Photo Shoot: Perseverance in nature witnessed in Barnstable

Perseverance is a noun used a lot these days given the state of affairs in the world. There is war in Ukraine, the latest COVID-19 variant bringing more than a 50 percent increase in cases and inflation making every trip to the gas pump or grocery store an exercise in decisive budgeting.

By definition, paraphrased from my grade school days, it means a continued effort to keep going, overcoming difficulties and failures no matter the odds. The definitions I searched — yes, instead of Google I looked it up in several actual dictionaries — never speaks to an outcome.

One can persevere, but may not always succeed. In photography, perseverance paired with patience can lead to very successful photojournalism. Early on in the film days, when just bringing a well-exposed properly color-corrected image to the light table for review was a testimony to the photographer’s ability to harness both qualities.

In 2022, attention spans are often measured in seconds, not minutes, certainly not hours. Many things catch the eye but rarely hold its attention, which makes the job of the visual journalist all the more challenging.

There are many days when the daily photo prowl is met with the past tense, “you just missed a great photo possibility,” and then are told about this amazing event everyone witnessed and they have the cell phone photos to prove it.

Photo Shoot: Is it a butterfly or a moth? Not sure but it's beautiful.

Perseverance is what keeps the batteries charged, the lens wiped clean and stokes the fire that keeps photographers going, no matter the weather, bad lighting or horribly angry drivers encountered every day out in the field.

The daily walk this week turned up a rather interesting photo that could be beside the definition of perseverance. A maple seedling had sprouted up from a split in an old railroad tie, a brave place for the beginning of what could become a towering shade tree.

The gardener in me was envious, I plant tomato seeds every year, watering and coddling them along, yet many never see the journey through. Yet here, a random seed falls on the tracks, taking hold in the most hostile of growing locations, perseverance, yes and perhaps, with hope, the beginning of something big.

UPDATE: The mystery butterfly I presented several weeks ago has been identified by several loyal readers as a mourning cloak butterfly. It is one of the earliest butterflies to be seen in spring as it over winters in leaf matter or tucks under tree bark breaking its dormancy in the warmth of spring.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Photo Shoot: Nature's perseverance captured by Cape Cod photographer