More Than Just a Photo: Why I Attempt to Capture Nature’s Beauty

It can be a very real link to a feeling of joy during times when I find that quite hard to experience

In my last newsletter, I talked about how using my camera to make wildlife and nature photographs has, over the years, helped me to combat periods where I have spent sometimes weeks at a time in a sort of wasteland of anxiety and depression.

I know that I have really only experienced the tip of the iceberg of what depression can be, and I’m making no special claims about my experience (which I know is common to many), but I do know that, for me, it was debilitating and from time to time plain scary.

During these times, when I could, I would go out into the garden with my camera and just sit or walk around, or stand still, and listen to the birds and watch the insects. Or I would take myself off, again with my camera, to walk through nearby country lanes and paths where I was almost guaranteed not to meet anyone. It was therapy of sorts, sometimes successful, sometimes not, but it did enable me to make a number photos that I ended up feeling quietly pleased with and which I’ve now begun to gather together.

The process of making the photos, and then perfecting them so that they were the best they could be, was in itself quite therapeutic. It was life-affirming and it linked me in to a feeling of joy when I was finding that quite hard to experience.

I am genuinely not a nature photographer. I frequently find it frustrating, and it can often try my patience. Sometimes my most successful shots are the lucky ones, but nonetheless, I love them and whilst (in fact, because) they remind me of difficult times, they remain very important to me.

So I thought I’d share some of them with you in this post, not with any great claims about them as photographs, or indeed as a way of anyone else combating difficult things going in their own lives. They are just a glimpse of a part of me, and my photographic and life journey.

They represent one concrete way that I have found to help me through some less than pleasant times. Maybe something similar has helped you along the way too if and when you have needed it? I do hope so.

[Incidentally, I know that a few who will read this newsletter might be coming to our Church fete this Sunday. If you are, then I will have a couple of handmade books made up and available with these photos in to help with raising much needed money for church funds. I can also make more to order if necessary].

So that was not just my week, but in fact a little part of my life, in photos. As always, thank you for stopping by and I hope you have enjoyed the photos and my thoughts this week. Any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time, take care and God bless,

Keith