Talking to other retirees about my passions
(click on images to view them full size)
I talked about bird photography at a wellness program event.
I can honestly say that 18 months ago I would never have imagined that I would be talking to other seniors about my photography passions and how I link it to physical and mental wellness, however I’m thrilled to have been invited to speak.
In my other life (that’s how I think of my pre-retirement career), I often had to give talks and presentations - sometimes for groups of 2 - 3 thousand people and even a few live interviews and conferences. Despite the fact that it is a bit nerve wracking, I do enjoy engaging with people about things I am either knowledgable or passionate about (ideally an intersection of both!)
Me giving a bird photography talk at a senior’s wellness program.
My dear friend Seka Owen has been coaxing me to do something more with my photography in terms of sharing it with people. She has been a staunch cheerleader of my creative efforts as she is a well respected abstract artist. I finally gave in and agreed to do a talk - Seka is very persuasive!
Planning and preparation
I had to spend some time figuring out what I wanted to focus on and how to make the talk something that would be interesting and engaging for the group of people attending. I decided to talk about local birding locations and how I use my experiences to practice mindfulness - with the underlying message that getting out in nature benefits us both mentally and physically. Birding is easy to do, doesn’t have to cost much to get into and can be done locally.
I also thought that in addition to showing all sorts of photos that I would bring some props - some really big lenses to demonstrate that serious bird photography isn’t for lightweights and a certain amount of physical fitness is required (always happy to debunk the bird nerd stereotype).
New business cards for the talk.
I think I may be old school, but I also had some nice new business cards made up so that people could find my website and blog after the event - in case I amazed them enough for them to want to continue to follow along on my adventures.
These are two of my favourite images on the front and back of the card.
Local birding locations
We’re very lucky here in Calgary to have a number of wonderful birding locations within the city including Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, Carburn Park, Fish Creek Park and along both the Bow and Elbow Rivers to name a few. These locations also have very accessible pathways making them open to anyone wanting to try out birding. The pathway system is one of the big attractions to living in the city as the network links all four quadrants of the city and extends almost 1000kms. I just looked this up and Calgary has the most extensive maintained pathway system in North America.
We see such a variety of birds and I think that my audience was surprised by the number I showcased and I just scratched the surface of the bird selection in our community.
The pond at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary.
I often spend solitary early mornings at one park or another with Inglewood Bird Sanctuary being a favourite in the Spring through Autumn. When I’m pressed for time I tend to just pop out to Sandy Beach which is a location along the Elbow River near where I live. These locations yield a huge variety of birds and I think that the diversity of birds to be seen locally surprised some of the audience.
How it went
The talk itself was planned for one hour with some time for questions and I will admit to a bit of nerves as I started, but I quickly settled into my topic and warmed up as I recalled stories surrounding different images.
I recognized how each photo that I showed brought back a wealth of memories around the actual shoot. I recalled weather conditions (especially if it was cold) and how the light was as well as the experience of seeing and capturing the image of the bird. This is so connected to my mindfulness practice and it was really interesting to feel it play out in real time (see this blog post for more).
Based on the feedback I received, I think that it went well. I had quite a few questions from when is the best time to go birding, to how much does the gear cost.
Me giving a bird photography talk.
Learnings for the next opportunity
Well I think I have two big learnings from this experience which was a very positive one. The first (and I know some of you will laugh when you read this because I’m always saying to do this) is to slow down - slow down and enjoy the experience. When I started out my trusty assistant (Kory) helped me out by signalling our slow down secret hand movement which really was appreciated and helped me to take a breath and slow down.
The second and possibly more important one is to know your audience and not to take it personally if someone nods off during the talk (some in the audience were well north of 80 yrs old and this time in the afternoon is a great one for a Power Nap) - it was actually fun to see people be so relaxed and it also reminded me try and inject some funny stories into my talk.
I really appreciated the opportunity to connect with this group and I’m hoping that they got as much as I did out of the time we spent talking birding. I think they might ask me back and if so I’d love to talk about my Kenya adventure.
Have you ever done public speaking? Was it a good experience or if not what did you learn from it?
Red breasted nuthatch (one of our local birds) picking up seeds from a log.
I hope you’ll come back soon, share a cuppa, relax and enjoy more of my musings.
