Forest bathing

Forestry England gives this brief definition of forest bathing: This Japanese practice is a process of relaxation; known in Japan as shinrin yoku. The simple method of being calm and quiet amongst the trees, observing nature around you whilst breathing deeply can help both adults and children de-stress and boost health and wellbeing in a natural way.

My morning workshop was a brief taster of forest bathing for photographers. It was ably led by Justine Ritchie.

There are strong similarities between this technique and other techniques for relaxation or self hypnosis.
We spent time quietly in the forest and followed different exercises. No cameras were involved at first.

One exercise was to choose a tree you felt attracted to, sit near it and draw a soundscape of the sounds you heard. My tree was an old, knurled birch, but when I looked up I saw a fluttering of delicate, yellow leaves. I thought there was a metaphor in there!

When the cameras were allowed out, I photographed this bridge near our chalet. It reminded me of Monet’s garden.

This afternoon the talks were by Mark Kirkland (underwater photography in Scotland) and Rachel Talibart (creativity out of chaos). Two more brilliant presentations.

Tonight we had a ceilidh. HH won’t allow me to dance so I used my camera. I have no denoising software here, but I thought you would like to see Margaret Soraya dancing with Joe Cornish.