Bob Haase’s Another Can Of Worms

Photography – More Than Taking Pictures

I have been involved in photography most of my life and I think I am enjoying it more now than ever.  I have done all kinds of photography from wedding photography to industrial photography and worked part time for many of the studios in Fond du Lac.  Throughout my lifetime I have always enjoyed nature and wildlife photography more than anything else and have become more active with that since I retired.

Changes in technology with digital cameras, cell phone photo capabilities, and computerized photo enhancement software have actually made this type of photography more fun and reasonable.  Even though you can get by with an inexpensive point and shoot digital camera, you can now afford to spend a little more for a digital SLR camera with interchangeable lenses because you no longer have to purchase film or pay for processing.  Having grown up with film and doing my own processing I was not sure how I would accept digital photography, but it might be one of the best things that ever happened to photography.

I say this because now more than ever it is something the entire family can do together.  You can take mini vacations and each member of the family can document what they see.  You can take a walk in the woods or nature areas all over the state and see things that most people walk right on by.  Photography allows you to see things that you would normally not see if you were not taking pictures. 

I think photography is a lot like life in that we often go through life so fast we miss a lot of the important things along the way.  Sometimes it is not reaching our final life goals as much as it is meeting new friends, learning new things, and enjoying all the things that happen along the way. Earlier this fall I was taking some pictures of colored leaves and mushrooms at the base of a large tree and a lady walked by on her way back from taking pictures of the waterfalls.  I pointed out what I was taking pictures of and showed her other pictures on my camera that I had taken along the way.  She was shocked at all the beautiful things she had just walked past and said they were much more impressive than the waterfalls. 

If we take the time to look we can often find things to photograph that no one else normally sees.  If we slow down in life we can often find good things that others might take for granted.  You might want to get more involved in photography because it is a lot of fun and it can show you things in life that you would never see. I recently started posting my pictures on a website for photographers called  “Flicker”.  I am now meeting photographers from all over the world and we share photographs and communicate with one another through this site.  I am even looking forward to getting together with some of them to take pictures and share our knowledge of nature and wildlife photography.

You can check out my Flickr site at:  www.Flickr.com/photos/bob_haase

Bob Haase is the host of “Outdoors Thursday” heard Thursday mornings at 9:10 a.m. on News-Talk 1450 KFIZ.