Mel's Photography Journey | Cemeteries, Mindfulness and Navigating Grief Through the Lens

Summary

In this conversation, Mel shares her unique journey into photography, exploring themes of architecture, history, and mindfulness. She discusses how her passion for photography was reignited after moving to France and how it has become a tool for healing and self-discovery, especially in the face of loss and grief. Mel emphasises the importance of curiosity and experimentation in photography, encouraging others to embrace their unique perspectives and find joy in the process.

Takeaways

• Mel's journey into photography began with an interest in cemeteries and architecture.
• She describes herself as a Taphophile, fascinated by the architecture of the afterlife.
• Photography for Mel is about documenting and observing the world around her.
• Her move to France reignited her passion for photography, influenced by her stepdaughter's husband.
• Mindfulness has become a significant aspect of her photography practice.
• Experiencing loss in 2021 led Mel to explore photography as a means of healing.
• She emphasises the importance of curiosity in photography and life.
• Mel encourages others to experiment and not be hard on themselves with their photography.
• She believes that every day offers a different perspective in photography.
• Mel's connection to history and decay informs her photographic style.

Mel's website: https://lane26643.myportfolio.com/gallery

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Transcript

If you're really curious about something, then you can allow the camera to be the conduit every single day is different. The camera can breathe for you, which then helps your own mental state. It helps really, you know, get the synapses firing.

Hello and welcome to the Photographic Connections podcast. My name is Kim Grant, and today I'm delighted to be sitting down and speaking with Melissa Lane. In this conversation, Mel shares her unique journey into photography, exploring themes of architecture, history, and mindfulness. She discusses how her passion for photography was reignited after moving to France, and how it has become a tool for healing and self-discovery, especially in the face of loss and grief. Mel emphasises the importance of curiosity and experimentation in photography, encouraging others to embrace their unique perspectives and find joy in the process. I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to Mel and I'm sure you'll find her story very inspiring. May you enjoy. Hi Mel, thank you so much for choosing to come on the podcast. Thank you very much, Kim. It's a pleasure. I'm really interested to speak with you because I think out of everybody that has been open to coming on this, you're probably the person that I know the least. So I'm really looking forward to hearing more about your story. But just so the listeners get an idea of how we met, I've known you for a couple of months now. You signed up to an online container that I've been hosting over the winter called the Winter Wellness Club. And what's really struck me about you is how you've observed many of the exercises, how you've explained the things that you've noticed in the world around you based on what we've been exploring. So I'd love to delve into that a little bit deeper later in the conversation. But for now, I'd be interested in hearing what it was that inspired you to get into photography in the first place.

So um I'm a Tafophile, which if you look that up, it's someone who is really interested in cemeteries and gravestones and mausoleum and kind of the architecture of the afterlife, if you like. So I've really been fascinated with that. So in my early 20s, I used to uh head off on kind of little field trips, I'd research somewhere to go to, and um I'd go to the London uh, you know, like highgate and Kensal Green and wander around just with my I had a um I had a I'd either take my point and shoot, my little cannonshaw shot, or I'd I've got a couple of old Pentax film cameras, or I'd, you know, I'd play around with those as well. So that that kind of that was my photography. I wasn't very good at it, to be honest with you. I think I was quite snappy more than anything else, but it was really a way of kind of documenting, and I guess in a way that's what photography means to me. It's documenting. So that's kind of how I got interested in photography initially. But you know, life takes over and career takes over, and it kind of, you know, I was really passionate about that hobby, and then it kind of like it dropped off for several years while I progressed with life, basically. Um, and then my photography kind of got a bit more reawakened when I moved over to France, not that long ago, really. So when I moved permanently to France in 20 at the end of 2018, um about a year or so later, my stepdaughter introduced us to her husband to me, they are now married, and Lee, and uh he is a passionate photographer, absolutely passionate. Um really loves to do portraits, um, but he likes doing landscapes as well. And uh I just really love chatting with him. I'm a bit techie anyway, and um it kind of reawakened my interest in picking up a camera again. So so that's kind of how I then sort of like re-got into photography. I I guess I can explain a few more things sort of as we go go through. When I was in we we had a little house in the south of France in an area called the Sevennes, which is like a it's the end of the Masse Central, and it's so it's very mountainous, and we had a little house up on the side of the mountains, and it was beautiful for walking around and taking photographs, and I guess that kind of started to like reignite that passion with a new camera, you know, mirrorless camera, which I hadn't got into before. And that was kind of my photographic journey in that respect. But I guess well, I'll wait for your questions, but I kind of then had an exp had some not so good experiences, which then led me down the kind of mindfulness path as well with my photography.

