New Photo Theme Exploring Quiet Spaces

As Summer gives way to Autumn it's about time we started exploring a new photo theme on the Walking Photography Facebook Group and here it is... A new theme along with some tips to finding and photographing quiet spaces... 

Video Transcript: 

hello i hope you've had a fantastic summer it's coming to an end it's certainly coming to an end for the school holidays which i've got mixed feelings about if i'm brutally honest but it's it's been nice to be able to get out and about more than we were able to at the start of the year and um before we broke for summer we had a bit of a extended break with the theme of stories and narrative which people could explore so i'm gonna share some of those photos that people have shared on that theme and i'm gonna add the other photos at the end of this clip uh the unthemed photos as i usually do and it's just been brilliant to see what everyone's been getting up to and what and where they've been exploring during those summer months and weeks so it's time for a new theme really and one of the things that i want thought would be good to explore with people returning to work and schools and stuff is quiet spaces now i know quiet spaces have been a hot topic in the media with places like mallon being busier than ever and snowden and places like that and quite spaces are really important for people as well especially local people and i think i love sharing spaces with people and places but i know for myself and my own well-being i really need to have some quiet spaces to myself from time to time and just feel alone in nature i find it really powerful and it really helps me so what i want us to do for this new theme as we come as summer comes to a close is look at look for and look at quiet spaces and i know it's not easy for everyone to find quiet spaces so i'm going to share some tips to help you find some quiet spaces wherever you are i grew up in london suburbs so i'm no stranger to busy environments but always managed to seek out and find some quiet spaces and i'll share some tips with you now if i can breathe while going up this very gentle hill i have to say i don't want to make it sound like i'm doing so just out of breath um so the first one is timing and probably the key one really timing the earlier you get up the later you stay out the more of space you'll get to yourself the quieter it will be so getting up early is a really great one way of getting a space and a place to yourself and enjoying the quietness of it now obviously i know it's hard to get up i don't get up easily but i find one of the best ways to motivate yourself to get up is to set a goal so that goal could be a sunrise to photograph a sunrise it could be to try and spot a kingfisher or an otter on a local river set a goal and that will really give you that motivation to get out of bed don't look at the weather don't look at conditions or anything just set a goal of i want to see a kingfisher or an otter i want to see a sunrise and if you don't see one if you don't even it's cloudy murky you don't see a sunrise i promise you you'll still feel really good at getting up early and having that space to yourself and having some quiet time to yourself so that's time is this perfect one of my favorite times to photograph wildlife is on friday nights when everyone's in the pub and saturday mornings when everyone's in bed there really are great times to just get out because they're the spaces are always much more quieter into yourself so timing is a really key one going out when people are having dinner can be a good one as well and just trying to time it so you have a space to yourself another way of finding quiet spaces well it may be a combination of two things really one is getting a map and looking at footpaths that you might not have even known existed there are when you look at an os map you'll be surprised at just how many little public footpaths that you might not have noticed before so i'm doing it all the time especially when i go to new places i have a little look at the rs map and see some of these little routes that aren't so well trodden talking to other people as well can be a really key way of finding new routes and interesting routes and quiet routes i can't tell you how many times this summer i've been talking to people that i don't really know very well and they've told me some really quiet spaces that they've enjoyed and then i go and check them out for myself and and and by sharing that information with each other i find there's the argument of the more people you share it with the uh more busier it becomes but you know sharing it with a friend is definitely not on the same level of sharing it in a national newspaper and and you know you can find it that way quite space there's a runner there but we'll go a different way so here's those two public footpaths he's gone on one i've got on the other and it's as simple as that choosing the quieter path it can be as simple as that sometimes and going out in not ideal weather can be a great way of a really good way of enjoying some quiet time some quiet spaces going out when there's raining so i mean the classic was this morning went out down to the weir now the weir over the summer has been a hot topic on the facebook groups of our local our local facebook group panzer pages uh they've been very very busy especially on the hot days but i was there this morning it wasn't particularly wet it's just a bit overcast a bit gray and there was maybe two or three people uh whereas in the past there's been hundreds hundreds of people uh particularly on the sunny bright day so it's bank holiday today um and this morning not especially early just went out there nice family of swans above the weir and pretty much the place to ourselves so the weir so even the most popular spots can be quiet if you time it right or you go out in conditions that don't cause the masses to descend upon it so those those are other options too so that's just a few ideas really and hopefully that's enough to help you try and find those quiet spaces and and places that you can go and feel you can explore and feel like you're on your own and have that little you know commune of nature and the landscape and it's really beneficial and and photographing it is is another way of deepening that relationship with that space that you're exploring and without distractions of course so those are my tips that's the theme quiet spaces i hope you enjoy that i hope they find the tips useful and as always i'm really going to enjoy looking at the photos as everyone else does that you respond to and you know as always again you can you don't have to stick to the theme you can just send in your own photos on any topic that you want and share them on the facebook group we love seeing all the photos and seeing what everyone's up to ready for the jump