March 31 and I’m 1/4 towards the finish line of one photo each day for a year. By December 31, 2016 I hope to have amassed 366 photos. Every month I learn something new about myself as a photographer and a person. Here are four things I’ve learned this month.

Patience or luck: I have had some pretty good luck, like the day I caught a beaver swimming below me and an eagle in our tree later that afternoon. But I also think my luck has to do with patience. I will sit and wait until that cormorant lifts his leg and takes a step. Or I’ll take twenty shots of a tulip from several angles at different times of the day until I get a shot that speaks to me.

I enjoy “happy accidents”: For all my planning, there have been a few shots that were happy accidents. I took a picture of my cats through the window screen and I’ll be darned, but it looked like a tapestry. And those birds that kept flying away as soon as I stepped out onto our deck? Well, I clicked away through our glass door. The shots were blurry but the blur looked cool and painterly.

I have a good eye: I am always putting a frame around my view. My eyes are drawn to patterns in plants, a tiny detail. You know how in the movie “The Sixth Sense,” the young boy Cole says “I see dead people?” Well I see photographs. Everywhere I go.

I love nature but…: On more days than not, my photos are of nature: plants, animals, scenery. I do find shooting nature meditative. But I would also love to photography people more. I have taken a few shots for our cousins who were pregnant and just had a baby. My own two-legged beloveds? They REALLY do not like to be in front of the camera. So–I need to find some creative ways to catch them!

It’s all about the journey,

Beth