It's really fascinating there hearing about how you got into photography in the first place. You mentioned there going to cemeteries like Highgate Cemetery, which I'm actually going to this summer, so it's really interesting that you should mention that. I've heard of quite a few people that have enjoyed going to graveyards and places and looking at the kind of older architecture of things, but I never knew there was a name for it. What do you think it was back then that was interesting you in that sort of documenting the these aspects of the world?

I think I've always been interested in architecture for a start for many, many years, and um I don't know, I think it was I think it's gonna sound really crazy actually, but I think I really got interested in sort of like, you know, hammer horror type films and and and that kind of thing, and and and seeing sort of like, you know, the vampire werewolves, that kind that kind of mythology. And then I bought a book, I was probably about 16 when I bought this book, I've still got it, an encyclopedia of witchcraft and demonology, which you can't read it, but I mean it's sort of good, it was interesting to sort of like delve into. And I and and then I learned about I I read about the Highgate vampire in the 1970s, and that kind of got me interested. So then I would start walking around the cemeteries, but then what what I was interested in is the names and then the history and the history of the churchyard or the cemetery,

and then particularly when I started to see the mausolea and the way it was structured, and you know, whether it had like Doric columns, etc., or the um uh the cemetery symbolism that might have been carved upon it, and and the statues were absolutely fascinating. And I bought more books, you know, uh sort of uh uh around they're quite hard to seek out actually, but um I've I've got quite a few books about the architecture of the afterlife, if it that's probably the best way to sum it up. And the more I read, the more I wanted to go and visit cemeteries and and I would just research them and and then head off on field trips. So that so that I I think that was my that was my way in. It was kind of like a f cinematic folklore kind of way into it, and then from there, like I said, the sort of documentary side of things popped up.

It's fascinating. You know, I mentioned at the start that something that's really struck me during the Winter Wellness Club is how you have been noticing this kind of smaller details, and when you hear what I guess drew you to the cemeteries, and I love what you said, the architecture of the afterlife, you know, you're speaking a lot there about the symmetry, the different areas of these places, what you're noticing, but also I guess the imagination that goes along with that, which is really, really interesting. And it's interesting now to hear your story of moving to France and also how a member of your family has kind of inspired you to reignite your spark for photography. So now that you're in a different country, a different location, it feels like your maybe approach to photography has kind of changed quite a bit in recent years.

Yes, it it has. It's I've slowed it it's be two things. I've kind of slowed down and also broadened my awareness. So I've always been very good at ob at observation and uh got I think I've got brilliant peripheral vision and and that picks up quite a lot of things. And I'm so for me I'm kind of I still visit my cemeteries and and my churchyards because that's you know part of my hobby, etc. But I'm also looking at other aspects. So if I take my camera to a city or into the mountains or when we take our road trips, etc., I'm looking far more at further aspects, I think, of life. Like for instance, I might look at the way sort of like just the clouds are moving across the mountains. And uh the other day I think I observed, it was just in where I am now, but I observed like a a fog bank just kind of like rolling through the valley. So you could see underneath it and you could see above it, but it was just a line. And it and and so it's kind of just broadened my horizon with seeing and being and being open. And I think that for me as well, I think that's where the mindfulness also helps to come in. It helps to calm things down internally, where sometimes in life it gets very messed up and complicated.

I love what you're explaining there about noticing the clouds moving and this slowing down. Do you feel, you know, you say like you've got really good observation and you've got great peripheral vision. Do you feel these skills were something that you had before you started photography, or has looking through the camera enabled you to, I guess, explore these further?

I think I've always had good peripheral vision, but I think the looking through the camera has really honed

it, kind of honed that vision down. So I almost feel now like I'm this sounds tough, but like I'm walking around with camera eyes. So it I I literally am just observing it sort of like everything and almost seeing it in a frame.

