This morning’s walk took me through the park and the arboretum where the sight of Queen Anne’s Lace (or cow parsley?) frothing around gnarled tree trunks tempted me away from the path. I wandered between trees marvelling how the birdsong drowned out the sound of traffic on the nearby road and wondering why I’d never ventured off the path before.
I had no camera, just a head full of thoughts and a phone. I wondered why I’d never brought the camera here and promised myself I that I will. Very soon.
Later, on a high path above the river, I paused at the sound of a duck quacking as it landed on the water and watched as a heron flew by, awkward and ungainly, just a few feet in front of me.
When I first became interested in photography I walked miles along these riverside paths taking photos of anything and everything.
Badly. Joyfully. With no thought of whether the images would be good enough for Instagram – I had no social media then, just a Flickr account which somehow seemed less needy.
And then they were over photographed and lost their appeal as I started to see that those photos weren’t good despite the pleasure I’d felt in taking them. Now I feel these local landscapes calling me back with my camera. I feel an urge to really connect. To find my own way to photograph them. Slowly. Creatively. Joyfully.
{Re-posted from my Substack, original post May 22 – photo taken with Huawei P20pro and edited in Snapseed}
Definitely Dreaming 