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Grab your camera and get outside for some winter therapy

There are many locations that I like to stop for a moment of landscape photos on Duck Range Road
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John Enman pens a regular column on photography for the Barriere Star Journal. (John Enman photo)

“If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it’s as though I’ve neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up.” — Robert Mapplethorpe

I spent Christmas and the last days of 2022 being ever so disappointed because I was feeling sick with a cold.

I forced myself to spend an hour or so with Jo and her family on Xmas morning and then retired to my chair in front of the television for the next couple of days. I don’t think I actually watched anything.

I mostly just slept and finally felt OK by New Years Eve.

On the second day of this new year, I needed to get outside with my camera.

I sat in my idling car for a while wondering where I should go. I had brought that little Canon that I had dedicated to Xmas photos. It had a few shots on it from my not so exciting Christmas, and I also had the Nikon camera that was converted to Infrared.

Like Mapplethorpe, I felt like I had neglected something important. I had a strong urge to spend, even a short time, “doing something related to photography.”

There is a photographer named Harry Gruyaert from Belgium that wrote, “I think of photography like therapy.” I can’t agree more.

The snow-covered road that wanders up past my home was quiet as I drove towards one of my favourite places. There are many locations that I like to stop for a moment of landscape photos on Duck Range Road. One would think that after 40-plus years, I would be tired of taking pictures there, that the view would be boring or uninteresting because it was overfamiliar. But somehow a camera (and I have photographed that place with so many different cameras and lenses over the years) it’s always fresh and I smiled to myself when I got out of my car to make another picture of the tall white trees that create a barrier along the right side of the road.

Just the act of composing a picture after being holed up with that cold felt good.

For those like me, that for any reason couldn’t get out with their camera over the holidays, now is the time, even if it’s only a short walk along the road or path near your home, to take your camera out and make a few photos.

Consider it winter therapy.

Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.



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For those like me, that for any reason couldn’t get out with their camera over the holidays, now is the time, even if it’s only a short walk along the road or path near your home, to take your camera out and take a few photos. (John Enman photo)