Learn to be still...

My entire working life I have taken pride in hitting deadlines - doing what was agreed, in the time that was allocated. Some of this was a very practical necessity - I began by staging corporate events and launches - when an audience is invited for a particular time and date there is no mileage in asking them to come back another week when it is finished. I carried on that mentality into my ‘corporate’ life. If a delivery date were agreed then we’d be ready. It literally drove me to distraction to see others who didn’t drive their work to a known deadline.

People who knew me in work would often raise a quizzical eyebrow when I said I planned to get off the corporate bus and work far less. They didn’t think I could cope with slowing down - and I wasn’t truly that sure I could either. In the words of Don Henley I had to learn to be still.

One thing I did have (and still do) is the ability to sit and watch a five day cricket match with complete absorption, but this wasn’t a practical way to pass every day as Test matches aren’t all that regular, and my national team seemed to have mastered the art of losing a game inside three days.

It is wildlife photography that has taught me how to be still.

Give it another hour, he might turn up…

I will spend days, literally days, waiting. Waiting to see if a kingfisher will land on a perch. Waiting for a wader to come to a beach area close to me. Waiting to see if there are hares in a field in front of me. Somehow the act of picking up a camera has taught me to be patient.

Of course I have days when the wait is too interminable to be borne, but those are rare days. Now I can sit in varying degrees of discomfort and just wait. And while waiting I become absorbed in the nature around me, I see more things, I feel calm and at peace.

This new ‘skill’, learning be still, is something I am very grateful for.

When people ask me what is the key to wildlife photography, my answer… patience.