Welcome to the first Expressive Photography Blog. Each week I will be writing a short article to accompany and supplement the regular YouTube Video. In these musings I aim to add a lot more value and bring the focus onto personal development, creativity, self discovery and expression.

Photography can be so many things to different people; from ego-stroking self-glorification through to deep, personal exploration of our personalities, emotions and inner landscapes.

As we near the end of a significant period of lockdown, it is with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that I consider a more mobile life. For months now we have been confined to our small corner of the western Highlands of Scotland, and I have receded into my own inner landscapes as my mood has occasionally darkened.

Throughout 2021 I have been running mentorship sessions with 10 fabulous people; men, women, younger and older, each on their own path, and just like me, trying to make sense of a senseless world.

Creative living

Photography for me is so much more than an end product, and I believe the more we are focussed on that, the more elusive it will become. Creativity is hard to pin down, it refuses to be placed under the microscope, and observing it changes it. Our creativity lies in creative living; one of acceptance, non-judgement and freedom of speech. Our creativity is in there, desperate to get out, and who does the best job of stopping it? Yes, you guessed it, us!

In this week’s YouTube Video (Sometimes it snows in April – after the great Prince song!) – I once again head out into our local environment, hoping to find a clear head, a free spirit, and my best version outdoor-dude-guy me! As always when I head out to make a video, my inner idiot has different ideas and within minutes of home the anxiety sets in and I start looking, looking, looking for something that will make a good photo and validate the faith and trust that people have in me to deliver profound and insightful education!!

Oh, what a fool I can be, my own worst enemy and another victim of online pressure, which isn’t external, but 100% internal.

It took me a while, but I did manage to let the landscape show me her secrets, and I soon settled into a far more relaxed and in tune state.

A mindfulness walk

Over the past few weeks I have started to take a morning walk, literally straight out of bed. No breakfast, or even a coffee. I walk east along the loch (actually a tidal fjord), then up and over the hill back to home. It takes me a little over an hour, and it allows me to survey the birds and animals in our local area, and of course to witness the day waking up and the light developing. Regardless of how much has been going on in my head, how bad a night sleep I had, or what I have in my over-packed diary, these walks get me into the best version of me to take on the day. I make it a mindfulness walk. I am present and aware of all around me. The soft song of a newly arrived Willow Warbler, or Barn Swallow; little avian miracles who only a few weeks ago were wintering in sub Saharan Africa witnessing a completely different landscape, culture and life.

I am present as I see the first soft rays of light spilling over the larch trees across the loch. On these days with no wind, the perfect mirror reflections make kaleidoscopic patterns and play tricks as I waken up. The larches themselves are starting to bud, and the soft greens are such a breath of light after a long winter.

I am present as I listen to the silence and notice the thoughts that rise and fall in my head. I observe and listen to everything; free from judgement and open to everything. Little epiphanies erupt like an Icelandic volcano, bringing life, heat and growth to my barren consciousness. It’s these moments that make me feel so alive and so passionate to share.

I live to share, I live to illuminate.

Photography for me is a catalyst, each image is a snapshot of my own inner landscape. It is not always pretty, but it is part of me. There is an internal aesthetic that resonates when I notice it looking at me from a delicate birch branch. I smile as the snow falls and obscures the scene, like my judgement clouds clarity.

Welcome to the Expressive Photography Blog – you are most welcome.