Yes, I totally get that. You know, we're walking around and we notice things so much more when we're into photography, and then you start imagining, gosh, that would look like a good photograph. Or where somebody may see a whole scene, we start looking deeper into areas of it, and we just say to people, My gosh, look at that. Like it always fascinates me when I'm out for a walk with somebody who doesn't do photography and I'm noticing things that you know they would never have seen. And it's I love there that you spoke about looking at things almost like through the camera's eyes, because it is amazing what the camera enables us to see on a much deeper level.

Absolutely, and particularly I think maybe it goes hand in hand with with kind of where my track is with photography, and you know, I like abandoned things, I like kind of decay, and so I I very much notice things in in states of decay, and whether that's like a branch or a tree, and you and and you you can see the collapse inside the hollow of the tree of the bark, and and that and that will throw up sort of like different colours, different textures, textures, but it also it it it's kind of for me as well, it it it it shows me the journey of that tree's life. So I cut so it's that sort of thing. So I think I very much I I think I do hone I hone in on that very much.

This fascinates me because when I began photography, I mostly did landscape photography, and often in the landscape world we are encouraged to find these really simple, pristine photographs, you know, beautiful, pristine sand, beautiful, pristine clouds, and have kind of this real simplicity in our images. And if something is broken or decaying or coming towards the end of its life, we usually don't put that in the frame. So it's really interesting that it's that element of life that interests you because there is so much beauty in the decay and in that transition phase um that things go through, especially with regards to textures and patterns. Have you ever thought about what it is about these aspects particularly that interest you so much?

I think it's it I think it's wrapped up in history. I r I r I really do. And and which I think I think that's kind of like a common theme. I when I look at an object or or a a a tree or anything and it's coming to the end of its life, it makes me think about how long it may have been here, how it has existed, what caused it to be here. I mean, here in in I live in Normandy, and of course it was quite it was very ravaged by the Second World War. Um and everywhere you go there are reminders and elements of the the war and they will be in various states of decay. So it it it tri it it triggers curiosity and that widening of your mind to think about what happened with uh what's walked in your in i down that path before what steps you've been walking in or whose steps you've been walking in. So yeah, I j I I just think that element of decay, it's it's not just the photograph itself, it's what that photograph to me represents, and I think the representation is the history and its past.

It's so interesting because in the Winter Wellness Club in January we were exploring movements, and something that a couple of people brought up was the movement of time, you know, and what you're explaining there is I love that you're speaking about, you know, the kind of footsteps that you're walking in. What has happened in this place, on this land, in history. And I think it's so easy nowadays, especially with all the distractions we have with our phones and technology and advertisements and all these things, to sometimes not maybe consider where we are, what's been here before us, whose path we're walking on. Um and I love that you explain there that this connection to the past, this connection to history and the land and the places, and to also try and, I guess, understand what life may have been like back then and these little remnants that are left over from those days? It's a real imaginative process of imagining, I guess, what something would have looked like a hundred, two hundred years ago, whatever it may be. How do you feel like you know, when you're out there with your camera and you're noticing these things? Does does the camera enable you to look at them more deeply? And also, what does that kind of do to your imagination? If that's something you can even explain?

Yeah, I think for me it's recording, first of all, it's recording where it is in that moment of time. And will it how it will a decay further? So you you're catching that that's that snapshot

just at that moment. And I think then beyond that, it's to me, it's the to me it's very much the colours of of the decay that then speak to me, I think. For instance, uh many years ago I was in the uh Canary Islands in Fueta Ventura, and then you can still buy photographs of it, but there was uh uh a cruise line of the Americans started being was being towed to be to be scrapped and it came apart in a in a in a storm. It plonked itself just off the island in Fueta Ventura. So I went I went to this beach and and it was only half of it was standing at that point, and it was very dramatic, and I remember taking photographs of it. And even now, if I look at those photographs, just to see the colours, the faded blue of the um of the wreck with the i with the with the bronze of the iron, and then you'd have the birds flying above it. I mean, uh really kind of like an industrial, decaying landscape, mythical, in a way, scene. The whole thing's not there anymore. It's now completely collapsed into the sea. So that was a real snapshot of time for me. So I don't know if that answers your question, but yeah, it's really fascinating, isn't it?

