You may know that I love exercise, and on top of my usual gym routine I’ve been doing a different kind of exercise lately. It’s the exercise of going out with my camera to take photos without overthinking – the wonderful art of capturing something on camera just because it appeals to me, without thinking about what someone else might think, whether it’ll be a “good” photo, or similar.

Photography isn’t – or shouldn’t be – a never-ending competition. Photography is and should be enjoyable. To me, a good photoshoot is one of the most therapeutic activities I can do, alongside gardening and a good heavy squat. I already know that I don’t take the typical “competition photos” because I don’t shoot sunsets, fancy portraits, football players in funny positions or abstract documentary stuff, so why do I constantly get into the trap of overthinking photography? Is it the effect of social media and the comparison trap it creates? Listening to too much critique? The effect of learning from online sources and being exposed to the tech bro opinions before developing my own? (and also, the “art bros” can be even worse!)

Photographers on social media love to shout “don’t make these horrible mistakes I did!”, “don’t buy this camera” and “beginners vs pro photos”, everything to make people feel bad about their photography, gear or else. And isn’t this the case with most topics/niches on social media? Every second post is about how you’re doing everything wrong. I wanted to use Instagram for my business. The main reasons why I left were how it’s become a video platform and I don’t want to make that kind of video, and the non-scrollable ads, but what I noticed after I left was how I suddenly felt planning my marketing was fun again because I felt it was ok to do it my way.

And regarding those “horrible mistakes” in photography, I prefer to learn from my own mistakes, thank you very much. If I go to YouTube for photography, it’s to get tips on how to do x and y to achieve w and z, not hearing about what NOT to do.

Some week ago I had a great camera experience while out for a walk, and stopped every 20th metre to take a photo because I saw something interesting. Most of those photos are quite rubbish, mostly because of light conditions (because no matter how much I love going for walks on a sunny day, the mid-day light is hard), but do you know what I liked? How that photoshoot made me forget about everyone else and what other people would think, I was totally in the flow of doing my own thing. That’s the mood I’m trying to get into as the norm.

Let’s browse through some of the photos that I’ve made recently while out for walks, in the garden, around the house, and more.

Let’s get keep the momentum going with more and regular “in the flow” photo sessions this summer.