Welcome to a new style of column for me, moving away from the Starting a Photography business series and into a more general look at the life of a photographer. The articles will remain just as candid as you are used to though it will cover a wider range of topics. So, without further ado onto what’s been keeping me busy these last couple of weeks.
Tranquil Gardens
It’s finally here; Healing with Photography has made its maiden voyage into the arena of the general public. Last week saw the very first session of the course with a group of people who are all suffering from some kind of mental distress.
And strangely, I wasn’t even nervous when I had a group of people gathered in front of me all looking at me expectantly. There were no thoughts of I’m just a photographer passing on knowledge of things that helped me to get better, what am I doing here? I stepped fully into my inner power and talked from the heart. I loved being with this group, I loved slowly observing the participants that had been coerced into attending by the group leader, unconsciously start to unfold their arms, let the barriers down and start to participate fully.
I was so happy to finally be sharing with others, skills and techniques that can help to lower their anxieties and increase their self-confidence. I did have to keep pinching myself that this was me and here I was. A few years ago this was me sitting there needing some inspiration, someone to fire something in me.
So with week two now under my belt too, I can see I need to make little tweaks here and there. A little bit more group participation would be good, and working out a way how to do that when people are afraid to speak up for fear of looking silly in front of their friends is a little tricky. As I was driving home I had a few ideas come up which I’ll implement next week, I also saw how I missed a trick with getting the group more fully involved this week too, so I’ve added it into my notes for the next course. There is I notice a trust starting to build between people and I want to gently encourage that, I’ve also discovered a few people in the group have a real eye for photography.
With week two I wasn’t sure how many participants would return from the previous week, what we are doing is probably something very new and very much out of the comfort zone for many people. I was made aware too that with other activities going on at the drop in centre during the afternoon it might be that one week they simply choose to do something different for a change. So I was delighted to see that all but one person returned to the group and we acquired a few new people too, now I have to wait to see how many we get next week.
I’m looking to grow this business quickly, so that I can get to as many people as possible. I’m going to be contacting businesses to see if they’d like to enrol employees who are either on long term sick with stress or to help colleagues with low self-esteem. I’m busy making a list of which companies to approach first and who might be perfect people for the course.
I am being asked to run this course in a longer form abroad also though I will well and truly blood it here before doing that. The courses abroad, due to the nature of the event, will take a different form. They will probably be week-long workshops and at least half of the day including different types of activities.
At this point I am just so grateful that I was given the idea and that it is being so well received by the group I’m working with.
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Living in the beautiful rural county of Yorkshire it was perhaps natural for Ruth to have an affinity with the countryside and its wildlife. Creativity is Ruth’s driving force finding an outlet in television & radio she worked for many years as producer for BBC & ITV.
However a love of photography and for being surrounded by nature called her to go back to her photography training and bring pleasure and joy to people through her connection with our planet.
Staying in the moment when taking her images allows her to experience the natural magnificence unfolding before her eyes. It is this moment of mediation, of gratitude, that she evocatively conveys through her images.