Because the world around us every day is changing. Like I'm very much aware of it in terms of the seasons and nature and you know, things growing and then disappearing. But rightly so, you know, with what you're explaining there, these moments in time. I mean, we see it a lot nowadays with the coast, you know, things that were once there are now being engulfed by the sea. Um, you know, buildings in cities that were once beautiful landmarks, you know, crumbling, decaying, falling apart, being demolished. You know, it's really fascinating when we also think, going back to your interest in history, you know, when we look back at old photographs of our towns and our cities and the landscape as it was, even 10 years ago, never mind 100 or 200 years ago, you know, when you see these photographs and paintings of how time would be. But it's so interesting, I think, when we get more into the mindfulness elements, because we start to realise how every single day things are changing. And um, I often go back to the same locations time and time again, and some people think that's quite boring in certain aspects. But for me, it's like even if I'm greeted with a same landscape every day, it's different. There's something different in it, whether it's the weather, the scenery, whatever it may be. But I think it's more prob prominent when we're looking at man-made subjects, because a landscape can take hundreds of years often to change, but man-made subjects, like you explained there, can be gone in a very short space of time.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean and and it is fascinating, you're right. Every single day is different. You know, there is no such thing as Groundhog Day actually, because if you are aware to the world and you observe everything that's going on around you, or just visually watching it, it's different. A bird will take a different flight path. You know, the the the the wind is pushing the trees maybe a different way. Every day is different. And and you know, to be aware of that. And I and I do think that photography is really enhanced that's it's turned the dials up on the on the colours.

And we really need that in the modern day world. We really, really do. I'm just thinking about now as you're speaking about that, you know, every day I look out my living room window and the light is completely different. The scene is so similar, but the light is always so different, and I just find that so beautiful.

Yeah.

You mentioned at the beginning that you started off doing more, I guess, documentary style photography and the graveyards and the architecture. And then as time's progressed, you've moved much more into the mindfulness um way of seeing the world. And you said there was maybe a couple of things that happened um in your life that that gave you that transition. So I wondered if you'd like to delve into that.

Yeah, I mean it's it's it's quite an inter well, it's quite an interesting thing. So, you know, in 20 2021 when the when the world went crazy with COVID, but for me that was less of an effect. I had a really bad year in that six six of my uh some were acquaintances and some were friends passed away. Uh

some quite unexpected quite unexpectedly actually for the majority. And one of my closest, most inspirational friends person in my life was diagnosed with a mesothelioma, I think if I pronounce that right, which is I think we used to call it asbestosis basically of the lungs. But she was diagnosed in general, she lived in Rome, and I used to go and see her all the time in Rome. Fantastic, amazing woman, and um she used to be my teacher actually at school, and we stayed friends for many, many for for years, and um she lived an amazing life. Uh uh we always used to laugh and say, You've got to write a book because of the many adventures that she had. And uh, you know, she would she really she suffered with depression and stuff, but she really embraced life as much as she could, and she had a you know, it st just amazing the things that she did. And um anyway, she was diagnosed in January, and she being the person that she was, Hillary, Hilary Bockham, she uh put on video, she said right, uh she she got a group of us together. This group is still going on WhatsApp actually. And and we she would film, she filmed her whole journey for us on WhatsApp of everything that she went through, the laughter and the tears, when she tried chemo, didn't want to do chemo, etc. And we watched her right through almost until the last few days where she even came on to sort of like say I want to play a song for you for my friends. And um at that same time I was also going through quite uh something I was going through some physical things myself and uh in which resulted in um uh uh an operation which was some surgery which really dented my own confidence as well. Uh really pushed me inwards and she I knew it would happen. I I don't know how it's like I f sometimes I do think I've got a bit of second sight. I knew she was gonna pass away when I was in surgery and it absolutely happened that way. And afterwards I was just I couldn't I couldn't recover from it the whole Hillary passing away and then all the other deaths that had were lingering around me and then my own battles and um I hooked up with a ha with a therapist actually, she's English therapist here in in France, Simon. And um she we still work together. I s I still speak to her twice twice a month uh just to help me kind of get through and sometimes we just chat, but she really helped me pull myself into back into the world back into helping to see things. I talked to her about my photography, um we kind of did and we discussed about you know, there were some days where she'd say, say to me, you know, Melissa, just take your camera and go for a walk for ten minutes. Just go for a walk for ten minutes, might become 30, might take a photograph, you might not, and and other aspects, and she really, really brought mindfulness into my world of slowing down, being calm and pushing down these feelings of um low confidence or my my own. I mean, I had panic attacks, I'd never had panic attacks in my life. So managing those and quelling them, and this all resulted from that horrible 2021 year and everything that happened in it. So that was my journey to mindfulness.

