This week has seen a change of heart in one area of my photography holidays; the cruises. There have been a number of things about doing a cruise that have been bugging me for a while and this last weekend events happened to help me realise that I needed to make a tough call on these holidays, and postpone them for now, so I can stay true to my love and passion of photography.
A cruise holiday is such a wonderful idea, and from an organisational point of view the accommodation is easily sorted, yea! From a logistical point of view though, recce and supplier costs were starting to rack up. Working out the logistics of how to do our group excursions independently of the cruise ships excursions, without incurring huge costs for wanting to be flexible, was proving tricky too.
There was also a very good chance that if we weren’t careful, with the time limits imposed as to when you can disembark at ports and the time you need to return to the ship, we wouldn’t be able to get very far into the surrounding countryside and so be limited to towns and cities; and there a little part of my being would have started to die. We, my business partner at her travel agency, Life By Travel, and I, had done our best to choose cruises with varied port of calls. Yet it would have been very frustrating for example, in a Tuscan port, not to be able to drive into the countryside and take photos of the rolling hills and cypress trees, or stay on for a sunset. Our guests were going to lose out on so much.
So we took the decision to re-think and instead I followed my heart to go with three things I love, gardening; so I’m close to nature, photography and the Amalfi coast in Italy. In combining the three, we are embarking on a holiday tour, in the Gardens of Naples and the Amalfi Coast that fills me with joy. When I think about this tour, which we have pretty much organised in a week, partly because I know the area so well and partly because I’m so excited about sharing some little known places with people; it’s shown me the difference between doing something different, and doing something that fills me, and hopefully our guests, with passion. A land based tour will give us the flexibility to take sunrises or sunsets at the best locations, rather than making do.
Changing my mind and following my instinct on the cruise has also helped crystallise another business idea I’d been dawdling about getting up and running, because it really wasn’t inspiring me like it should; photography workshops in a local city.
As I sat down to brainstorm the gardening photography tour and see what elements would work and which needed to be left for a completely different tour, I remembered how I’d picked up leaflets recently for some local gardens; gardens which welcome groups and photography groups. I sat down that evening and priced up a half day workshop at the gardens. I just need to go and do a recce of them to make sure there is enough content right the way through the summer and autumn. As soon as I’d decided on this all thoughts of a day workshop in a city went out of my mind, although for the winter months I may return to the idea.
It’s another barometer for me to keep an eye on when I’m making decisions; what things make my heart sing and invigorates me so much that I want to be able to do it today?
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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.