Our lives seem busier than ever. There’s the job, the traffic, the meetings. Our family and friends. There are bills to pay, hedges to clip, and garbage to take out. Sometimes it all seems a bit much, and the stress can be overwhelming.

So, we soothe ourselves with distractions like television, online shopping, social media, and YouTube.

It’s a strange phenomenon – sitting in our homes staring at screens. And on the human timeline, it’s a very recent thing, too. Telefunken released the first commercially made television in 1934. IBM launched the personal computer in 1981, and Apple’s first Mac hit the shelves in 1984.

The Internet went live in 1993, and Steve Jobs’ iPhone changed the world in 2007.

Now, thanks to all this, most people in western cultures spend between 23 and 24 hours a day indoors. Desk-bound employees spend as little as 15 minutes a day outside – about half the time it takes to calibrate the human circadian clock! Their body doesn't know if it's day or night.

And to add insult to stupidity, the air we breathe inside our homes and offices is 2-5 times worse than outside.

Daylight, fresh air, and contact with nature are each critical to our physical and mental health because, for 400,000 years, that’s where we spent most of our time, and our DNA hasn’t forgotten that.

We need to get back out there, and landscape photography offers the ideal excuse.

Beyond pulling us from of our screen-filled cocoons, landscape photography relaxes the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s main engine room – by forcing us to focus on the present, and on our immediate environment. It brings us back to where we belong – close to the elements that heal and sustain us.

But it’s so much more than that. Studies in Europe, the US, Japan and the UK have all concluded that simply looking at nature reduces stress, anxiety and fatigue, along with around 15 physical and mental diseases.

There’s a reason that patients with a view of nature heal faster than those without.

Paracelsus, the 16th-century German-Swiss physician, wrote, “The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician.”

When we stroll through nature instead of rushing past it in our cars, we ‘see' more, and we see differently. We feel more, too – the sunlight, the changes in temperature, the scents carried on a breeze, and the physical objects around us.

And whether we’re hiking to a location or just ambling about, it gets us moving – something all of us need.

It's cumulative, too. I’ve heard many definitions of success, but the simplest is, “Success is progress.” Through our camera, we're able to build a body of work, while our skills and artistic abilities accumulate and compound. Each experiment builds on the last; each image the sum total of our evolution up till that moment.

It stimulates the left and right brain, too, something that’s missing in so many jobs today. And when we're not creating images, it gives us something to think about, something to research and engage with through editing, self-education, location scouting, and gear maintenance.

Pick up a camera, go outside, and go make some images. It’s the perfect re-balancer, and it might just change your life.

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Depression, and particularly anxiety, are far more common than most think. We've all heard stories of people with fabulous lives, excellent health, fame and fortune, who ended their own lives.

My parents – both brilliant examples of how to live purposeful, grateful lives – suffered physical and psychological abuse at the hands of heartless parents. Amazingly, they never let those experiences affect mine or my sister's childhood, and they were caring, attentive role models.

Today, it seems it's easier than ever to feel down. Call it modern life, FOMO, consumerism or the fact that every brain fart is recorded on social media, lest others think it never happened.

I've suffered from anxiety and depression multiple times throughout my life. Sometimes it was traceable to a specific cause (girlfriend cheated on me, divorce, financial ruin, etc.); but many times, I couldn't put my finger on it.

However, one thing that always seemed to help was getting back amongst nature. Going bush.

In this week's video, I share why being in nature has had such a profound and positive impact on me, why we need to get outside, and how landscape photography offers the perfect ‘excuse'. Did you know the average person spends between 23 and 24 hours each day indoors?! When you consider that for the first 400,000 years, humans spent almost all of their time outdoors, it's no wonder we're losing the plot.

I talk about all this and more in the video below.

I also crap on a bit about my latest bit of gear – an RRS ball head that'll probably outlast me. I hope you enjoy it.

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There's a very real pressure these days to create for an audience, to pander to algorithms, and to hack your way to notoriety. But it misses the point and it forces us to behave in ways that, if we're honest, make us cringe.

Creativity is a delicate thing. Each time you set out to make something, you feel like that awkward teenager on the dance floor – trying to look comfortable in their own skin but desperately seeking approval all the same.

