Focus In: How Photography Deepens Our Park Expertise

Many moons in the past—after I was a fresh-faced school freshman with extra enthusiasm than route—I briefly entertained the notion of majoring in pictures. My grandparents subscribed to National Geographic, and I cherished slipping into their cool basement to browse the bookcases lined with these iconic yellow spines. I don’t recall studying lots of the articles. Still, I might spend complete afternoons misplaced within the images: crystalblue inexperienced waters off Malaysia, the sinewy stretch of the Great Wall of China, day by day life unfolding in locations just like the Netherlands or Ghana. Those photographs transported me to locations I didn’t but know existed, locations I longed to see lengthy earlier than I understood how huge the world actually was. 

After my first pictures class, I shortly found I lacked each the endurance and the intuition to grow to be a National Geographic photographer. Yet the curiosity these pictures sparked—the fascination with individuals, locations, and cultures—by no means left. It ultimately carried me straight into the Anthropology division, the place I realized to discover the world by a unique lens. 

And how does any of this relate to parks? Because I by no means let go of my love for the digital camera—of the way in which a single {photograph} can freeze a second and let it transcend time. Photography teaches us to concentrate. To pause. To slender our focus. To look past the apparent and seek for which means within the shadows and quiet corners. 

As park stewards and guests, we’re surrounded by moments price capturing: the smallest creatures hiding beneath fallen leaves, the huge panoramas that greet us when the path crests the ridge, the fleeting play of sunshine on a quiet lake at nightfall. Our parks are, fairly actually, stuffed with scenes that invite us to look nearer. 

And right here’s the most effective half: practically all of us carry a digital camera in our pockets now. If you’re knowledgeable photographer, I offer you huge credit score—you wield a ability I deeply admire. But in case you’re an newbie snapping pictures in your personal pleasure or your social feed, your cellular phone is a passport to exploration. I as soon as labored with a Park Interpreter who spent a 12 months photographing the identical tree every season. She captured it in spring, summer time, and fall—however a winter storm introduced it down earlier than she might full the cycle. Heartbreaking, sure, but in addition an unforgettable reminder of the facility of paying consideration—of witnessing time because it unfolds. 

So this 12 months, I problem you: step right into a program or hike you’ve by no means tried. Listen deeply. Let your curiosity lead. Then problem your self to seize what you be taught—each in your thoughts’s eye and thru your digital camera lens. If you have got younger kids with you, flip the expertise right into a sport of I spy or a scavenger hunt. When you discover every merchandise, take a photograph. Give them the enjoyment of discovery and the satisfaction of turning commentary into artwork. 

In my (decidedly newbie) opinion, the gear doesn’t matter. The topic doesn’t matter. What issues is the connection—your connection—to the parks and the tales they maintain. You may even discover, as I did way back amongst these yellowbound magazines, that pictures turns into a gateway: a means right into a world you by no means absolutely seen earlier than you realized to look nearer. 

Check out among the pictures taken by our very personal park ranger photographers and even a former park director!  And if all of this nonetheless hasn’t satisfied you to select up your digital camera, maybe the promise of “fortune and fame” will. (Okay, possibly simply a bit of publicity—pictures pun absolutely meant.) Check out among the unbelievable pictures taken in South Carolina State Parks and submitted to final 12 months’s America’s State Parks picture contest. Keep a watch on social media and the America’s State Parks web site for this 12 months’s contest announcement. Who is aware of? Your subsequent snapshot may simply be a winner. 

Photographs seize a second, a sense, a once-in-history sliver of time that may by no means be repeated. Lose your self in that second. Lose your self in your parks. We welcome you—and no matter digital camera you carry—with open arms. 

 

Photo by John Wells

 

Photo by Joy Raintree

 

Photo by Phil Gaines

 

Photo by Joy Raintree snake

 

 

Photo by Phil Gaines 

 

Photo by Phil Gaines

Photo by John Wells

Photo by Tyler Blakewood 

 

Photo by Joy Raintree

 

Photo by Phil Gaines

 

Photo by Tyler Blakewood

 

Photo by Joel Raintree