Encore Seniors Talk
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Connection across the generations
It’s interesting how certain things can cross generations and result in strong connections when you least expect it - that’s how it felt when I gave a follow up photography talk at a seniors facility earlier this week. Hold on a second - let me back up a moment and try to make some sense here - I received an email out of the blue about a month ago with an invitation to give a photography talk at a senior’s facility to go along with their Safari Themed High Tea event. I have spoken at this venue a couple of years ago about Bird Photography. (I wrote about it here)
Map of Africa with Kenya (shaded yellow) on the right hand side at the equator.
I was pleased to accept as I had enjoyed giving the talk on bird photography several years ago. I took some 25,000 photos during our 3 week safari trip to Kenya, so I was pretty confident that I had enough material to fill an hour speaking slot - in fact I think that being able to come up with enough material was not the issue I would face at all - quite the opposite!
I immediately went into my Kenya trip folders to look for likely photos to include in the talk. I have a number of Kenya trip galleries with edited photos to choose from.
I haven’t looked at these photos for a few months (the trip was in 2023) and so this was a great opportunity to revisit some amazing memories.
I was asked to talk for about an hour at 3 pm after an hour long “high tea”. I have to admit that I was a bit apprehensive to talk so late in the afternoon and especially after a sugar ladened event - I didn’t want a chorus of snores as people hit the intersection of a sugar crash and prime snooze time (I know it is for me many afternoons).
I went back to my first speaking experience and at the time I noted that while this was a good experience for me, I had two main takeaways if I ever did an encore talk:
(1). slow down and enjoy the experience (sometimes less is more when you come up with content) and;
(2). try to inject some levity and fun into the talk so that the audience doesn’t nod off (but don’t take it personally if someone does close their eyes to power nap during the talk as it is prime time for a bit of a refresh - especially after eating sugary treats!).
It’s really good to capture things like this when they are fresh in your mind as I wouldn’t have remembered these things 2 years after the first talk. Armed with these thoughts and captured takeaways I started to pull together my talk.
Preparing the Slide Show
Map of the 3 safari destinations (Tsavo West, Amboseli and Masai Mara)
The first thing that I did was outline what my talk was going to be about and how I wanted to structure it. I was determined to keep things light and not include a lot of technical camera gear information apart from the basics (I seem to always get asked how much my lens weighs, how much magnification my big lens gets and mostly how much it costs). I like to bring several of my cameras and big lenses on a tripod as this goes over very well - people love to come up and look at the cameras and I often satisfy the curious ones who want to try balancing it to see how much it weighs. Making the talk more interactive is fun and keeps things interesting.
This time when I prepared for the talk I decided to split the talk between the three areas we went to for our safari (Tsavo West, Amboseli and the Mara) as they were three distinct landscapes with different animals being prevalent. I thoroughly enjoyed reviewing the images from the trip and I soon found myself trying to include photos of all the different animals we saw - the number of slides was heading towards a presentation that would have gone on for hours! I quickly started editing out a number of slides so that it wouldn’t feel so overwhelming and I tried to focus on a variety of image types.
I felt that it would be more impactful to have images with some story behind them rather than hero shot after hero shot (hero shots are those epic images - think close up of a lion or elephants silhouetted against the sunset - you get the picture). While “hero shots” are amazing to see - a steady diet of them can get boring, so I tried to vary the pace of the presentation by including environmental images (images with smaller sized subjects which includes more of the location where the animal was found), straight landscape images to show what the terrain was like as well as people images to show what our experience was like.
A typical “hero shot” with the subject almost filling the frame - a great shot to capture, but a slide show filled with these exclusively can be boring. (EXIF data monochrome conversion using Nik Silver Effects, f4.5, 400mm, 1/500, ISO500)
An environmental shot of Tsavo West showing the lava field in the foreground. (EXIF data f11, 100mm, 1/500s, ISO800)
I started the talk with a few maps to help transport people from Calgary to Kenya - I even included a few fun facts like the distance between the two locations, and the fact that plastic bags are banned from being brought into Kenya since 2017. I think that most people appreciated a bit of geographical context at the beginning. I even remembered to ask if anyone in the audience had been to Africa or dreamed of going. One woman in the audience (Ann) was born in Zimbabwe (she was excited to see photos from Africa) and a second woman (Marilyn) had visited Kenya about 10 years ago (the pressure was on to get my facts straight!). I felt a connection with the audience knowing that several had experienced travel to Africa, so we were off to a good start.
Highlights from each area
I found that it was easy to slip into talking about each area we visited as they are so different and unique - filled with rich history and culture as well as amazing animals - both large and small. Having stories to tell about each location helped me to slow down my speech and it’s possible that wearing the elephant ears that I was given during the high tea also helped me to feel more relaxed and a bit silly. I definitely had fun including a few more jokes and funny stories into this talk - I think that this helped me to connect with the audience more as well - it felt more like a conversation than a lecture which is what I was hoping for.
Having fun with the audience as I wear elephant ears and stand beside my long lenses. (EXIF data iPhone courtesy of K. McIntyre)
Including images of our interactions helped to connect the audience with the safari experience. (EXIF data iPhone image courtesy of M. Laubscher)
I also highlighted the different accommodations where we stayed (an all inclusive hotel at Tsavo, posh tenting at Tortulis which is a fenced in camp at Amboselli and a very rustic tenting experience in the Mara with no fences and animals wandering freely through the camp at night). I was asked a few questions about things like showering and toilet facilities with the various accommodations and it was fun to explain our outdoor shower facilities at the Mara.
I also included a few videos with this presentation to show how close we got to some animals as they walked calmly by our safari vehicle. One such encounter was with a leopard in Tsavo - a beautiful young female who started about 100 feet from us and then got up and moved closer and then finally meandered right behind our safari vehicle to head off into the brush. Encounters like this made it an incredibly special experience for us.
Hyena cub getting up close and curious with our vehicle. (EXIF data f4.5, 1/400s, 400mm, ISO1200).
We visited Kenya in November which is their springtime and we lucked out on seeing a number of young animals that were venturing out of the den.
Baby animals are always a hit with their awkwardness and cute expressions, however you have to be especially patient so as not to disturb the adults as they tend to be very protective of their young at this stage (for obvious reasons).
We even had a very up close and personal encounter with a hyena cub who we thought was going to hop into the safari vehicle at one point.
He was so curious, but his mum kept him in line and brought him back away from us to be with his pack.
Sharing my best memories
I thoroughly enjoyed sharing these experiences and talking about fun interactions with the staff, hot air ballooning across the open plains of the Mara and even using Kory as my human tripod (to hold up my heavy long lens) - Kory jumped in and quipped that he is my “Guy pod” which got a laugh.
The hour went by very quickly and was followed by some great questions. I was a little surprised by the number of people who came up to chat with me afterwards as it is very heartening to make a connection with people over my passion for photography. I even managed to leave a bit of a teaser as Kate from Trico Wellness Living and I have been cooking up an idea for a follow up experience that I’m excited about. These experiences leave me very grateful and give a special meaning to my photography - to be able to share my experiences and have people interested to know more adds to my experience.
Have you ever been able to share something you’re passionate about with a larger group? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments below or please drop me a note by clicking on the Connect With Me button.
A cheetah trotting across a field filled with spring flowers in search of his next meal. (EXIF data f10, 1/1250s, 560mm, ISO640, -0.33EV)
I hope you’ll come back soon, share a cuppa, relax and enjoy more of my musings.
