As August draws to a close, three words come along that bring both joy and dread: “Back to school.” Henry Ford once said, “Whether you are 20 or 80, you are old if you stop learning; anyone who keeps learning stays young.” This may explain why many photojournalists remain young at heart and honing their craft well into their years. For a photojournalist, every day is a learning day, especially in summer. I learned a lot this summer walking from one end of Cape Town to the other.
In late June, Korean War veteran Max Sarrazin gave me a first-person history lesson on the Korean War in the shadow of a statue dedicated to soldiers at Veterans Beach at 74th Street in Hyannis.Number On the anniversary of the start of that war, as June drew to a close, Tanya Bassett at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History's Butterfly House gave me a primer on how to identify caterpillars.
It was July, the month of the Barnstable County Fair, and the judges in the craft area shared tips on quilting, needlepoint and rug hooking. On a rainy morning in Sandy Neck, birdwatcher Peter Crossen taught me shorebird identification as we worked on a bird count for the “Shorebird Blitz.” Cooper Tom Kelleher was surrounded by handcrafted barrels and taught me about the history of barrel making and the uses still used today. Imagine bourbon aged in charred oak barrels.
There's no better way to escape the crowds and traffic jams in the summer than to go to a farm. I've been mentored by some of Cape Cod's best farmers. Cynthia Sutphin hosted me at her Cape Cod Lavender Farm for many years and has given me plenty of guidance to help me successfully grow this plant. Jeff Andrews of Tony Andrews Farm has taught me a lot about strawberries and sweet corn over the years and always teaches me something new every time I stop by his East Falmouth farm.
As August draws to a close, the rows of summer flowers at Tim Friary's Cape Cod Organic Farm in Barnstable are the perfect place to spot monarch butterflies, unafraid of the camera and happy to pose for a portrait. He's always a sympathetic listener when I talk about the deer that ate my tomato plants or the pesky earwigs that eat everything I plant. His advice and information have improved my chances of success in my garden.
Thankfully, there were no math classes during summer school, but there were some English classes as some photo captions were sent back for rewriting. It was a fulfilling learning season thanks to some trustworthy teachers.
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