{"id":176,"date":"2011-06-10T22:18:49","date_gmt":"2011-06-11T03:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/enrjyzr.com\/blog\/?p=176"},"modified":"2011-06-10T22:18:49","modified_gmt":"2011-06-11T03:18:49","slug":"in-your-own-backyard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enrjyzr.com\/blog\/in-your-own-backyard\/","title":{"rendered":"In Your Own Backyard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Tin Woodsman:<\/em> <span style=\"color: #000080;\">What have you learned Dorothy?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Dorothy:<\/em> <span style=\"color: #000080;\"> Well, I &#8211; I think that it &#8211; it wasn&#8217;t enough to just want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em &#8211; and it&#8217;s that &#8211; if I ever go looking for my heart&#8217;s desire again, I won&#8217;t go looking any further than my own back yard.\u00a0 Because if it isn&#8217;t there, I never really lost it to begin with!\u00a0 Is that right?\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 -From <em>&#8220;<span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Wizard of Oz<\/span>&#8220;<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Dorothy&#8217;s adventures in the Land of Oz came from a vivid imagination, boredom, and discontent that often mirrors our own.\u00a0 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.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>As photographers, we are no different.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I have been just as guilty in the past, and probably will be just as guilty sometime in the future.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Oh, certainly they have not been the majesty of the Rockies, or the icy cold of Alaska&#8217;s glaciers or the humid banana groves of Costa Rico. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>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.\u00a0 However, now that I am limited, I am finding that I am rediscovering that thing that I had &#8220;lost&#8221; &#8211; the sights and scenes that are in my own &#8220;back yard&#8221;.\u00a0 Like many that are only able to afford &#8220;stay-cations&#8221;, 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 &#8220;gems&#8221;&#8216;.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Last week I &#8220;discovered&#8221;\u00a0 one of those gems in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rogerswildlife.org\/dev\/index-b.html\" target=\"_blank\">Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center<\/a> for &#8220;injured, sick, or orphaned birds of all types&#8221; 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>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.\u00a0 Yes, definitely, getting the chance to travel to &#8220;exotic&#8221; 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>All we have to do is look.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tin Woodsman: What have you learned Dorothy? Dorothy: Well, I &#8211; I think that it &#8211; it wasn&#8217;t enough to just want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em &#8211; and it&#8217;s that &#8211; if I ever go looking for my heart&#8217;s desire again, I won&#8217;t go looking any further than my own back yard.\u00a0 Because if it isn&#8217;t there, I never really lost it to begin with!\u00a0 Is that right?\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 -From &#8220;The Wizard of Oz&#8220; Dorothy&#8217;s adventures in the Land of Oz came from a vivid imagination, boredom, and discontent that often mirrors our own.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I have been just as guilty in the past, and probably will be just as guilty sometime in the future.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/enrjyzr.com\/blog\/in-your-own-backyard\/\">Continue Reading &#8594;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-perspectives","category-reflections"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2y5uS-2Q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/enrjyzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/enrjyzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/enrjyzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enrjyzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enrjyzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/enrjyzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183,"href":"https:\/\/enrjyzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions\/183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/enrjyzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enrjyzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enrjyzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}