to was part of a series called “Advice from Maugham” wherein the host, Brooks Jensen, examines quotes from W. Sommerset Maugham’s book The Summing Up, and applies them to photography. From one quote, he discusses the difference between taking a photo of an incredibly beautiful area like Yellowstone National Park to a photo of a more mundane place (like suburban Illinois). Jensen decides that the difficulty level between shooting a photo between the two places is exactly the same, but the difference is that you can get away with a lower quality photo of a more beautiful place, but you can still get a great photo of mundane place.

I started applying Jensen’s application of Maugham’s quote to my own feelings of where I live, and realized that I may not have the Pacific Ocean out of my back window, or Yellowstone Park within driving distance of my apartment, but I can still find just as much nature around me to appreciate. Sure, it may be a little harder to find nature sometimes here in the suburbs, but it is there. And the search for it may make it all the more beautiful because it was not easy.

So, if you decide to join me on my journey to appreciate the natural world in my own backyard, I want you share what you have in yours. Whether you live in the Smokey Mountains or the bustling city of Chicago, through pictures or words, tell us what you have in your backyard – you may be surprised at what you find.

Yours in nature,

Lisa

P.S. to help show you my backyard, I setup a bird feeder with a camera made with a Raspberry Pi. I only have one documented visitor to said feeder, and he is a little camera shy, but he will likely will help others find my balcony. My hope is that I will be able to setup a live or continually updating feed to this camera to link to my blog, but I have not quite figured out the logistics on that yet. Until I do, I will share new photos (hopefully) daily as more birds visit. I have created a new page just for showing off the feedercam pictures, so be sure to check it out!