balancethroughthelens

So what is meditative nature photography™?

It’s what I create books and blogs about, and what I want to inspire others to try!

It is a way to creatively use nature photography as a tool for relaxation, healing, meditation, and finding deeper meaning in life. A way to bring mindfulness and joy to our lives that I discovered while doing photography for my book Life is a Balancing Act and Nature Understands: A Photographic Journey of Inspiration.

My passion is to share this technique with others so they can discover how to get up close and intimate with nature’s beauty. I feel compelled to share this because it has been so transformative for me! I have gained so much from hanging out with leaves, lizards, and lenses, coyotes, cactus flowers and cameras! 

If I can help others to feel the same joy in their lives, experience the same improvements to their well-being, the same contentment, happiness, and sense of adventure that I’ve achieved… well, that would be amazing. And if I can help others find ‘balance through their lenses’, then my adventures in nature will take on a new meaning, a new significance… a new reason for being.

So I invite you to come enjoy this way to bring mindfulness and joy to our lives. 

What do you need to join in?

A camera, a patch of nature to wander around in, and a sense of awe, wonder, and adventure!

What does it cost? Nothing, of course! 

If you do take up meditative nature photography™?, just pay it forward! Teach someone else what you’ve learned. Share your joy and inspiration. That’s your donation to nature and to humanity!

Visit me here and take a read. Come join me on Facebook for daily giggles, smiles, and “Ahhhhhh” moments from the trails.

What I’ll be sharing are pictures and words… Not just a pretty quote to accompany a pretty picture, I’ll be “quoting nature”! I’ll be sharing the meaning I see in nature, unlocking and uncovering nature’s understanding, empathy, and wisdom in each photo.  And I encourage you to find your own meaning in the photos! And better yet, go take your own pictures and discover your own stories. Let nature whisper to you!

(Click on any of my photographs to see an enlarged image)

So come join in! Let’s crate a community of people who hear nature’s stories, are moved by nature’s wisdom, and are amused and touched by nature’s compassion for the struggles, triumphs, and complexities of our human lives! 

Together we’ll help each other find balance on our paths through life! 

For fans of the book:

I’m also going to do a series of blogs expanding on all of the page sets from the book.

Each set will have a longer look at the theme, and maybe some blooper pictures, too! Here’s a few ‘fan favorites.’

A  few thoughts on why this is so good for us.

I think we get in touch with something simpler, much more basic and uncluttered when we see a reflection of our own thoughts, emotions, and states of mind in nature. When we’re reading a book about “improving our lives” or talking about our problems, (which can certainly still be good things!), we’re doing something more complex; we’re doing analysis (I should know, I’m a philosopher by training- we analyze everything).  

Seeing ourselves through nature is much less cluttered, less analysis-oriented, and more of a word-less and implied understanding that we simply feel. We simply observe. We just see that the bird’s struggles are like ours- even without forming words about it. We just sense it all, on a somewhat subconscious level. We allow ourselves to just be with the feeling, the observation. We tune in to what nature has to say.  

It simply tells us, in unspoken terms, hey, you’re not alone, this is simply life stuff! 

We all deal with it, from the littlest inchworm to the biggest bear. Flowers experience the struggle to break through the cool spring soil. Chipmunks experience the triumph of hurdling a branch. Animals can be lonely, tired, or overwhelmed. Plants can get too crowded, or feel like their needs just aren’t met. We humans are not so different, not so special… if all the beings out there in nature could sit down and talk to us, they’d all say, “Boy do we understand!” 

It’s that understanding that will warm your heart, bring down your walls, catch you off guard, restore your humility, and let you just breathe in to life… good and bad, hard and easy, sad and triumphant. 

After all, it’s just “natural”…

As for me,

My days are profoundly different depending on whether or not I’ve been outside. Sometimes, especially if it’s early in the morning after dropping off the kids, I’ll think to myself as I arrive at my hiking spot, “Huh- I could still be sleeping right now! But instead I’m out here, in the cool morning air, birds flapping all about looking for breakfast.” I ponder how different their lives are from mine… the words drop away, and then, before I know it, I’ve lost myself once again in the gentle arms of a nature that really does understand.

Have fun on the trails, and see you here and on Facebook!

And make sure you read the previous entry!  “Welcome to balance through the lens”. It explains what this blog is all about and how it come to be!

About Photography…

I’m not the greatest photographer in the world. I don’t have particularly fancy equipment. I am admittedly less well-versed in f-stops, apertures and lens choices than I probably should be!

But there are books, classes, photography clubs and many other resources out there if you want to learn more about the technical aspects of nature photography.

What I’m sharing are my insights and experiences, through photography. It’s a tool, an artistic outlet of expression. My aim is not to take great photographs that will end up on the cover of a magazine. My intention is to have an experience that is enhanced by the act of doing photography. What I enjoy is the artistic, insightful telling of stories that nature shares with me. 

What I think is special about nature photography is that it really pulls us out of the built-up, demanding, modern world. It takes us out of the realm of culture, out of “words”, out of hectic, out of the everyday. I take pictures of lots of things (especially my kids and their activities!) but it’s the nature photography that quiets my soul, rejuvenates my spirit, and fills me back up when I’m drained and stressed out. It restores me.

When I’m in the eyes of a chickadee, there is no room in my awareness for bills to pay, errands to run, work stress or family hecticness. It’s just me. And the chickadee. Right here. Right now. Breathing, feeling, soaking in just this one moment… one moment at a time.

Try it. 🙂