Wow, that's a lot to go through and experience in a year, Mel. Um, I'm so glad that you found somebody that, you know, a therapist that that you really

resonate with and that's been able to help you with through all these things. And like you say, they're to manage the emotions. And it's amazing how you speak there about how she brought mindfulness into things and encouraging you to go out even just for ten minutes with your camera. Um, I've experienced so many times in my life how that is incredibly beneficial when we are processing things or you know, struggling a bit with our self-esteem and confidence and everything. When you were going out there and just spending 10 minutes or so with your camera, what what did you kind of notice or feel within yourself?

Um it allowed me to detach from my feelings, first of all. So all the noise dialed right down. And on top of that, I think just noticing it having the camera between yourself and the world is a is a great I'm going to say hiding, but it's it's not really hiding, but it it it allows you this detachment and the detachment of observation that helps to manage yourself in that environment. So it would qu it would quell the feelings of panic, it would quell the feelings of disruption. It became almost like um I was gonna say it almost feels like a mechanical process, but it's not mechanical in what you're looking at. It's just mechanical in how your your feelings and your I I guess your whole body and mind are working as you look through that lens, as crazy as that might might sound.

I 100% resonate with what you're saying there. I almost feel emotional because you've just taken me back to the beginning of my photography journey and you know, having all these things in your head that, you know, you can sit at home and it kind of gets more and more heavy, you know. And then you mentioned initially, you know, you were having these panic attacks. I used to get panic attacked when I was younger. But it was amazing how just going out for a walk with the camera. And I love that you spoke there about having like kind of the camera is almost like a a bridge or a that wasn't the word you used, but something between you and the world, you know, it's like that way of seeing things, but also detaching. And I find in my journey that when I get stuck in my head or I'm, you know, ruminating on things, then I feel kind of more constricted and fearful and worried and anxious. Whereas when I go out with my camera, you know, we're moving our bodies, we're seeing the world through a different lens, we're almost detaching from what we're feeling in that moment and seeing something outside of ourselves, but then getting into our bodies and calming down, and then it kind of opens us up to other things. Um, it's an interesting process, but it's really interesting to hear how you describe that for yourself because we're all going to experience these things so uniquely within ourselves and the things we're going through.

Yeah, and uh I I picked up just then on something that you said about fear. So it really does help remove the fear when you've got your camera in your hand, and whether you're walking around because you you you're walking somewhere because it's intentional, or whether you're just, you know, it's a random wander around, it's it removes that fear of you know people looking at you or where or or even where you're going. I mean, some people are if if I go back to the cemetery thing, some people are really frightened of things like cemeteries and graveyards, and death has been kind of quite it's loomed large in in my life. I mean, 2022 there was also a lot of death as well, sort of around me. And um and and it continues, but that's part of life. But um I'm not scared of it. You know, I'm not I'm not scared of death. It it rocked me in 2021. But I then had a real and and I find that interesting that actually I'm I have this taffophile hobby. Death rocked me in tw in 2021. I have no fear of walking round graveyards, except when in fact if I go for a weekend in Paris with my wife, we um she often goes uh goes off and she's French, so she goes off shopping, and I end up heading to m uh pale chaise just to wander round and take photographs because it's a beautiful cemetery. So it it removes that fear. I don't mind you know, I can walk around for hours without any physical fear or or or any or any worry in in that respect. And and and I'll just get just on that point of death and that journey of death, because I think death does journey along with you. And I had the immense privilege of one of my older friends who was dying. I was with her for the four days as she passed away, and I was there

with her at the end of their death. So now death does has absolutely no fear and no hold of me. And it kind of completed that that side of that kind of 2021 to 2023. It was kind of a it's it's kind of like this this hard to describe it, like a b like a contained ball, if you like. And and and that helped me because with my photography then, when I was when when I used to go and see my friend before as it was leading up to her death, I used to take her out and I used to take her out with my camera and we'd drive all around I used to live in Lancashire, and we'd drive around the Lancashire countryside and we'd stop, you know, and she would if she could, she'd have a little walk around, and I'd be busy photographing. So so I would take her on my journeys and she she introduced me to some amazing things as well, you know, places I hadn't been to, which allowed me again to sort of photograph very historical. So, you know, one of my big sayings in life is there is no such thing as coincidence. I'm a firm believer in that, and so I also think all these events happened uh they I was meant to experience them, put it that way. And and the photography side of thing has absolutely um absolutely helped, I think, in in in managing those feelings, managing that journey, and accepting how we move on in life.

