This month, Becky Demmen-Sewell, Founder of Time To Be Photography, suggests five mindful photos you can take to remember this Autumn
Norfolk is a wonderful place to experience the autumn. We are so lucky to have a diverse range of landscapes to explore and photograph including the woods, wide open skies, and the coast shifting away from the busyness of Summer and towards the quiet of winter. Autumn and Spring are, in my opinion, the most obviously fun to photography. You see the world changing in real time around you and it’s fun to capture that change. There is so much to see and notice.
However, it can be easy to feel like you have missed the season entirely (as it can be with any of the seasons). The calendar takes over and you realise you missed the orange crunchy leaves, the bright blue cold skies and the autumn sun. So, to make sure you don’t get swept along through this Autumn and miss the joys this season can uniquely bring, here are five mindful ways you can take photos to ensure you remember this one for years to come.
1 – Your Commute
The commute is the perfect place to be taking a mindful photo. It may not feel like your commute is very inspiring (or perhaps it is!) if you feel like your commute has nothing to offer let me explain why it’s the PERFECT way to get started with mindful photography.
Your commute is something you do multiple times a week and maybe every day. It may be a time you get to check out mentally and listen to your favourite podcast, or maybe you spend that time reading or planning your day. I want to invite you during the Autumn to spend time every now and then to take in your surroundings. Maybe you are on the bus, train, walking or driving. When it is safe to do so, decide to take a moment to look around. Look left and right, look up and down. Does anything look different today? Take a photo of the thing you notice.
Anything that jumps out to you. You don’t need to know why it’s interesting, it doesn’t need to be beautiful, you don’t need to take a ‘good’ photo. Then over the Autumn take a photo of that same thing every now and then, or when you notice it. Has it changed? Any idea why it’s interesting to you?
It may be that there is no particular reason, there may be no big discovery. But by having this lightly mindful moment once or twice a week, you may start to find that you have more of a relationship with your surroundings, and your commute. It may be that the things you are interested in really change over the season in unexpected ways. It’s all there for you to discover and that’s what I find really exciting about this practice. It may be nothing, but everything could be something!
I find if I have a practice like this, I start to build memories and connections during my commute, it helps me distinguish between the days, if not they can all start to blend together.
If you don’t currently have a commute because you work at home or aren’t in that type of paid work, then look for something you do every day. This could be feeding your baby or washing the bottles. It could be you have a certain route you take to do a chore, walk your dog or see a friend. It just needs to be something you do frequently if not every day.
2 – A Day Out
Autumn is a great time to get out and about. You don’t need to plan anything big and special in order to do this. It is just an invitation to, whilst you are out, to take a few pause moments.
An exercise I really like for days out is to find a spot throughout the day, maybe when I am feeling particularly in the moment and happy or content and take a photo of my point of view just as it is whilst I am standing there. Turn 90 degrees and take a photo there and keep doing that all the way around. Then I take a photo of my feet on the ground and take a photo of the sky.
I often find myself doing this when my daughter is a little way ahead, maybe with my husband or her little friends. Taking these photos whilst hearing little giggles just embeds the moment in my head in a different way.
3 – Colours
Ok, this one I find tough. But it can be totally worth it. Pick your favourite autumn colour. Whilst writing this, I have gone back and forth on what I would choose, and I have to go with that deep red that feels like it’s more rare than the oranges and yellows. Is that true? Not sure. But it feels that way.
Once you have chosen your colour, get your sensors out. Try to find the most interesting instance of that colour. I found mine (so far) the other day where I saw a red leaf on an otherwise green tree. I think that will be hard to beat.
Look for it out in nature but also welcome that colour inside too, maybe you have more yellow at home than you knew you did? I love having a little photo treasure hunt in the back of my mind. It is just another way that I bring myself into the present and adds a little game to my day.
4 – Textures
Once the leaves start fall and the sun stops going so high, texture starts to really pop. Whether that is the bark of a tree or the path below your feet. Maybe the brick of the building you live in catches the autumn light in a cool way at sunset? My fence does! Capture it!
5 – Someone you love
As I head towards cosy season, I find the broad social-ness I had in Summer starts to slow down and my social circle becomes a bit more concentrated and small. It’s such a nice time to stop flitting about and spend longer with people.
I realised a little while ago I had all but stopped taking photos with my friends. What is that about? Get some photos of the people you love and have in your life. Get photos of you and them together. It can feel awkward to say, ‘hey I want to get a photo of this, is that ok?’ But afterwards, I really love having that image to go back to. If you would rather not do that or appear in photos yourself, take a photo of your coffees on the table so you can create a photo of that memory.
Maybe your autumn is really different to mine. It likely is! If the above are useful prompts please take them and enjoy them. If these things don’t work for what you know about your upcoming Autumn, see if you can use them as a starting place and plan your own 5-photo challenges. If you choose to share them, tag me and Folk Features! I would love to see them.
Thanks, and happy snapping.
Visit Time To Be Photography
Featured image of Becky Demmen-Sewell – supplied
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