As we age, it’s increasingly important to take care of our mental and physical heath. Relaxation, creative pursuits, and physical activity can be highly beneficial. Gardening and photography offer numerous advantages for the mind and body, making them ideal pastimes for any age.
Photography interested me from an early age, as I was exposed (no pun intended) to the darkroom in my teens when I was an X-ray technician, long before automated processing. I can still bring up the olfactory sensation of the various chemicals used for developing, rinsing and drying the emerging image on the film. It was a similar process to photo developing, so when I started university, I was happy to find a photography club on campus. While working in the darkroom during those intense days and nights of medical study, I realized the benefit of the hobby as a stress reliever.
So began my interest in photography. Over the past 50 or so years, I’ve witnessed monumental changes as we moved from the physical darkroom to the virtual darkroom of the digital age. And during the past 20 or so years, the passion for image making has become an almost daily habit, usually at least planning for shoots on the days I’m not out in the field.
Landscape photography is of particular interest and so my mind is always aware of my surroundings and I make many mental compositions with plans to come back to make a hard copy of the image when the light is right, or after the rain holds up, or the time is more convenient.
Gardening, and especially flower gardening, has occupied a substantial portion of my imagination and my summer outdoor leisure time for many years.
Digging in the dirt is food for the soul and the body. Marvelling at the various seeds, bulbs, shrubs, and trees coming alive in spring is one of the great mysteries of nature and stirs an emotional, visceral response. From the first crocus to the opening of the milkweed pods, to the harvesting of seeds, the anticipation and joy certainly releases some brain response that heightens the experience.
Bringing my photography and gardening hobbies together happened gradually over the years. My professional life as a palliative care physician was rewarding, and sometimes emotionally draining, requiring self-care along the way. I began to go in the garden with my camera at the end of the workday as a form of relaxation and battery recharging. It became a very mindful exercise which has carried on throughout the year during the four seasons, as I capture the changing landscape outside the garden, once it has gone to sleep for the year.
The early morning light, before, during, and just after sunrise is particularly beautiful and surreal in the garden, with the sound of the birds, animals, and insects coming awake to experience a new day. Making images in that environment stirs me deeply and enhances my respect for nature. It makes me stop and wonder at the magnitude of it all.
The beauty of a bud emerging to unfold its beauty, or a butterfly on a nearby flower, or the bees busily feeding on the sunflowers all drive my image making.
Likewise, the feeling of freshness and new growth after a summer rain, with the raindrops still on the leaves and the flowers, is magical and lends itself to stirring the creative process.
The images I present here were all made in our new garden, started after we moved to our present location outside of town following retirement. Starting again from breaking ground to soil preparation to deciding what to plant has been a rewarding exercise both for the mind and body. One then waits in anticipation of the flowers, or vegetables, poking through the ground and adding so much joy to the landscape.