We’ve all seen this quote before:
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow; learn as if you were to live forever” - Mahatma Gandhi.
Let’s look at the second part of that statement.
If we’d like to take Mahatma to heart, it’s helpful to have an open mind about how learning can happen. And it’s very helpful to recognize the value we can derive from learning, how it makes us feel. We don’t generally pursue things for any length of time if we don’t value them, so experiencing the value is critically important.
Otherwise we’ll just read Gandhi’s words and keep moving along.
The how
I mentioned James Clear’s book Atomic Habits last year. The concepts are handy to apply in all sorts of areas. Take tiny, easy steps, every day, and expand them if it suits you. People often utilize his techniques to establish an exercise routine or to improve their diet.
The techniques can also be applied to other broad topics, including learning. If you’re goal-oriented, a small amount of learning every day can compound in an enormous way over time. Just as Jerry Seinfeld famously wrote one joke every day to build his skills, marking a big X on a calendar for every day completed, you can apply the process to learning (or to almost anything else).
You don’t have to be goal-oriented about learning, though. You can select a specific topic to learn if you like, or not. I generally try to learn something related to photography, design, or something similar, because I want to continuously improve at those things. But not always.
The why
It’s not just about “getting better”. Learning has intrinsic value. For me, at least, and I bet for you as well.
It’s enjoyable to keep my mind active, and to grow my understanding of different things in different ways. As if I might live forever. I simply feel better emotionally when I’m growing in some way. I have more energy. I want to get up in the morning.
Conversely, many of us have experienced days, even weeks or months, that seem repetitive. Another day that’s just like the last one. As if stuck in a very deep, dark rut. It can suck the life out of a person. Nothing new, nothing fresh. Stale, dark, endless.
Life doesn’t have to be that way.
Learning is its own reward, a lot like giving is.
Learning does not have to be a huge endeavor
Just a small dose of learning can change my attitude for the whole day, even if a large portion of my day is spent in familiar ways. I track in a calendar that I’ve learned something every day, just like Jerry did with writing jokes.
The benefit of tracking is this: If my day’s activities aren’t naturally filling this need, I get proactive about it. I might pick a YouTube channel and look for something to learn. This morning I watched a video on how to ensure that fast subjects “look fast” when filmed, using the background, the angle, etc. I’d wrestled with that topic not long ago on a shoot, and had been dissatisfied with my results.
Six minutes of active viewing later, my mood picked up for having engaged my brain differently, from learning something. I haven’t put the new knowledge to use, but I still feel energized.
Amazing.
But I also don’t necessarily want to spend 365 days looking for a new YouTube lesson. If it works for you, by all means do so! But learning can be actively pursued any number of ways. YouTube is one option among many active choices. Learning can also arise organically through other activities.
If I get some good learning organically, I still put an X on the calendar. So long as I feel nourished I check the box. “Feeding myself” with learning is the goal in this case. The other benefits are bonuses.
Organic photographic surprises
You knew I had to bring this back to making photographs, right?
A nice side effect of photography can be learning about my subjects while photographing them. It’s also surprising how many things I learn after I’ve taken a photograph and had a closer look.
After-the-fact discoveries can be one of the true joys of photography. Following are a half-dozen examples of this.
Weave Poles
Look at this border collie going through weave poles, at an agility event. They close one eye at a time, whichever one is closest to a pole, and keep the other one open so they can navigate. Left-right-left-right with incredible speed, if you’ve ever watched this on TV or in person. They’ll get through a dozen or more poles faster than many people can run in a straight line while using this technique.
Who knew? It makes sense now, but I couldn’t detect it in real-time. They move so quickly, the eye is closed so briefly and is so small, compared to the crazy motion of their entire bodies zig-zagging through the obstacle, that I just couldn’t see it while it happened. Only after I made images on my computer did I discover their technique.
Baseball
My personal photographic surprises are less common with major sports, because they generally get covered from many angles for TV. However, TV producers tend to focus on the immediate action, or on a response a bit after the action happens. In the case below they would have focused on the throw and tag on the runner’s arm, inches before his hand hit the bag. And possibly a subsequent celebration.
But it’s highly unlikely they would have seen the joy on Derek Jeter’s face in the moment his teammates made this play. I didn’t see it myself in real-time. Thank you, trusty camera.
