Behind the Digital LensMusings of an Amateur Photographer

10th Jun, 2011 In Your Own Backyard

Tin Woodsman: What have you learned Dorothy?

Dorothy: Well, I – I think that it – it wasn’t enough to just want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em – and it’s that – if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t go looking any further than my own back yard.  Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with!  Is that right?            -From “The Wizard of Oz“

Dorothy’s adventures in the Land of Oz came from a vivid imagination, boredom, and discontent that often mirrors our own.  We are always looking for something to spice up our lives, give us an adventure or two; the grass is always greener on the other side, so off we go in search of something bigger or better, more satisfying and rewarding.

As photographers, we are no different.  Camera bag and paraphernalia in hand, we load up our vehicles, fill them with gas, and off we go, sometimes long distances, to capture that one photo that might be more satisfying and rewarding [personally or financially] than what we have already seen.  I have been just as guilty in the past, and probably will be just as guilty sometime in the future.  But, like Dorothy, I have come to realize that many of my great photos [well, great to me, anyway] have been shot in my own back yard, so to speak, most within five to ten miles of my driveway.  Oh, certainly they have not been the majesty of the Rockies, or the icy cold of Alaska’s glaciers or the humid banana groves of Costa Rico.

I no longer have the funds or the opportunities to travel to those kinds places so I am really glad that I was able to get some nice photos on those travels.  However, now that I am limited, I am finding that I am rediscovering that thing that I had “lost” – the sights and scenes that are in my own “back yard”.  Like many that are only able to afford “stay-cations”, I am discovering the personality of the towns around where I live as well as the town that I live in not to mention some hidden “gems”‘.

Last week I “discovered”  one of those gems in Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center for “injured, sick, or orphaned birds of all types” in Hutchins, Texas when I transported a bird to them from the Tri-City Animal Shelter [where I volunteer whenever I can] here in Cedar Hill.  I did not have my camera with me at the time but I did ask about being able to come back and take photos of some of the birds and was told that it would be fine.  I am looking forward to going out there sometime in the near future [when it is NOT so hot] and taking some photos, especially of the peacocks that are just roaming around.

Sometimes staying in your own back yard and discovering the hidden gems can be as rewarding as traveling across and around the country or even out of the country.  Yes, definitely, getting the chance to travel to “exotic” places is rewarding, and gives a lifetime of memories, but even though you think you know all about where you live, oft times there is more to be discovered, more to be found.

All we have to do is look.