Photo Hunting
This month make a photographic safari into Nature! Whether a familiar place or a new one, go out in search of the birds, animals and insects that populate the October woods. (If it is actual hunting season, use caution and wear at least two articles of clothing that are blaze orange!)
To get closer to your photographic "prey," practice the style of walking I call "walking like a deer." I wrote about it at length in the May 2008 issue but here is a refresher:
"...practice the hunter walk! Take three deliberate steps forward and then stop. Pause here for a moment and look slowly around. Now take three more steps forward and then pause again. This is the pattern that a deer or other larger grazing animal takes as it makes it way along.
As silently as you can, move this way on your next walk through the woods or field. Pick your way through the woods, disturbing as little of the foliage as possible. Place your feet carefully so that you avoid snapping twigs and don't talk!
This way of moving is very different from the way most of us walk. To an animal like a deer, we move move like predators. That is, we human beings move quickly along in a direct, straight line. By choosing to mimic the way an prey animal moves, you will stand a greater chance of catching sight of the many other creatures with whom you are sharing the woods."
As some of you may know, I was raised in a fishing and hunting family. My father, who taught me to hunt, instilled the need to honor the spirit of the animals. This meant learning how to be reverently quiet in the woods, learning to kill one's intended prey with just one well-placed shot, preserving antlers and hides and never wasting any of the meat we either caught or killed.
In my early years, I enjoyed both of these activities as they brought me into the woods and stillness. While sitting on a log, or quietly walking, I would be filled with the sights, sounds and aromas of the Autumn forest. The enforced stillness made my senses extraordinarily acute. With my keener eyes and ears, I would be rewarded with many gifts from Nature.
These days, I do my hunting with a camera which is also a tool being used by the world's top naturalists. Instead of killing or trapping animals for study, researchers are using cutting-edge technology to get footage of rare and endangered animals in their natural habitat.
Hunting with an ordinary camera can bring anybody immense joy. My partner and I were blessed to have visited both grizzly and polar bears in their native habitats. Those trips gave us a wealth of moments to cherish and our photographs can take us back into the feelings of those experiences in a heart beat.
You may not get to view a grizzly bear but if you catch a good shot of a deer, moose, hawk or fox it will thrill your heart for years to come! So, get out there and "get shooting!"
- Evelyn
Let us know how you spent the last days of Summer! editors@spiritliving.org.
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