Ironically, it's the one who doesn't give a crap what the others think; who gyrates and flails in time with the music (or out of time with it), who draws admiration. They're clearly having a ball, and the opinions of onlookers don't even register.

One of my earliest mentors said the best way to find the ideal partner was to stop looking. Just do your thing, and let them find you. This is true of many things.

As you age, and as you try and ‘fail' at many things (remembering everything is an experiment, and the outcomes are lessons), you realise that no one's handing out gold stars in retirement homes. That's because, despite what social media tries to tell you, there's no correct answer at the end of it all. This isn't one long test.

So you'd better enjoy your time here. Make your art – do whatever lights you up – and don't be too attached to outcomes. The late, great Alan Watts said it best:

“We thought of life by analogy with a journey, a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at the end, and the thing was to get to that end, success or whatever it is, maybe heaven after you’re dead. But we missed the point the whole way along. It was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing or to dance while the music was being played.”

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Affiliate Notice: If I recommend something to you, it’s because I’ve bought it, used it and benefited from it. Yes, I might get a small affiliate commission if you buy it (as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases), but it won’t cost you any extra. Besides, you needn't buy it through me, and if you don’t think it’ll help you, then don’t buy it from anywhere. 

I met a guy 30 years ago that believed there were three things that take turns saving your life – your family, your work… and music. He said that at different times, one of them will be the only thing to stop you going crazy.

Certainly, my family, my work, and definitely music has each played role in keeping the men in white suits at bay, but I can add two more: the great outdoors (particularly the Victorian High Country and NSW desert regions), and photography.

When I was a relentlessly bullied teenager, camping with my dad was the one thing that kept me sane. The bush felt like home. It didn't judge me, didn't lie to me, and it didn't prey on my weaknesses. It embraced me.

Those years wandering the High Country exploring the Outback, sitting around a campfire and riding mountain trails with my best friend saved me over and over again. I think it saved my dad, too.

As an adult, I've rediscovered the power of nature to heal. Being outdoors and feeling it on my skin and in my lungs feels good. It feels right. But combine it with a camera, and you then have one of the greatest therapies for stressed-out, jaded, tired-of-the-routine people like me.

Like so many of you, I've spent the better part of my adult life chasing things. A better car, a bigger house, gadgets and toys. Stuff.

Not that there's anything inherently wrong with stuff if it genuinely brings us joy. The trouble is, though, most of us do things we don't enjoy to get that stuff. And as the misery and boredom and stress slowly eat away at us, we acquire more stuff to soften the blow – or at least justify the extra work we're doing to pay for it all.

It becomes a vicious cycle of working to acquire and then acquiring more to justify the work.

I've always advocated doing whatever you can to change how, where and when you work so you can develop greater agency over your life. Working from home has been my solution for the last 20 years, and it's allowed me to live and work pretty much as I choose. I've produced countless posts and podcast episodes on this topic alone.

But assuming you achieve that freedom (and thanks to COVID-19, millions have), the question becomes, what do you do with it? For many, it's been a chance to start a side-hustle, spend more time with the kids or engage with their unique passions.

For me, it's been all three. But in late 2020 I rediscovered my truest and most enduring passion. Landscape photography.

Matter of fact, it gripped so hard that I know this is it for me. I'll be shooting landscapes for the next 50 years – assuming I crack 100.

When I jump in my 4-wheel-drive with my camera bag and tripod, I am instantly at ease. My breathing settles and my eyes open. I see the beauty in everything – the curve on a hill, the arc of a shadow, a lone tree, the backlit grass. It reminds me just how lucky I am to have my sight, my sense of smell and touch, and my hearing.

I feel human again – connected to everything around me – rather than the passive but hurried observer that I've been for so long.

I am a landscape photographer again. It's good to be back.

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Affiliate Notice: If I recommend something to you, it’s because I’ve bought it, used it and benefited from it. Yes, I might get a small affiliate commission if you buy it (as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases), but it won’t cost you any extra. Besides, you needn't buy it through me, and if you don’t think it’ll help you, then don’t buy it from anywhere.