Yes. I love that saying you said there, there's no such thing as coincidences. You know, I never used to believe that when I was younger, but in recent years I've really embraced that, and it's amazing how, especially when life challenges us, when we have this faith that there's no such thing as coincidences, we start to see these little signs, how everything is interconnected and kind of one thing leads to another, and then sometimes we meet people in the most unusual places and we have really interesting experiences, and it's a really fascinating way to I think open up to the world as well and to to I guess flow with this experience that we're all having, you know, of being human and the ups and downs of life. Um and I also just want to say thank you, Mel, for being so open about and around the the topic of of death because it can be quite a taboo subject in the modern day world. I used to be a nurse, so I had the privilege, and it was greatly a privilege, of being there with people at the end of their lives. And I was also very grateful to be there in the last few days of my granny's life. And while it's always difficult to say goodbye to somebody you love, there's something so beautiful about those final days, you know, especially when somebody's been ill and you know they're slowly passing. It's it is a privilege to be there. I can't quite explain it any other way. And um it's lovely that you have had that experience yourself, and it's something many people struggle to even comprehend. But actually, when you're in that situation, there's just something so beautiful about that moment um of transition. It's quite something. So I just wanted to say thank you because I know what you've shared within this will, I'm sure, be of great benefit to many people and the openness that you've had there, ma'am. So yeah, thank you. And something else that you spoke about there was going out with with your friends and and sharing these moments out and about history, photography, and that with others. And you'd also mentioned in the beginning how when you moved to France, you know, a family member kind of reintroduced you almost to photography. It seems like other people have really played a big part in your joy for photography throughout the years.

Yeah, uh absolutely. Um, probably in a way, less Lee is probably the one person in my family who is who I can talk photography with, and and and that's fabulous. Uh within France itself, I've met people I've I've had, I think I mentioned it on one of our uh meetings at the the well-being um winter wellbeing club. Um I have uh a great friendship with uh uh an artist here in in the town that I live in, Normandy, who discovered a cache of old glass slide negatives from a fur from the ancient photographer of the town. And uh we embarked on a project to uh I we we did digital scanning. He made a light box and I set up my camera and got got a good macro lens and we were photographing the negatives and then f then I in my software I was flipping the negatives and we were going through them and I it was just amazing. Amazing to actually look at history through you'd photographed another photographer

i you know, through the eyes of another photographer, and then to see what he was looking at and to see how photography has evolved and changed, because all his subjects are absolute obviously they had to be completely static while he took them. So fascinate a fascinating project which ended up being an exhibition in the in in the local town as well, so that was that was quite something to be a part of, and um again that influenced me it because it it kind of I I know you're very much sort of like a nature-based um photography, photographer, and for me, like I said before, it's very it's it's structure, it's decay, it's history. So I then walked around sort of like the the town that I was living in at that point of time, it's only five minutes away now, and I was photographing and then co photographing the buildings as they are now, and then finding them on the slides and comparing them and just seeing them, you know, and seeing the history or seeing, oh, there's a woman in the window there, and here's here is the building now. It was absolutely fas absolutely fascinating to walk around and discover these buildings.

Real testament of time there. And I loved it when you shared that within the the Winter Wellness Club because it was just really showed the the transition of photography, but also what an incredible thing to come across these old glass slides, you know, something that could have just been chucked in the trash, you know, by somebody who may not have known what they were, to actually come across that and have these moments, these capsules of time that you could look at and reconnect with and understand how things have changed over the years. I mean, it it really is fascinating when we come across these stuff, especially because photography was far less done than known, you know, back then as it is now. So when we do come across old photographs, they're real moments to be treasured.

