My photography has taken a back seat for the past couple of years. We have additional family responsibilities (twin grandchildren), we’ve moved from a semi-rural environment near Aberdeen to suburban Edinburgh, we bought a house that needed major work that has dragged on and on and, of course, we’ve been living with COVID restrictions. I’ve had no motivation to take any photographs except family snaps (on my phone) and my camera has not been out of its bag for almost a year.
But the work on the house and garden is almost finished and I started thinking this week how to rediscover my photographic mojo. So, I decided set myself a wee challenge that didn’t involve travelling, could be fitted around other things and which forced me to look closely at the place where we live.
We live a few minutes walk from Braidburn Valley Park - a public park that isn’t just mown grass, flowerbeds and play areas. Although there are mown sections and lots of tree planting, much of the park is left to its own devices where nature rather than gardeners decide what’s going to grow.
I’ve decided on a 12-month project where I photograph the seasons in the park with six photographs per month, starting from September 2021. I’ve decided on six photos per month so that I’m not tempted to simply add a photo dump - I’ll be forced to be selective and choose the images that I like best.
I’ll be posting every month around the end of the month but here’s a few pictures I took on my first photographic outing to the park.
In Scotland, September is a transition from summer to autumn. The light is softer, the sun lower in the sky. There are still flowers and berries are everywhere but there’s also decay and hints of the autumn colours to come.
