The Healing Powers of Photography

 With the exception of a few highlights, this past week has been uninspiring and discouraging due to dreary weather, allergic/asthmatic flare-ups, and situations at work.  I had a feeling that taking my camera outside, on the first bright sunny day in over a week, would help to change my outlook.  And indeed it did!

My day started off with decreased breathing capacities and feelings of frustration that my asthma has been impacting recent activities.  Feeling annoyed and somewhat stubborn, rather than hide from Mother Nature, I decided to confront her head on, walking right outside in the midst of trees, grass, and leaves.  I hoped that taking pictures and appreciating the beauty of Fall would act as a peace offering.

For the first ten minutes or so, my shots were pretty uninspired.  Taking pictures head on, the angles were not particularly interesting, I wasn't satisfied with how I was capturing light on film, and the compositions were pretty boring.  And then suddenly, my eyes noticed light hitting the bright yellow leaves on the top of a tree in front of me.  Craning my neck upward, I realized that from this vantage point, the light hit the leaves in a completely different way, creating a very interesting effect.

Looking upward, I also became intrigued by the way that branches of different trees appeared to make patterns in the sky-- connecting with each other in interesting ways.  I thought back to several pictures that I have taken from this perspective.  This photograph came to mind first.

My friend Grace commented that she loved the connectedness of this shot.  I realized that what is interesting about photographs with connected compositions is that your eye keeps moving around the picture.  You brain is engaged in thinking about ways that the parts of the picture interact, inspiring multiple thoughts about the photograph.

Thinking back to this past week, I realized that in multiple ways, I had been feeling very disconnected from activities I love (photography due to the drab weather), from my body (due to my erratic breathing), and at times from my job (due to some discouraging situations).  When feeling disconnected, it is very difficult to feel inspired, to find things interesting, to be engaged.  Same holds true when there is no feeling of connectedness in a photograph-- it can be uninteresting, uninspiring, not engaging. 

Realizing that I had begun taking more connected shots (not by going to a different place) but by changing my vantage point, I decided to try to flip my perspective on my past week.  In my head, I zoomed in on some highlights (student successes, great stories at parent teacher conferences, listening to new acappella songs, and taking great photographs in the present).  I started thinking about all of the highlights in a more connected way, thinking about what they had in common-- how they had made me feel, and why I enjoyed them.  This helped me to start feeling better about the past week.

The problems had not disappeared but my feelings of connectedness were returning.  Feeling connected with Mother Nature and the moment, I started feeling more engaged with the pictures I was taking and as a result became more creative with my photography (the angles, how to best capture the light, how to frame subjects in interesting ways).  The quality of my photographs improved.

In this picture, I zoomed in on the rocky shore along the river...

I took many pictures of what appeared to be a cornfield in the middle of New England until I found an interesting angle...

Just like looking at a "connected" photograph, when I am feeling connected with the moment, fully engaged with what I am doing, I can almost feel the neurons firing rapidly in my brain-- creating new ideas, being creative, approaching situations in new ways.  It is exciting, invigorating, and stimulating.

When I uploaded my pictures on my computer, I releashed my energy once again into cropping my photos to highlight the most interesting and engaging parts of the photographs.  In this picture, I cropped out the dock that I was standing on in order to make the blue of the water and the sky really pop!

In this picture, I thought it was really cool how the tree was reflected in the puddle of water, even though it was more than several feet away from the tree.  In order to highlight this part of the scene, I cropped out many leaves that were scattered in front of the water.

Today, for me, healing meant replenishing my creative energy, bringing back my inspiration, and engaging in a stimulating activity to help me feel more connected.


Questions to Ponder:

1.  What activities are healing for you?
2.  How do those activities help you to heal?
3.  What does healing mean to you?