Autumn Fruits
I was having quite a tough time before going to Italy in September, I felt like I was being pulled in several directions at once and my mind felt very muddled. With two photography holidays on the drawing board, hotels needing inspecting, doing photography courses locally and trying to work on Healing with Photography, it all felt too much, and that I needed to think about streamlining the whole business. I hoped that when I came back from Italy I would be a little calmer, more positive and with more direction.
Though trying to work out if the Cilento region of Italy was right to do a photography tour increased the feeling of being spread to thinly; not only was I arranging a photography tour in Sorrento for the May, I needed to recce an unknown area and get to know it in a very short time. And so I didn’t actually take the time to sit down and work through anything.
Before going away I picked up a cheap novel, you know the kind, one that didn’t matter if it got damaged whilst I was away as it wasn’t a book that I wanted to keep. Unfortunately I picked one up that wasn’t good for my mind set.
By the end of the week I was becoming really melancholy, questioning my abilities to juggle everything and on the plane home I realised why. It was because the book that I was reading was all about a woman who was trying to juggle a career and her home life whilst resenting both aspects. I was reading this book at breakfast and in the evenings before going to sleep and it just made me aware again of being careful what you are feeding your brain, what is feed and your subconscious.
It helped to come back from Italy and have made the decision that Cilento wasn’t for me for photography holidays. It then seemed logical for me to move the Sorrento photography holiday from the planned dates in May to the October to fill the gap left by the proposed Cilento tour. This released so much pressure as I wasn’t constantly thinking that I need to sell places rapidly for the Sorrento tour; it has given me more breathing space for marketing and for building a bigger customer base. Taking people to Sorrento at the time of year when it’s a little quieter also means we’ll have it more to ourselves as the holiday rush has gone.
So I am much more focused now on what I want to do and everything is falling into place. It will be ideal to do the photography holiday in October as I’m recceing it this October, and I get to remind myself what the light is like at this time of year and check out the gardens and see what is in flower and if schedules need altering.
Clearing my mind and streamlining the business has allowed me to come back to Healing with Photography; this venture feels like putting on a pair of old slippers, if feels so comfortable, so right, that I know intuitively, that this is where I’m meant to be giving my time and energy to help others.
As you know the website is well under way, just a slight hitch with getting the photo I’m inserting into the banner to the right size. Now I feel fully focused on the business I am ready to go.
*The Current Photographer website contains links to our affiliate partners. Purchasing products and services through these links helps support our efforts to bring you the quality information you love and there’s no additional cost to you.
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.