Conscious Photography

Today (August 19th) is World Photography Day, which seems the perfect time to share this blog post that’s been sitting as a draft on my website, waiting to be published!

From taking a Bronica medium format camera, with only 12 photos per roll of film on my first expeditions as an assistant, to creating features for leading outdoor-focused magazines and exploring cameraless photography with groups in the forests of our home village in Slovenia, visual images and how they function is a huge part of my professional history and inspires my approach to photography on my trips.

Above: Some of my early medium format photographs.

When life is so full of content, it can help to occasionally ask ourselves, what is the purpose of this image? Is it to persuade, inform, sell, inspire, tell a story, or is it to look back on individually as a happy memory?

Given my history, it would be easy to think that I would encourage you to take more photos, but in fact I often suggest the opposite. Take less photos, but in that process try to connect more with your own ‘why’. Our cameras can help us to feel more connected to a place and those around us, but they can also act as a barrier, snapping us out of the moment and drawing us back into our screens, we can sometimes hide behind the lens as a safety mechanism to keep everything a little bit more distant.

On all of our trips, I invite guests to create our story together as a collective. We don’t all need to take photographs of the same moment and we each bring our own perspective to the community, I like to call this conscious photography. Some folks are naturals at capturing those candid moments between us, and others are drawn to beautiful light, details or amazing landscapes, indeed sometimes individuals take the opportunity to disconnect altogether, and enjoy the option not to take photos. It takes all our voices to tell the story, including those who opt out of image-making, and at the end of the trip, when we put them all together, we can see the beautiful story that has been told, with depth, diversity and variety in our albums.

Above: A selection of guest photos.

For the big ticket places, such as Bled, think about whether there is something you can capture to show your personal interaction with the place, not just using it as a backdrop, but capturing your own experiences. At times like this it can be beneficial to put your camera away completely and perhaps try another way of engaging, for example sitting and sketching. You don’t have to be an artist to enjoy sketching, it’s a way to look closely, stop and reflect.

As a guide, an essential part of what I do is storytelling, I hope to build connections through the stories I tell, whether that’s history, folklore, nature’s story or our own, stories form the foundations of our journeys. Visual images, and videos have a huge part to play in that, and I always take time to observe and try to capture the essence of our time together. Sometimes that involves a group photo here and there, but more importantly it’s capturing moments of joy, connection and adventure, it’s the candid moments we remember and that truly enhance the story.

Equally, what we leave out is as important as what we choose to include. On my website you won’t find hundreds of images, I hope my trip pages offer a spark, showing the potential of what a journey with More to Explore might be like, without giving too much away. If we share images of every epic view, or special place, then we take away the chance to share surprises together, and for opportunities where we might find awe.

Sunrise on our Slovenia Winter Adventure

I also regularly get asked where certain places, for example swim spots and viewpoints are. I don’t share exact locations online, never geotag, and I ask guests to do the same, this is part of my Leave a Positive Trace strategy. If folks have to work a little harder to find somewhere, not only does it add to their own adventure, but it prevents fragile places from becoming viral trends, which puts too much strain on the local environment and infrastructure. We should all be a little more consciously vague when we share images from our journeys.

If you would like to hear more about conscious photography, I recently participated in a Tourpreneur Podcast chatting all about image-making and sharing as an adventure-travel business.

Have a listen and let me know what you think! How important are trip photographs to you?

Love and adventure

Mikaela x