Earlier this year, I tried to get back to the old hobby of mine - photography. But now, four months later, I'm not sure whatever it was a good idea at all. Or if I did approach it in the right way. The trouble is the goal. My original thinking was to use all the hours I spend walking to take some more or less great photos. While I might have succeeded in getting technically good snaps, I believe I lost something.
Ever since getting a very nice digital camera, something has changed in the way I approached the hiking. You can almost say I felt obliged to take pictures. But at what cost? Only months later I realised I stopped focusing on the walk experience itself. Being alone in the woods was suddenly about getting the right shot. Not about the experience that allowed me to free my mind, letting it wander. I first realised it when I reviewed my journaling and pretty much ideas for this blog. Suddenly there was a big gap. Whereas before I had plenty of journal entries, effectively starting from February this year the frequency plummeted and came to standstill. Instead of journaling I felt into the vicious loop of editing and curating the pictures, improving my editing workflow and chasing the likes.
What seemed to be an initial joy of having great tool to capture things I've seen around me, slowly become something that owned me. Guess now is the time to decide where the balance lies. For some time already I stopped carrying the camera and immediately felt lighter. Not only physically, but also mentally. And for those moments I needed to capture something I still have my phone with me. But now I'm reconnecting with my hiking and what originally taking odd snap here and there was for me.
It's also a good lesson to understand what are things that drive us, and what are the things that owe us. You might call it a lesson in minimalism.