I th I absolutely and um I and I think just just so just if if you if you think just it's the one thing that always worries about worries me about phot photography at the moment, you know, or how we are at the moment is it is it's we've have thousands and thousands of digital images, and how many of those actually ever sort of um make their way into an app into a printed image? Where if I go back to my youth and my childhood, well I you know, I've got hundreds of photographs and my parents have got hundreds of photographs, and from that you can you you can see the passage of time as well, not only of yourself, of your animals, of your landscape, of your where you grew up, etc. I mean, you know, you really can measure the passing of time. But in digital photography, they all sit on a you know on a hard drive. And and you know, you look at your recent images, it takes takes some effort to then sort of go and delve a bit further down into your files and think, actually that wasn't a bad photograph after all. But you've got to go and have a look at it. And then will you ever print it or make it into something? I don't know. That's to me I that's a little bit of a little bit of a dilemma for the world that we live in now.

Yes. I've thought about this a few times. Like, you know, if you think about back when photography began, you know, it was only a handful of people, if that, that had a camera. You know, they would have been very expensive, steep learning curve. You know, you would have just had maybe one or two people in your town that did photography, and as a result, there's hardly any photographs of those times. Whereas now, like you say, there's so many. I mean, everybody does photography nowadays. You know, obviously there's a select few that do it more consciously, but you know, with smartphones, people are taking photographs all the time. And it's it's shifted so much. And I guess now the joy is more in in maybe personal images, isn't it? Moments that really mean something to us. Whereas when we look back in history, these were real capsules of time that people who are interested in history and culture and the change of the land and the change of the places can look back on. Real moments of almost like memorabilia in many respects. It's really fascinating to see how it's shifted over the years. But also, I guess what is the the value of photography now? You know, it's accessible to us all, which I think is fantastic, but it's just so interesting to think about how actually where will photography be in another 50 to 100 years? Do you know it's if it even still exists? Who knows? The world is shifting so quickly.

Indeed. It it's an in it's an interesting concept, isn't it, to think about?

Very much so. So where is your photography now, would you say? Are you using it mostly for these moments of kind of peace and and going out for these little walks, I guess to have some time for yourself? Or yeah, what's your kind of your approach, I guess, to photography right now?

I think it it still continues to quieten the mind. Uh that that's a big it's a big thing for me. I'm for me, I'm very much trying to I don't say expand my repertoire, but I'm observing trying to observe, I suppose, wildlife, i I I guess is the thing that I'm I'm sort of like looking at a bit more now than before. So if I walk through a wood or um yeah, when I'm when I'm walking through woods, or even if I'm going to sort of one of the beaches or or up in the mountains, yes, I observe the environment around me as I normally would, especially if you come across an old ruin or something like that. But I'm also looking to see, well, you know, can I see a deer in the distance or do I see any birds or movement like like that? And then that's sort of like forcing me in to look at a different way of photography in in that respect. Something I struggle with because I've never, never really looked at that type of photography before. I'm very much into sort of static objects. I think certainly the direction that I've been taking, certainly over the last sort of like six months or so, it is really kind of to expand my appreciation of nature and and the things that live in within it. Beautiful.

Oh, it's lovely to hear that you're exploring other avenues because while we always have that thing that interests us the most that got us into photography, it's a I mean the camera can do so much stuff nowadays, can't it? So it's nice to start looking at other areas and especially because I know you live in quite a rural part of France, you know, you probably have quite a bit of nature around you. So it's nice that you're beginning to look at these things and what's on your doorstep and what you can connect with. And as time evolves, you know, your ability to see more and more and more of that will continue to to grow as well, which is really lovely.

Yeah, it it is. I mean, I know I will always fall back to the static shots because that is it's my that's kind of my passion. And I think I mentioned before that I'd bought myself an im a a fully converted infrared camera again. That will be completely for static shots, as you know. So um, you know, it's uh I that's always going to be my fallback position, but for me, that's pushing myself out of the comfort zone. I'm not the the abstracts abstract for sort of photography and ICM, I I I just can't get a I can't get a handle on it. It's just doesn't seem to be in my DNA. But the trying to capture something that's moving, like when we were talk when Brian was talking the other day about you know his camera and not blacking out when he was taking a photograph, you know, it's it's um yeah, it's kind of all that technical aspect. I'm I'm sort of like soaking it in, I think, at the moment.

