Before writing this post I was sitting in my backyard watching clouds as the wind moved them rapidly across the pretty blue sky.  They were moving from northeast to southwest which I have never before witnessed (except storms) along the shores of Lake Michigan.  I sat and wondered why today and never before.  I noticed a gull soaring at just about the same level as the clouds.  I wondered why.  It soared on forever just like a Turkey Vulture would.  It was riding the thermal currents. I have never seen a gull at that altitude before.  Then I noticed a jet race across the sky at an even (of course) higher altitude.  I wondered where it came from and where it was going.  Then I imagined the people on board and why they were on that particular plane.  How many people and how many lives?   Just wondering.

In my years as a nature photographer if I had any assets at all it was my never-ending curiosity and my need to explore.  I had to know what was around the next bend or over the next hill.  I discovered many of my best subjects over those hills and around those bends.   When I witnessed two dragonflies mating in mid-air, I wondered why.  When I spotted an Opossum out at high noon, I needed to understand why.  After I made some pictures of course.

I cannot imagine going through life without asking why.  I mean asking why about almost everything.  If every drop of dew is a curiosity,  life will be forever filled with wonder.

I am a firm believer that we all have to grow up.  I mean an adult should be an adult.  That is why I would never let curiosity push me to pry into someone else’s life.  That said, keeping in adulthood the innocent curiosity that we had as children can make for an adult life that will be forever interesting.   Sometimes the older you get the more there is that can be  learned from children.  There are not a lot of children in my life right now so I make it a point to remember my own childhood including my delight in exploring and the wonder that I found in everything that I found.  There is wisdom in innocence.

To me the most important attributes of any nature photographer are not a degree in art or a high aptitude for technical things.   Curiosity,  be it innate or developed, will serve you far better.  It will also keep you young and make nature photography a life long endeavor.

Why have the Goldfinches stripped all of my backyard Sunflowers of their seeds except three?  I wonder.