When most people describe the attitudes and actions of the average teenager, they probably wouldn’t use words such as “patient” and “attentive to detail,” which are two necessary qualities to possess in wildlife photography. A willingness to wake up early and an ability to be silent are also additional traits of wildlife photographers that aren’t normally present in teenagers, making one of the new interims this year, Wildlife Viewing and Photography, a unique and unexpected selection. Nonetheless, chaperones Rob Wilson and Joel Long would not be deterred. 

In the first interim meeting in May, when Mr. Wilson told us that we were going to be leaving at 5:00 some mornings, groans of protest erupted from the room, but it all became worth it to see bison on Antelope Island or wild horses in Tooele at dawn. “Everyone in this interim is basically doing what I do on the weekends,” Mr. Long said. “But every time it’s something new and exciting…I love that other people get to experience the combination of nature and photography.”

Fourteen students signed up for the interim. Mr. Long and Mr. Wilson each drove a car full of students to our destinations, which included the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, the Jordan River Parkway, Antelope Island, Mill Creek Canyon, the Farmington Bay Wildlife Management Area, and several other random areas, like a dirt road next to Dugway Army Base near Tooele.

The interim itself was a unique experience. Each student had a camera and a 500-millimeter lens significantly larger than our heads that could see things that our eyes couldn’t. We spent our days at a variety of nature preserves, wildlife sanctuaries, forests, and state parks near Salt Lake. For large expanses of time, we were lying in wait with our cameras at the ready for a burrowing owl to emerge from its burrow or for a blue heron to take flight. The peaceful silence of the wind rustling through the grass erased the potential for impatience. We simply accepted that the animals would do what they would, even if that included hiding in tall reeds or flying into the horizon before we could get a photo of them.

Along with becoming more patient, the students on the Wildlife Viewing and Photography Interim also spent the entirety of the day in nature. Unlike other outdoor interims, our time spent in nature was largely observational. Sometimes, we were pulled over on the side of the road, staring at grassy hills in an attempt to make out the smallest glimpse of an owl that Mr. Long spotted. Other times, we had to stay completely silent in order not to scare a herd of bison or a small red-winged blackbird hiding in a tree next to the road. Once, we sat in a field for an hour to watch baby birds above us. Some people find that photography takes you out of the moment, focused exclusively on the technology that’s in front of you, but Mr. Long, experienced wildlife photographer, disagrees: “my contention is that the camera actually makes me more alert. I’m more mindful because I’m more aware of what I’m seeing and hearing because every little detail matters.”

The interim was also a local one, but unlike interims like Sustainability and Self-Care, we woke up early and took long car rides to see what crazy things we could see that weren't far from our homes. We don’t often associate the Salt Lake Valley with much other than scrub oak and the Great Salt Lake, but this interim taught us to appreciate the diversity in our climate and wildlife, if only we were quiet, patient, and accepting of what would or wouldn’t come. Mr. Long continues, “the Spiral Jetty felt as sacred to me as walking in Chartres Cathedral. What that showed me is that the sense of the sublime is at hand… if you develop that mentality that you’re on vacation in your own home, then you get to explore the fantastic things that are so close to you that sometimes you don’t realize how amazing they truly are.”

In short, Wildlife Viewing and Photography wasn’t my first choice for an interim. It wasn’t even on my list. But, when I chose it because I didn’t get any of my choices, I learned more than I ever expected, and I could argue the same for the rest of the students in the interim. We got fantastic photos, learned to appreciate our natural environment, and we strengthened our values of patience as well as our ability to get up early, because sometimes, it’s worth it.