Fantastic. You can really hear you coming alive when you speak there about your static images. But it's also lovely that you're you know opening your mind to other things as well. And I think it's good when we know what interests us, you know. I think that can be a battle for some people. They just don't know what interests them, you know. But you're very clear about what your passion is about. It's just nice to to try different things as well, which is lovely. Um I think a really nice place to end would be, you know, given everything that we've spoken about today, is there any exercises or techniques that you may like to share with people that or just can maybe be thoughts that maybe can help people on their own journey, whether it is technically in photography or whether it's more of the experience of what going out with a camera can give them, you know, if anybody's I guess maybe going through grief just now themselves, giving them that confidence to actually photograph the things that they love.

Yeah, I I I think the first thing really is to whatever piques your curiosity, you know, that that is I think so key. And if you're really curious about something, then you can allow the camera to be the conduit, to allow the camera it sounds the camera can breathe for you, and and which

then helps your own mental state. It helps really get the synapses firing because your curiosity about whatever it is you're looking at, whether it be a moving subject or a static subject, whatever, it's igniting something with within you, but through the camera it can calm you down so you don't get necessarily get like, oh, really excited and sort of jiggly with the camera, because you you then I think for me anyway, you become very technically focused with your camera to make sure have I got the right settings? Do I need to put a filter on? You know, shall I put this thing on a type on a tripod? Can I do it handheld? You know, and and it and it's that kind of experimentation. So I think being curious, being open to experimentation, and also Not being terribly hard on yourself when you come back and you look at the photographs and you think, oh that wasn't so good. Or as as the other day, I have this amazing photograph. I think something happened within my camera because I have no idea how this photograph has even occurred. But it's really interesting. It's just a really interesting image that that that I'm looking at thinking, what is that? Well, it's a plant, obviously, but it's kind of x-rayed itself. It's really bizarre. So be curious and don't be afraid to try things. I mean, obviously, I discovered you through YouTube and and I found your whole approach really restful and really calm and to me that that made it exciting. And you can watch umpti sort of YouTube photographers, and everyone has their own kind of like token niche, and but you don't have to do the you have to shoot at F5 or F11 or whatever, and you you know, you just use aperture priority or just use it. It's like don't do what you want, do what you want because you to be honest, you can recover most of the stuff in Lightroom or Photoshop anyway. But but do what you want, don't be afraid to experiment because actually you might just occur you might just get the look that you wanted.

Beautiful, Mel. I love that you speak there about curiosity. You know, children are so naturally curious, but when we get into adulthood, people often forget that aspect of things, and creative things like photography is such a fantastic way to retap into that curiosity. I think life gets so much more exciting when we're curious about the world and the things that light us up. And I also love that you say there, you don't have to do things in a certain way. Do things the way you want to do them. And uh something I get asked a lot on YouTube is what settings am I using? And I stopped sharing that years ago because I don't think it helps people because I don't even really think about what settings I'm using when I'm out with my camera. I'm quite often just playing around with things, and if I like the look of it, I like the look of it, you know. I understand people are trying to learn things that could be beneficial, but I just love what you say there about photograph things in the way that speak to you. I think it's so important and it helps us to keep that joy and enjoyment, you know, in what we're doing, you know, rather than getting often bogged down with I must photograph this way. You know, just let loose a bit, try a few different things and uh see what unfolds. So some wonderful tips and suggestions there, Mel. Thank you so much. And I just want to end by saying thank you again for coming on and also for being so open. I'm sure your story will help many people who listen to this. So I really do appreciate it. So thank you very much.

It's been an absolute pleasure, Kim. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the podcast. I'd like to say a huge thank you as well to Mel for being open to speaking to me about her story. I really enjoyed her conversation because it really shows how much photography can help us through life's challenges, and I hope that her story has inspired you as much as it inspired me, and perhaps even given you some comfort for your journey ahead. Now, if you're curious about the world of mindful photography and you'd like to experience how it can enhance your practice, I'm now offering a free monthly mindful photography guide. Within this guide I share a specific theme or exercise each month, including inspiring stories, practical photography techniques and reflection prompts for you to contemplate to help you forward on your journey. So if you'd like to receive this free guide, you can head over to my website now, Kim Grant.net, where you can input your name and email address. And if you'd like to experience further how mindful photography can help you, I regularly offer online containers and in-person workshops so we can explore these themes together through exercises and community connection. Thank you again for listening to this episode. I look forward to sharing another story with you in the next one.