Mindful Photography
Basic information
Project Title
Mindful Photography
Full project title
Mindful Photography
Category
Reconnecting with nature
Project Description
Mindful photography is a way to reconnect with nature. For the beginner or already hooked on photography, this is a nature workshop where you will find inspiration and structure to get out and get going. Work the scene. Catch that fleeting feeling. The happiness from experiencing the light filtering through the leaves in the forest turns your photos into haiku poetry. With a camera, pen, and all your senses open - welcome!
Geographical Scope
Regional
Project Region
Sweden
Urban or rural issues
It addresses urban-rural linkages
Physical or other transformations
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
EU Programme or fund
No
Description of the project
Summary
Mindful photography is a way to reconnect with nature. For the beginner or already hooked on photography, this is a nature workshop where you will find inspiration and structure to get out and get going. Work the scene. Catch that fleeting feeling. The happiness from experiencing the light filtering through the leaves in the forest turns your photos into haiku poetry. With a camera, pen, and all your senses open - welcome!
Learning by doing and using all your senses are cornerstones of this workshop, as is wellness. Photography is about seeing, and this is about Seeing More. We learn together. We inspire each other and are part of a group, of something bigger than ourselves.
The nature workshop takes place in Norse country at an ancient site, the Viking tumulus Anundshög in Västerås, Sweden. It is a deliberate choice. This site is open to the public around the clock. Still, there are always people here for recreation and fun. The place is all history, and this is where I feel I belong to the land. That is important when we reconnect to nature.
Learning by doing and using all your senses are cornerstones of this workshop, as is wellness. Photography is about seeing, and this is about Seeing More. We learn together. We inspire each other and are part of a group, of something bigger than ourselves.
The nature workshop takes place in Norse country at an ancient site, the Viking tumulus Anundshög in Västerås, Sweden. It is a deliberate choice. This site is open to the public around the clock. Still, there are always people here for recreation and fun. The place is all history, and this is where I feel I belong to the land. That is important when we reconnect to nature.
Key objectives for sustainability
Nature connection: nature belongs to everyone, and the experience is free. When spending time in forest, we want learn how to take care of it. It is imperatative that we as a unity protect our environment.
Wellness: spending time in nature is of highest value for our health and wellbeing. You move your body on a photo walk; you walk through the seasons and experience the seasonal changes. In the workshop you learn how to See, how to go close. My key words are all connected.
Creativity: the brain loves to learn new things. Creativity is a source of joy and a great healer.
Belonging to the land & An experience of beauty: when you spend time in nature you will experience that some places are in need of love and care. In my workshop, this is not in the focal point but what I hope people will think about later on, when they take their photo walks. The Nordic countries share by law the Right of Public Access. We must take care of our forests, mountains, and lakes for the future.
Wellness: spending time in nature is of highest value for our health and wellbeing. You move your body on a photo walk; you walk through the seasons and experience the seasonal changes. In the workshop you learn how to See, how to go close. My key words are all connected.
Creativity: the brain loves to learn new things. Creativity is a source of joy and a great healer.
Belonging to the land & An experience of beauty: when you spend time in nature you will experience that some places are in need of love and care. In my workshop, this is not in the focal point but what I hope people will think about later on, when they take their photo walks. The Nordic countries share by law the Right of Public Access. We must take care of our forests, mountains, and lakes for the future.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Nature connection: nature is healing and is part of our wellness and self care. We experience positive emotions when we are in nature and are replentished from it. Mindful Photography is a nature workshop at an ancient site open to the public where people come for recreation the year around.
Wellness: spending time in nature is healing. The forest, in the city or the countryside, is a place to do mindfulness and practise forest bathing. It's a place to exercise and a place to relax.
Creativity: the brain loves to learn new things and to be creative. The nature workshop is for the beginner and the more seasoned photographer. Both will find something new. The set up of the workshop is to create a structure and routine for mindful phototography, which in turn makes you feel safe.
