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Mornings spent wandering amongst the trees with a camera in hand, before the world has woken, offer something of a spiritual cleansing. They are enough to make one forget about the madness of this existence and return ‘home’ to the soul of Nature. They offer, for a short while at least, an escape from the world of ego, and bring forth forgotten feelings of belonging, and a deep, universal oneness, restoring internal balance and harmony.

A fruitful morning of photography presses a reset button inside and allows us to see through the thick smog once again into the clear, icy blue of the vast, expansive ocean. It is enough to make us forget about all the trials and tribulations that we have faced in our day to day lives. Any emotional and psychological pain that we would have inevitably, either consciously or unconsciously, accumulated since the last outing is transmuted into the purest of beauty and given new meaning and purpose. In the precious moments during which our shutters are opened to the pureness of the mornings’ light, we are liberated from the stresses and struggles of life at last, and we add more colour to our soul.

Crossing the Threshold from the Known into the Unknown

Nature photography, as with any other creative and artistic pursuit, can help us transcend beyond ourselves and our limited, thinking minds. The camera is a vehicle that carries us beyond the physical plane; the known world, and into the world of spirit; an unknown world reliant on feeling, intuition and an understanding of energy through which to navigate. It is a world of pure consciousness in which there are no limitations, barriers, or identities. When we stand upon the crest of a mountain at sunrise and look out over the vast, expansive wilderness, we get the sense of a connection with something much greater than ourselves. During this escape from our small, limited, rational minds, we are left to ponder the age-old question, ‘can this really be all that there is?’

A morning amongst the trees, enveloped in the safe embrace of the mist is enough to bring us back home to the core of our existence. We become the witnesses of divinity and observe the process of eternal creation that is at work before our very eyes. We come back home to the feelings of limitlessness and oneness that make this often complex and nonsensical existence so worthwhile and meaningful. In this place of oneness, we come to terms with and make sense of our place here on this swirling rock. It is here, in our ultimate state of spirit, that we are unbound to the minds and bodies that contain us.

As the golden light of morning penetrates the veil of fog and pierces through our lenses, all our photographic senses are heightened, and there is nowhere else that we can be but right here in the ‘now’.

In moments like this, we escape the dreaded world of thought and lay on the brakes that temporarily prevent our descent into the darkness of chaos and destruction. The resulting photographs, created from the souls’ intuition and, therefore, enriched with depth and meaning, is the order that is needed to deal with the chaos of our egoic existence and the madness of modern society that seems to be, all too often, so focused on division and separation. In the moments that we open the shutters of our camera to capture the beauty of these sacred hours, we choose the path of creation instead of that of destruction, and we make the daring ascent from darkness into light.

Society Divides, Nature Unites

Following mornings like these, I can’t help but contemplate some of the deeper questions about this human existence and the current state of our co-created world of society. I often wonder why it seems to be that, overall, humanity is so intent on dividing itself and creating enemies out of another. Everything we know seems to be a game of two sides.

Either we are black or white, Christian or Muslim, left or right, right or wrong, good or bad, awake or asleep. Isn’t it an irony that our quests for community and belonging so often force us to cut ourselves off from certain people and demographics? For us to belong somewhere, we must not belong somewhere else. Why does a human being have this innate tendency to think in such dualistic ways?

Outdoors in the natural world, there is no place for division, hierarchy, or competition. In Nature, there is only unity. Everything works towards one common goal. The pursuit of Nature is one of growth and expansion. What would our world look like if more people prioritised their own personal and spiritual growth and the expansion of their own consciousness over the expansion of only their houses, bank accounts and businesses? When did this disconnect from our soul’s growth and true purpose begin? What if we all realised that the real competition is the one that lies within; for us to transcend the ego and live from the soul that seeks for nothing but joy, love, and peace, and finds all of this in the freedom of its’ own authentic expression?

When we look towards the beauty of the forest networks, we see such unity and come to realise that everything is divinely connected and perfectly balanced. There are no arguments of right or wrong, good or bad. The ‘woodland’ itself is an entity, made up of what we label as ‘trees’, ‘fungi’, ‘moss’ and ‘ferns’. Through the ‘woodland’, runs a small ‘stream’, in which there are ‘rocks’ and ‘silt’ and all kinds of ‘bacteria’ and other living species. The ‘stream’ runs into a ‘river’, and the ‘river’ into the ‘sea’. At which point, then, does the ‘woodland’ become detached from the ‘sea’? We apply such language to understand the world in our minds. Is it, therefore, our minds, then, that create the division and separation? What happens when we learn, instead, to tune into our hearts and choose to feel instead of think?

Returning Home to the Heart

The act of creating a photograph, for me, is a response to a feeling inside of my heart. I feel compelled to pull out the camera and create when the cogs in my mind cease their relentless turning, and I come to rest in a place of deep, internal stillness.

My heartbeat falls into rhythm with that of the earth and we dance in perfect harmony across the woodland floor. The trees stand as witnesses of my hearts’ truest expression and, in these precious moments, the soul that resides within reunites with the eternal soul of Nature.

Following such moments, it is difficult to look into the eyes of another human and see an enemy. I realise that the same feelings, and the same soul, exists, too, inside of them. It is important, therefore, that mornings like these are experienced regularly. Too long spent away from the soul of Nature and our own true, authentic, expressive nature, might cause a human to become too disconnected from its’ heart. What happens when one spends too long living in the darkness of the mind and falls out of tune with the song of one’s own heart? Could this, perhaps, be the reason that so many people find their only peace and purpose in war? In the same way that the woodland, in our minds, is detached from the sea, so have our minds become detached from our hearts. When did this happen and how can we restore balance and harmony between the two?

The truest test of the human being lies in its’ ability to create harmony between mind (rationality, thoughts & fears) and heart (intuition, feelings & love), ensuring that each remain connected to the other in every given moment, come fear, or love. Perhaps then, given the current state of our world, it is time to return home to the heart on a global scale. What the world needs now, more than ever, I believe, is a deep cleansing of the collective soul as we look to repair our relationship with the earth, ourselves and, therefore, each other, and co-create a better world for tomorrow.

Nature provides the pathway way back to our hearts and soul. I find my own way back beyond the gatekeepers of ancient trees in Eryri during the sacred hours of the morning, and they help me to strip back the masks and peel off the armour, so that I can emerge from the darkness and stand to be seen in all my light once a