Wanting to get to the arboretum before the heat of day set in, I arrived at 7:45 a.m..
“Hmmm. ‘Gates are locked. For how long? Should I go find breakfast and come back later? No, later it will be hot. 15 minutes? Oh well. ‘Guess I can wait 15 minutes. Where’s my book? ‘Back in the car.”
"O.K., Here it is, Water Birds of California (Cogswell, 1977)”, (on loan from Chapman’s Leatherby Library) I’ll just sit in the car here under this tree and read.”
After reading a couple of pages on “The Behavior of Water Birds” I was anxious to point my lens at something. Yes, I admit it. I’m a photoholic. In fact when I lived in
I realized I needed to exercise this demon (camera-dependence), once it occurred to me that, while normal people were simply enjoying strikingly colorful sunsets and post-sunset magic hours, I was angry about them if I had no camera, and fussing about them if I did. Even when I had my camera, I couldn’t experience the beauty in a contemplative personal way—I was making work out of it. And if, after a visit to the dark room (for black and white) or the color lab, the photo didn’t look like the scene had or didn’t capture the beauty I’d expected it to, again I was aggravated. While it was clear I needed to practice being a part of the moment rather than an observer/recorder of it, I carried on with my addiction. “Who knows?” I rationalized, “I might be able to use one of these shots for one of my future photography classes.” The truth? Assignments were always too specific for me to ever be so lucky as to have already taken the perfect picture to satisfy them.
Eventually, after I earned my BA in commercial photography, met Don, who is an excellent photo shooting partner (great eye, loves gadgets; photo, what-have-you, loves exploring, loves nature, etc.), and obtained all kinds of sophisticated photo equipment, the habit finally proved too expensive, and for a few years, though I had great cameras at my disposal, I went camera-free.
Then came digital! No more film costs. No more processing costs. I resisted the craze for awhile, too attached to my memories of the fine detail and vivid colors of 64 ASA kodachrome. Then Don bought me a little pocket sized digital camera and I was hooked. Yes, I miss the clarity and color saturation of slides, but instant gratification is pretty good compensation. And yes, once again sunsets are scanned for interesting foregrounds and bracketed for exposure, but I can enjoy one without a camera too.
Oh, did I digress? Sorry.
O.K., well, finally 8:00 a.m. arrived and into the donation box went my dollars as I strode past, enroute to the enchantments of bees on their flowers, birds on their boughs, webs and their prowlers, turtles and doves. (I bet you expected that last line to rhyme—sorry but the Fullerton Arboretum has no cows.)
Eventually I hope to learn the names of all the flora and fauna, but so far, pretty much just the bird photos are labeled in this Yahoo photo album.
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