Belonging to the land: this nature workshop is in the original set in Norse Country, in Middle Sweden, by Lake Mälaren. The Viking tumulus Anundshög and the ship setting grave field, is the biggest and oldest in Sweden. It is open year round, and it is free to access it. The energy here is beautiful, and the people of Västerås come here at every hour of the day, year around. We have a need to feel we belong and are part of something bigger.
An experience of beauty: to be in nature is to experience beauty. Every sunrise is unique, and so is every sunset. Standing on the top of Anundshög, a winter sunrise with frost on the ground and droplets glttering like diamonds on the old grass. That is an experience that gives you hope.
Wellness: spending time in nature is healing. The forest, in the city or the countryside, is a place to do mindfulness and practise forest bathing. It's a place to exercise and a place to relax.
Creativity: the brain loves to learn new things and to be creative. The nature workshop is for the beginner and the more seasoned photographer. Both will find something new. The set up of the workshop is to create a structure and routine for mindful phototography, which in turn makes you feel safe.
Belonging to the land: this nature workshop is in the original set in Norse Country, in Middle Sweden, by Lake Mälaren. The Viking tumulus Anundshög and the ship setting grave field, is the biggest and oldest in Sweden. It is open year round, and it is free to access it. The energy here is beautiful, and the people of Västerås come here at every hour of the day, year around. We have a need to feel we belong and are part of something bigger.
An experience of beauty: to be in nature is to experience beauty. Every sunrise is unique, and so is every sunset. Standing on the top of Anundshög, a winter sunrise with frost on the ground and droplets glttering like diamonds on the old grass. That is an experience that gives you hope.
Key objectives for inclusion
The nature workshop is at three levels, and the cost is highest for businesses and lowest for the County Council sponsored workshop:
1. Kickoff and event for business.
2. Study Associations weekend workshops: 3 meetings.
3. Workshop, 6 hours at a Folk High School (not at Anundshög tumulus)
1. Kickoff and event for business.
2. Study Associations weekend workshops: 3 meetings.
3. Workshop, 6 hours at a Folk High School (not at Anundshög tumulus)
Results in relation to category
Implemented:
THE PUBLIC
I cooperate with a study association for adult learning, Vuxenskolan, and I work with the Folk High School Tärna, which is part of the Health Services County Council.
SCHOOLS & STUDY ASSOCIATIONS I have educated teachers at the nature pedagogy school Mistelskolan in Västerås. The personnel at the regional office of the
Study Association Vuxenskolan have done the workshop with me.
CULTURE PROJECTS
There is interest from the County Council Culture Department that I work with librarians on creative writing in a reading promotion project. The focus will be on literature, nature, and wellness.
Steps envisaged in the year following the application:
1. Continue giving workshops on-site in Sweden
2. Finish writing and self-publish book in English
3. Start online course development & find an educational platform
4. Launch online course: find international collaborations & umbrella organizations
5. Create Community: for the creative and curious who seek a nature connection.
The results I look for is sustainable personal wellness, and a creative outlet. Everybody benefits from this. Nature connection and art is healing.
THE PUBLIC
I cooperate with a study association for adult learning, Vuxenskolan, and I work with the Folk High School Tärna, which is part of the Health Services County Council.
SCHOOLS & STUDY ASSOCIATIONS I have educated teachers at the nature pedagogy school Mistelskolan in Västerås. The personnel at the regional office of the
Study Association Vuxenskolan have done the workshop with me.
CULTURE PROJECTS
There is interest from the County Council Culture Department that I work with librarians on creative writing in a reading promotion project. The focus will be on literature, nature, and wellness.
Steps envisaged in the year following the application:
1. Continue giving workshops on-site in Sweden
2. Finish writing and self-publish book in English
3. Start online course development & find an educational platform
4. Launch online course: find international collaborations & umbrella organizations
5. Create Community: for the creative and curious who seek a nature connection.
The results I look for is sustainable personal wellness, and a creative outlet. Everybody benefits from this. Nature connection and art is healing.
