One of the things I love to do to stay creative, inspired and healthy is to venture out into the wild with my camera in tow and take photographs of anything that happens to strike my interest along the way.

This is called photowalking, and the mental, emotional and physical benefits are ENORMOUS. It’s not a new idea, and I’m definitely not the only one who does it — it’s often a social activity amongst photographers — but I truly believe that EVERYONE should be doing it to exercise their creative muscles.

Just walking in nature — or the urban jungle, if that’s where you’re at — without a camera is good for the body and the soul, but doing so with the intention of taking photographs helps benefit the mind in numerous ways. They force you to stay in the moment, since the purpose of the journey isn’t so much the length of the walk or the destination but what you see along the way and how you see it. Looking through the lens of a camera — especially any DSLR camera with any kind of zoom lens — literally and actually gives you a different way, and a different reason, to see the world around you. You’re looking for beauty and uniqueness and story with every single step you take. You’re looking for those things that are invisible to the naked eye but that happen when the world interacts with and is shaped by the lens. You’re looking at the world around you and capturing the feeling of it when you saw it.

When I go on my photowalks, I’m looking for angles and curves that catch the eye. I’m looking for sunbeams and shadows, for interesting textures, for beautiful color combinations. I’m looking for the knots and the dents in trees that give them life, the things that stand on their own, the things that shine and the things that whisper. I’m looking for the stories that are being told in silence.

I’m looking nature in the eye and directly demanding it to inspire me — and it never fails.

That doesn’t say it might not take a while, and that it might be challenging, or that all walks lead to greatness.

I don’t live near the mountains or the beach, among the redwoods or the canyons, though the astounding beauty of those places is entrenched in my soul and it’s what I see when I close my eyes. So adjusting to the Central Texas, and especially the inner city landscapes — it takes a moment. You’ve got to shake your head and blink a few times, wake up a little, breathe in and remember that everything around us is miraculous and our best theory as to why all this color and all these shapes and all this light even exist is because of a burst of stardust billions of years ago.

And then you look at the world again.

On this walk, I became obsessed with the way the sunlight interacted with the hanging browned skeletons of the old pines — they just lit up, depending on the depth of field and focus of the camera, and the chimes and bird songs in the background made it seem almost like the light was dancing with the wind. And I’ve always loved that idea — of light dancing with the wind. (I guess because I’m obsessed with both.)

Putting it all together:
Scrapbooking, Editing and finding my Spirit animals

Part of the fun and reward of a photowalk is that it’s not over when it’s over! Keep those creativity muscles working when you get home by going back over the photographs, editing them however you can (even basic smart phone edits) to make them best hold the thought you remember happening at the time. Make short notes about what the photo meant to you, and what inspired you to deliberately take that shot.

This is digital scrapbooking — though printed journaling works even better, as it allows your hands more motion, more involvement with the creative process. We just spent a lot of time working out the eyes, but our hands play a huge role in our creative muscle network. Artistry is, in many ways, the connective network between our eyes and our hands. As an artist, the hands help you create what the eyes tell you they wish they could see (or hear). They need exercise all on their own.

When I’m editing, I don’t try or find it necessary to create the most perfect reflection of reality as I can — though I’ll do that at least once. I try to edit more for feeling or thought or effect — whatever it is I remember thinking or wishing at the time. I really believe it’s the camera’s job to capture what a scene looked like; it’s a photographers job to capture what a scene felt like. So don’t be afraid to reimagine the scene as it’s happening, and to deviate from your memory of reality after it’s over. Sometimes It takes a combination of photographs, setting adjustments and filters to completely capture both what’s seen and felt. I’ll often add wind and color overlays to my photos to reflect my wind and light obsessions.

During my edits, I noticed just how intricately shaped and curved those hanging leaves are, how sharp they are compared to the blurred waters, and how much that sun was shining like a soul — making those shots the perfect candidates for some amazing mirror creatures. Do you see them too? (Check out the video at the end of this post for more!)

PHOTOWALKS:
LAWS AND GOALS

I don’t want to say there are do’s and don’ts for photowalking, because I don’t want to say there are rules to creativity or rules to art. These things can be chaos. But there are guidelines for design, methods to organization, tools available to use, games with laws. (Poker, a game I love, has rules and every single one exists for a reason.) And so there are goals and there are laws to photowalks that can be changed and broken at any time.