Fanned Out
I’ve learned a lot of things about wildlife after coming home with photographs. I was never a biologist or ecologist. What little I know has come from observing, photographing, and then consulting others about what I’ve captured. Previously I learned this is a barn owl, also called a hoot owl. Just identifying the species was an earlier learning moment.
But what in the world is this one doing? Was it injured? Was it dying? What happened to it??? It remained motionless for a long time while I took pictures from about 100 feet away, though it was obviously looking right at me for part of the time.
Well, apparently it’s a common behavior, and biologists surmise that it’s done to hide the owl’s prey after capture. It’s surmised, but not known to be the only reason. Eventually this one flew into the low branches of a nearby tree. I examined the ground immediately after it flew up, and got some shots of the owl in the tree. But I found no traces of anything on the ground, nor in the tree. I had a very good look at both its claws and its beak while it was perched in the tree, so I’m certain about this. There was literally nothing to hide, nothing to see.
But a few months later I saw a hawk behave similarly after flying past me with a with a squirrel in its possession. Upon finding its perch, the hawk fanned out its wings and completely obscured the squirrel from view. So I now understand why biologists think they know, but are not 100% certain that they know what the behavior represents.
Learning can leave unanswered questions, and sometimes that’s even more interesting. My curiosity and awareness are heightened now. I watched the hawk very differently than I would otherwise have done, as a result.
Head’s Up
How about this one? I showed this image before, but what the..?? What is this heron doing?
Apparently great blue herons are very uncomfortable around bald eagles. At least this one was, because I could see the eagle flying overhead and watched the heron unwaveringly track it across the sky. Being large birds themselves, I didn’t expect such visible discomfort - both have ~6-7’ wingspans (more learning) - and I figured the heron was too large for the eagle to mess with.
That is, until I thought about it a bit more while examining the image.
Bald eagles are known to be thieves and scavengers, in addition to being hunters and fishers. They get a chunk of their diet satisfied by taking food from other birds. If you didn’t realize, Ben Franklin was opposed to using the bald eagle as an emblem of our nation. He did not, as myth would have it, prefer the turkey. He did, however, call the eagle “…a bird of bad moral character.”
Seemingly great blue herons agree with Ben.
Yikes
Next is a picture of a merganser, a “duck-like bird” according to my guidebook. Again, I learned its identity after capturing my first photograph of one.
But after seeing this image on my computer, what astonished me most is its prehistoric-looking jaws full of teeth. Holy mackerel… I mean, holy duck-like bird, I had no idea! This ain’t a mallard, that’s for sure.
That’s also not a mackerel in its jaws, I think it’s a catfish. These birds have no problem diving down to the bottom and staying there for a couple of minutes (I now know) to pursue and catch fish.
Get off my lawn
Finally (for today), many of us have seen territorial animals protecting their space. You might have watched small birds chase away larger ones wherever you live, for example. Animals that are natural enemies may chase or attack each other anywhere they meet.
But until recently the waterfowl I’d observed seemed to get along just fine with each other, unless you count moments where they battled for a scrap of food. You might have seen this yourself, if you think about it. Mixed shorebirds, ducks and herons, gulls and pelicans, all kinds of combinations.
In fact, most of the Canada geese and cormorants at this location were perfectly agreeable with each other.
But not all. Meet the Northern Virginia Curmudgeon Cormorant. 1
This crabby cormorant swam past the goose on the left and around the little island specifically to get at this one goose and antagonize it. What a jerk!
But who knows, maybe this particular goose dated the cormorant’s sister and stood her up. Maybe the goose had it coming. I still don’t know the real story. Any ornithologists out there?
Guess I have more to learn. Sweet!
New Limited Edition Prints for Sale
As promised, I’ve got a new set of Limited Edition prints available for purchase. Any unsold African wildlife images from last fall, as promised, are retired from circulation.
Each edition consists of ten Numbered Prints and two Artists Prints, 16x24” silver halide, with certificate of authentication. As before, these are not just limited by quantity, but will also be available for a limited time. So if you would like one or more for yourself or a special person, don’t hesitate. You wouldn't want to become he who is lost!
Until next time,
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You’re right, this is not a recognized species.
I guess I'm going to have to start tracking my "learnings". It's a great suggestion and it's coincidental that I rented an 85mm F1.8 lens for my Z camera next week to just try it for possible purchase - a lot of learning next week
Learning something new is truly satisfying. One reason why I love writing my Substack. It seems with every post I write, I learn something new.
But the same applies to reading here - a great place to be!