Photography and nature

This weekend my family took the opportunity of the weekend to visit my grandmother, who lives a considerably long drive away from the city. I always adore visiting her, because as well as meeting her I love interacting with the lush and green-filled environment that she lives in. Visiting her allows me to be a lot more active than I usually would be in a day, playing cricket with my cousins or simply exploring the forest-like area is something that we always do.

This time when visiting her I decided to document the usual walk that my cousin and I had through the utilization of photographs – this would exercise my creative side whilst simultaneously allowing me to hold keepsakes of the things that I wouldn’t usually see at home in the city. My cousin was a lot more knowledgeable about where the most picturesque parts of my grandma’s hometown are, therefore, he was exceptionally helpful in guiding me to where I could potentially take photos. In return, as he also decided to take pictures as references for an upcoming art project, I was able to teach him tips on editing and what would make certain photos look best. I really felt that the two of us worked together really well and were able to complete our tasks to the best of our ability.

In interconnection to the photography, I believe that the gorgeous nature around me really inspired me to take pictures that portrayed the beauty in it, and I think that the mellow lighting of the sun helped quite a lot too. My creative side was able to thrive in working with angles and colors in order to capture the best of what I was taking pictures of. I was able to manipulate certain lighting to get the tone/ atmosphere of the picture to one I desired, and was quite satisfied with the results that I yielded with this.

Of course, all the walking around the area in order to get the best photographs contributed immensely to the Action side of this activity as well. Due to poor signal, my cousin and I weren’t able to use an app to track how far we walked, however, we can confirm that it was multiple times longer and more strenuous than our usual walks – we almost got in trouble with our mothers due to coming home late! As the two of us were able to take breaks when taking the pictures, neither found the long walk to be overly exhaustive.

When recalling it from memory, I felt that my stamina and balance on rather unstable grounds have really improved since the last time I went on this walk. This was something that I was rather content to have seen progress in, as stamina is something I am highly keen on improving – having stamina that lasts for a longer amount of time is infinitely useful in other sports that I plan on taking up later on. A good balance would come in very utilizable as well, as it would avoid any injury and better aim in both boxing and badminton. However, in regard to areas of improvement, I think that I definitely need to work more on my hamstring and knee strength – they are both areas focused on in various sports therefore I would like to progress in exercising them. This was because eventually, although my stamina was good, I did feel a strain on my knees after the walk.

Learning outcomes:

• LO5 – Working collaboratively with others
  • I couldn’t have gone on this walk and taken pictures of this quality without the help of my cousin, I believe that our teamwork when going through with this activity was highly beneficial and allowed us both to have a lot of fun.
  • Furthermore, I think that both of us were able to collaborate in an effective method that fulfilled both of the projects that we were undergoing (mine with CAS and his with his art project).

• LO1 – Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth.
  • I believe that during this activity I had been able to acknowledge areas of improvement and weaknesses especially in the Action aspect of today’s session. This can be observed through the targets that I have set for myself and the things talked about which I stated growth in.
  • I think that this activity – going on walks – can relate strongly to my long-term Action activity of improving my body fitness, agility, etc. as it would aid in exercising my glutes, ankles, and hamstrings primarily.