How Citizens benefit
Option two is holding the workshop at a Study Association, which is a Swedish pedagogy that stems from making knowledge and learning accessible to all and everyone. The first Study Association formed in 1894. In this form of learning, you learn together. The study leader does not have to know much or anything about the subject, making it a mutual quest. I'm a certified Study Association leader, and I had my first group when I was twentyone. We learn together. Due to the pandemic, things changed from on-site to online, and it's been slow getting back to normal. I will work on developing the concept for this new world and present it to the study organizer.
Physical or other transformations
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Innovative character
In Sweden you usually see a course about either photography, creative writing, or wellness. I connect the creative arts with wellness, and I use the best classroom I know - nature - be it the forest or by Lake Mälaren. Moving the body is essential because you feel happy, and that happy feeling you put into the click of the shutter. It is a kind of programming: when you grab the camera and press the shutter, you connect it to a memorable moment in nature, and feel happy.
Disciplines/knowledge reflected
Multi-disciplinary Learning:
Photography - creative writing - nature experience - wellness.
I make mindful photography easy, uncomplicated and fun. It is a joy to see participants who have never used a camera suddenly know How-To. A few simple instructions, and soon they are in flow. In the group I see how differnt personalities take to the information and how they use it. Some are thrilled that structure excersises makes them free to be in the moment. Others learn about compositin, and some write and perform the haiku poems wvwn though they are timid about it. I give them the keys - they open the treasure to their own strenghts. They also add to the process by asking questions and helping each other. The group is important to how the workshop develops.
Photography - creative writing - nature experience - wellness.
I make mindful photography easy, uncomplicated and fun. It is a joy to see participants who have never used a camera suddenly know How-To. A few simple instructions, and soon they are in flow. In the group I see how differnt personalities take to the information and how they use it. Some are thrilled that structure excersises makes them free to be in the moment. Others learn about compositin, and some write and perform the haiku poems wvwn though they are timid about it. I give them the keys - they open the treasure to their own strenghts. They also add to the process by asking questions and helping each other. The group is important to how the workshop develops.
Methodology used
Pedagogic strategies and practices in use:
- A multi-sensory experience to experience nature fully.
- John Dewey's pedagogy of learning by doing for the photography beginner. No experience of photography needed to participate.
- Howard Gardner's theory to speak to people's different ways of learning.
- Mindfulness and forest bathing exercises.
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's study on flow.
- Ikigai: the Japanese concept of a reason for being, having a sense of purpose based on one's interests and talents, and what you can give to the world.
- A multi-sensory experience to experience nature fully.
- John Dewey's pedagogy of learning by doing for the photography beginner. No experience of photography needed to participate.
- Howard Gardner's theory to speak to people's different ways of learning.
- Mindfulness and forest bathing exercises.
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's study on flow.
- Ikigai: the Japanese concept of a reason for being, having a sense of purpose based on one's interests and talents, and what you can give to the world.
How stakeholders are engaged
I work together with the Study Association Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan, for adult courses in a group setting with the sole purpose of having fun learning together. They asked me for a workshop for their kickoff, which is where it started. I have since offered the course to the public and am writing a book (the first edition will be in English for an international audience). This spring, I will give the workshop at Tärna Folk High School, which is part of the County Council. This means it is open to the public and at a low cost. I love Tärna Folk High School, and am thrilled to work with them.
Global challenges
My plan is to self publish a book, and out together a course for international learners.
- Health challenges such as stress, burn out, mental illness, and lack of exercise.
- Lack of city forests and green areas in the neighbourhood.
- Lack of knowledge on how to approach and be in nature.
I do not use the health issue as a pain point. The workshop does not work with personal health problems.
- Health challenges such as stress, burn out, mental illness, and lack of exercise.
- Lack of city forests and green areas in the neighbourhood.
- Lack of knowledge on how to approach and be in nature.
I do not use the health issue as a pain point. The workshop does not work with personal health problems.
Learning transferred to other parties
The whole workshop can be transferred to other places, groups of beneficiaries and contexts.
My goal is to publish a book on this theme, and develop and reserach for an online course. Both in the English language.
My goal is to publish a book on this theme, and develop and reserach for an online course. Both in the English language.
