Jake Ray, sophomore political science and international relations major,  has an outdoor, limited equipment solo hobby he likes to do. Ray is a bird watcher. 

Ray likes to relax by going out with a pair of binoculars and finding birds in their natural habitat. A few years ago, he started “birding,” as he calls it, and finds it to be an excellent way to procrastinate homework. 

He invites anyone curious about nature to explore bird watching. All it requires is for you to step outside and look around. One of Jake’s favorite spots to bird-watch is Martha Lafite Thompson Nature Sanctuary, just one and a half miles from campus. However, he advises looking up the hours of operation first to avoid a lengthy conversation with the police. Yes, you read that right. Once, Jake had the police called on him while birding because he entered the nature sanctuary too early. After the police realized what had happened, they laughed and let him continue with his hobby.

That was not the only exciting story Jake has concerning bird watching. Another time, in Springfield, MO, he had an interesting sighting. Not a bird, but instead an older man using nature’s port-a-potty in the woods. While he occasionally runs into other bird watchers, he rarely finds a sighting such as that. 

Regardless of the peculiar sighting now and again, he thinks birding is a great hobby that keeps you moving, outside and relaxed. 

Grace Peterson, sophomore elementary education major, enjoys using her free time to express her creativity through film photography. She likes shooting portraits of friends and capturing memories while traveling, and keeps all her negatives filed by date. This summer, Grace took a national parks trip and captured a lot of cool photos on film. 

Compared to digital photography, it can take weeks to develop photos and see them. However, Grace says that she enjoys the process of getting photos back when they’ve been developed. Film photography can be an expensive hobby with cameras costing anywhere from $200 to $2,000, but Grace gets most of her cameras through thrifting or going to flea markets. Her favorite film camera is the Minolta x700 35mm camera. A challenge Grace has faced is difficulty traveling with film, especially through TSA since film needs to be hand-checked so it doesn’t get blurry.

Grace’s interest began at a young age since her family members would regularly take photos on trips and let her borrow their camera. Grace says that she developed her skills by learning from her family members and doing her own research. Although she doesn’t plan to pursue photography professionally currently, she always wants photography to be part of her life.

Grace advises that beginners start with Kodak Ultra Max 400 color negative 35 mm film, and start with an affordable camera. She advises, “Don’t put too much thought, just enjoy it. Not every picture you’ll take will be a good film.”