A Newfound Appreciation for Everyday Views

        The goal that I set for myself this week was to better appreciate nature on my daily walks to class. I set this goal because, upon reflection, I realized that I am always on my phone while I walk, and therefore have never truly taken in the nature surrounding me every day. I set this goal prior to last week’s class period, but I was further inspired to pursue it after I heard that one of my fellow classmates had done the same and had a new and incredible experience with nature from doing so. 

        To achieve this goal, I committed to having no distractions on my walks to and home from class for the rest of the week. I kept my phone in my pocket, only taking it out for pictures sake, and focused all of my attention on the nature around me. I was surprised to see how many beautiful trees and flowers surrounded me on my walk. Of course, I knew that these sites existed on this walk, but I had never previously taken the time to truly look at them and take it all in. For example, I put in effort to simply look up on my walk, which allowed me to take picture 1 where I captured the contrast of the bright green tree on the blue sky. I personally love this photo because, although it is not a close-up, it almost feels like you can see the intricate details of the branches and leaves because of their contrast on the sky. From a far-away perspective, the majority of my walk looks like what I captured in picture 2. Through this experience, I developed a newfound appreciation for this view, as I truly noticed how special it is to have big, luscious trees surrounding both sides of this street, almost forming an arched entryway to campus.

Picture 1: Tree against the sky

Picture 2: My daily view

       

         This beauty that I saw was extra surprising because I had previously viewed my walk to class as going through a somewhat ugly area, especially in relation to my old walks while living on campus. On campus, TCU takes beautiful care of all the nature, and I have even been told that we have an endowment specifically to ensure there are always fresh flowers. The flowers, trees, and grass on campus are something that I have always appreciated in my walks. However, coming off campus, I often notice a stark contrast in the maintenance when TCU is not taking care of the area. I personally live pretty much half on campus, which can be seen above in picture 2 (the left is TCU parking, the right is private homes), so that may explain why the area is so well kept compared to what I may have expected to see.

Picture 3: Flowering Bush

        Overall, by putting my phone away and simply observing nature on my walk, I noticed so many things that I had never seen before. For example, picture 3 shows a stunning purple flowering bush on the side of my path that I had never previously noticed. Chapter 7 in the Conservation Photography Handbook describes the power close-up photography has to capture the minutiae that often goes unnoticed, as well as shows the interconnectedness of all things. After reading this chapter, I decided to go back to the flowering bush and take close-up photos. As soon as I got there, I was excited to see all of the bumble bees pollinating the flowers, and I was even able to get a close-up of one bee in action (see below in picture 4)! The chapter states that close-ups can become a key part of your story and is a “wakeup call to the importance of protecting all parts of an ecosystem” (page 69). This statement was certainly true for me, as being able to take and look at these photos gave me a newfound appreciation for bees, and I hope that others viewing also are able to see their underappreciated importance. Also, I think it is important to note that, in this chapter, the author gave a lot of tips on how to do close-up photography with a professional camera. However, I was impressed with my phones ability to take close-up photos, and I think that ability is something that should be better emphasized to empower people that they all have the ability to take great photos simply with their smartphones.

Picture 4: Close-up of pollinating bee

        In preparation for this week’s class, I also read the works from Meriwether Lewis and Standing Bear from the Nature Writing, and I found their contrasting views towards the Earth to be powerful. This week, my goal is to continue reflecting on these two works and to attempt to capture how these views can still be seen in people and nature today.

 

Thank you for reading!

Emily