1. Make the right time for it. While a photowalk can be any length of time, and done at any time of the day or night, there are definitely optimal lengths of time that have the best light. I don’t want a walk to be rushed, but I do want to have a push to keep moving forward. So I like to have 2-3 hours dedicated to walking when I walk. And I like to do my walking just before sunset, to catch the sunset wherever I’m at. The sunset is the end. The walk is a race against the sun.

1. Go prepared. Charge your cell phone, bring extra batteries and cards for your camera, have something to eat and drink with you. This isn’t just a walk through the park. You’ve got equipment and a mission. It’s an adventure.

3. Invest in a DSLR camera. I know, I know, I KNOW smart phones are all the rage nowadays, that we always HAVE to have them with us on all times or we’re basically naked. I know these phones can take amazing pictures (though I haven’t upgraded my own phone in forever). And I go on a lot of walks more geared toward conversation or fitness where I take photographs with my smart phone and it works. BUT you should still invest in a separate camera and put the smart phone in a zipped up bag. Treat the photowalk like it’s a movie. The Canon EOS Rebel can be purchased for $399 and I really think it’s a great creativity investment for anyone. BUT AGAIN, you don’t need a DSLR. Any camera will do.

4. Go somewhere new and outside. Don’t go to your favorite place. Don’t go to the place you’ve seen 1,000 times. Go to the place you’ve been to once or twice or the place you haven’t been to in forever or the place you’ve heard of but never been to. Or whatever, go to your favorite place and find a new route. I’m a person who, in a lot of ways, loves the familiar. But a photowalk is a time for travel. It is sight seeing. So, if you can or when you can, go the extra few miles, or head east instead of west. Recommended places: Greenbelts, hikes and bikes, sculpture or art parks, lakes, churches and capital buildings, downtown centers, and county, city and state parks.

5. See deliberately but keep it fun. You may have heard of deliberate listening, like this Ted Talk by Ronnie Polaneczky, or active listening, in which you repeat back what someone else says in your own words to verify what you heard. This is like that, only with sight. You’re seeing deliberately. You’re deliberately looking for color combinations and color pallets, interesting textures and angles and curves, shadows and beams of light, shapes and patterns, things that are out of place or that make you feel something or think something, things with thought. And you’re not documenting everything. This isn’t a contest to see who can take the most pictures or the strangest picture or the worst picture. And it’s not about getting Likes on Facebook or winning awards, either. It’s not about quantity or quality. It is simply about looking deliberately and deliberately documenting what it is you see. It’s not about getting the perfect shot, but just a shot that holds the thought you had when you clicked the button.

6. Think simply. Not all photowalks end in greatness, and this isn’t about making the ordinary things around us somehow grander or greater than they are — though it definitely can be about that. A photowalk isn’t about greatness. There’s no plan here, no list of destinations, no itinerary or studio lights or movie script. It’s about simply existing and observing the details of the world around us, documenting what it’s like to see and think as this one person living on a planet of billions. It’s about noticing the small things: the mathematical shapes of leaves, the artistic nature of oil stains on concrete, the interactions and lengths of shadows — and then somehow documenting it as something that has been seen, or thought, or a wish heard. Because in the end, everything just wants to be seen.

SETTING THE SCENE: BACKGROUND SOUNDS FOR THIS POST

Now you’ll really feel like you’re there with me!

MAYFIELD PARK:
A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNAL

BONUS CREATIVITY EXERCISE: MIRROR CREATURES!

EXPLORE:

ABOUT MAYFIELD PARK:

1. Location: 3505 W 35th St, Austin TX 78703

   Hours: open on a daily basis and closed between 10 PM and 5 AM

   FROM THE WEBSITE: MAYFIELD PARK was presented to the city of  Austin in 1971 by Mary Mayfield Gutsch for all Austinites to enjoy as a park. Mayfield Park includes an historic cottage, 2 acres of colorful cottage gardens with towering palm trees, brilliant peacocks and delicate water lilies, all blending in beautiful harmony. Mayfield Preserve is the 21 acre natural area that surrounds the park, containing walking trails and wildlife habitat.