Category - Photo Walk

I absolutely love to take photo walks, and I definitely don’t do it enough. I find that I see a place with a whole new set of eyes when I’m walking around looking for something in particular, like a colour. The neighbourhood comes alive for me, and it feels so unlikely when you find the things I’m looking for. Of course, the practical view would say that those things are always there, that I’m just not usually looking for them. But I think there’s something special that happens when your attention meets the present moment – a little bit of magic.

This green photo walk was both easier and harder than others I’ve done in the past. Easier, because there is a lot of green in my neighbourhood in the form of plants and trees. Harder, because I challenged myself to not just take pictures of plants and trees. The results are above, and as always I adore them. With photo walks, I always get reminded that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

I chose green because it was the next in my rainbow, but it is also very apt because today my boyfriend and I are starting our 10 day juicing adventure! This is a goal I’d put on my 25 list, and now felt like as good (or bad) a time as any to try it out. As I type this, I’m drinking my very first juice. This particular one is actually more orange than green, but it’s delicious. Wish us lots of luck!

These photos were all taken on an hour-long walk around my neighbourhood in Quito, Ecuador, starting from around 5:30PM.

PS. I’ve created a Projects page which features links to the various creative adventures I like to pursue, like these photo walks, my birthday lists and my seasonal videos. Check it out here!

I meant to do a photo walk for the next colour in the rainbow not long after I did red, but it’s hilarious how fast time gets away from me these days. I have blog posts I’ve been meaning to write since I arrived in Korea, that I just push back each month on my editorial calendar. Everything gets done eventually though, in its own good time, so I’m trying to embrace letting it come naturally. Last week I finally got around to orange, and there orange was, in the flowers that had just blossomed and fresh persimmons everywhere. These are some of the orange photos I took over the course of about an hour on a weekday morning last week.

You can see all my other past photo walks here.

There’s a lot I love about going on photo walks in the summertime. The weather is great, the lighting is perfect, and all the wildlife is in full bloom. When it’s too hot to go for a run but too beautiful of a day to stay indoors, a photo walk is an excellent compromise. I usually meander around with a theme in mind, snapping pictures while listening to music or (more likely) a podcast. I’m wondering if it counts as moving meditation, though I doubt it because of the listening-to-a-podcast part. Either way, it feels kind of meditative, because I’m not thinking, I’m just looking for something and then taking its picture.

I’m hoping to do a rainbow of photo walks over the course of the next several months, so it was only natural to start with red. While each individual photo isn’t overly special, I absolutely love them together as a set. I feel like making a mosaic out of them!

This is a really fun way to practice my photography and get inspired. I love walking out into the world and noticing things I never had before, just because they’re a certain colour or pattern. It’s like by focusing on just one little thing, I’m able to see so much more than I might otherwise.

You can see all my other photo walks here.