All photos ©Martha Brettschneider/Damselwings Photography
We walked single file through the dense, dripping jungle of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Our family’s two local guides seemed to have night vision lenses implanted in their eyeballs as they scanned the shadows and tree canopy for wildlife.
Relieved I didn’t have to navigate directions (a missing link in my DNA), I rested my attention on the cacophony of bird song and monkey calls, noticing as well the alternating squishing and sucking sounds my rubber boots made as I tried to keep up with the group on the muddy trail.
Suddenly our leaders stopped, listening intently, looking overhead. Dolf, our English-speaking guide and walking encyclopedia of his native jungle’s flora and fauna, set up his tripod telescope and quickly found a tiny owl about a hundred feet up in a tree.
“Can you see it, Martha? Did you get a shot?” my husband asked excitedly.
I didn’t see it, because my attention was glued to THE MOST FASCINATING VINE ON THE PLANET. Swagged like a wedding decoration and symmetrically kinked, I couldn’t see where it began or ended. I was mesmerized.
“Did you get the owl, Martha?” my husband said again. “It’s right up there!”
I looked “up there” and didn’t see it. By this point Dolf had repositioned the telescope in a different direction to view two tiny night monkeys peeking out of a hollow trunk about 300 feet away. He was taking amazing photos and video of the monkeys with his phone through the telescope, and sharing the images with my family.
When I still couldn’t spot the owl, Dolf pointed his laser light into the canopy above our heads. I finally made out the little shadow of puffy feathers amidst the leaves.
The longest lens I had brought with me was a Sony 70-200 with a 1.4x extender. I had made intentional decisions about how much weight I was willing to carry on our hikes, knowing fully that this lens would often fall short for bird photography. I was OK with that. This was a family trip, not a photography trip, with little time for tripod set up or fiddling with settings or “waiting” of any kind when the group was constantly on the move.
Wrong lens, tripod packed away, low light = no way am I going to get a satisfactory image of that owl. But my husband really wanted me to try, because I had the fancy camera and that had become my role over the years — to get the shots my family wanted to remember.
I took a few crappy shots of the owl to appease him, but with no joy in the process. Each time I pointed my camera up to the shadow of feathers, the lens seemed to gravitate on its own back to THE MOST FASCINATING VINE ON THE PLANET. In the process, the emotional tone in my body went from flat (blurry owl image) to vibrant (coolest vine ever!).
And finally, the epiphany:
- I can step out of the rut of old habits.
- I can follow my own joy with my camera, even on family trips.
- I can let others document what they want to document.
- I can trust the direction my intuition takes me and say no to the lie of “shoulds.”
In that moment, I gained clarity about how I have evolved as a woman in all of my roles – wife, mother, daughter, friend (to others and myself), and creator. I felt like I shed an outgrown layer of skin and stepped into the warm embrace of the purest air in the world in that jungle.
A feeling of excitement and anticipation for my next chapter of life filled me to the brim. I have so much more growing to do creatively. I have so much more learning ahead of me. I have so much more purpose and meaning to explore and share in my own unique ways.
Bringing mindfulness to my photography practice – or better put, engaging photography as a channel of my attention and awareness practice – has transformed my life. I always feel I have so much more to learn about my camera and how to leverage it to create meaningful pictures that reflect the lessons Nature teaches me.
Rather than being frustrated with what I don’t know, this thirst for new learning keeps me going (and growing). Even more important than the camera skills is the liberation from thoughts that don’t serve me in my creative process or my life in general. This is the true power of mindfulness.
New Mindful Photography Workshop Coming Up!
We’ll dive more deeply into these themes in the Mindful Photography in Nature 3-Part Workshop in November 2024 that I am co-facilitating with Melissa Maillett and Sarah Raposa. If you live in the Washington, DC, metro area or close to Shenandoah National Park (the entrance to which is just minutes from the location of our day-long in-person experience), perhaps this offering calls to you. All skill levels are welcome, and no fancy cameras are required. To learn more visit our event page HERE.
In the meantime, here are some of my favorite images (which include some smartphone shots) from our first visit to the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park. I say “first” because I started some conversations there that I need to continue one day when I am not hurrying to keep up with a group…
For more stories about our May 2024 travels to the Galapagos Islands prior to our stop in the Amazon, check out Blue-footed Awe, Galapagos Sea Lion Encounters, and My Magnificent Frigate Bird Meditation Teacher.
