On The Wild Side: A Mother’s Day birdfeeder and why photography is my hobby

By ANN BROKELMAN

Have you ever wondered why you choose a hobby? Or do you ever get the feeling that, sometimes, a hobby chooses you?

Some of you may already know the story of the Mother’s Day birdfeeder that started my journey into birding, but for those who don’t, here it is in a nutshell: my son bought me a feeder one year, joking that for the next Mother’s Day, he’d have to get me a “bird of prey” feeder. Well, as it turned out, he wasn’t far off!

With so many lovely new songbirds visiting my yard, a larger and scarier-looking bird decided to move into the neighbourhood to take advantage of the inadvertent buffet I’d prepared for him. While I was pretty sure he wasn’t a red-tailed hawk, I had no idea what else he could be.

My curiosity got the better of me; I snapped a photo and sent it off to the zoo, hoping that they could help with the identification. Just a short while later they got to my email, told me it was a Cooper’s Hawk, (Accipiter Cooperii), and it was that simple process that officially got me hooked on birding.

What I assume none of you know, is that I was actually into photography many, many years ago. When I look at my old family photos, it is clear to me where my interest in photography and videography began. It’s a passion I picked up from my father.  He almost always had a camera or a video recorder in his hands, documenting our lives as we were growing up.

I have so many wonderful memories on video of my childhood, which seems to be rare for people of my generation. My dad loved being outside and took us camping, fishing, tobogganing, and deep into the backcountry. I have videos of myself riding horses, and even one of me seeing an owl.

I still own my dad’s Brownie camera and all the videos he took before he passed away. He would probably be amazed to know that all those memories are now stored digitally on the family computer, and several backup hard drives just to be safe.

When I was young, I always had a camera with me when we were out; those photos really tell the story of my life growing up, even though the picture quality wasn’t that great. Once I had my own children, I took hundreds and hundreds of photos of them with my newer 35mm camera.

The biggest difference back then was that, and I’m sure many of you readers can appreciate this, unlike the digital cameras of today, you only had about 36 shots on a roll of film. You had to be so careful with each click of the shutter because you only had those 24 chances to get it right.

I remember one trip to Algonquin Park when Erle and I were out for a canoe ride. He told me to put down my paddle and grab my camera because there was a moose and her calf in the water just ahead of us. I managed to capture a few great photos of the moose, though I think I burned through an entire reel of film just to make sure one of them turned out! One of those photos actually won a contest in the Toronto Sun newspaper!

Do you think we appreciated pictures more back then, because we took fewer and their rarity made them more special?

While that may be true, I don’t think I’d ever want to give up the opportunity I have now to capture so many special moments. Whether it is a rare bird in nature, my grandchildren and the rest of my family, or even my pets, having the ability to take limitless pictures makes sure those memories are saved.

Now, I am sharing my love of photography with my own kids and grandkids. It took a bit of time for me to get brave enough to put expensive cameras into the hands of a smaller family member, (and it helps my blood pressure that simple digital cameras have been getting cheaper).

Now, however, we have been able to document many adventures together. It is a wonderful feeling to pass on that same passion for capturing the world that my father shared with me all those years ago. My granddaughter, Cara, even won an honorable mention in a photo contest this past year for a shot she took of a Merlin.

Do I have a favorite photo? Yes: all of them, as they are a complete history of our family. I have 20 photo albums of the kids growing up, and now a hard drive with 22 terabytes of digital photos!  What I don’t have is photos of the person taking the photos.

In this column are two photos. One of my dad in his police uniform and one my mom at Algonquin with us which was taken by my dad.

Do you have a favorite camera-based memory? Please feel free to reach out and share it with me. I’d love to hear about it!