Category Archives: Nature Photography

Breathing in the sweet scent of coyote bush and listening to the gentle drone of bees, a feeling of well-being washes over me. I’m outside a special cabin in the Santa Cruz Mountains trying the latest trend in healthcare in the heart of Silicon Valley.

This isn’t some costly high-tech treatment — it’s a dose of nature, which some Bay Area doctors have begun prescribing alongside traditional remedies.

Research shows spending time in nature can lower blood pressure, anxiety and stress levels. In recent years, Bay Area doctors and organizations such as the Institute at the Golden Gate, which is part of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, and the nationwide Parks RX, have begun taking a more proactive approach to connect people with nature.

Dr. Laurie Bostick Cammon participates in Santa Clara County’s Juntos Initiative at the Pediatric Healthy Lifestyle Center in Santa Clara, writing prescriptions for her patients to spend time outside.

“Even if you can’t do a lot of adventuring or hiking, going for a walk or even just sitting in nature is good for your health,” she says.

But you don’t need a doctor’s prescription to immerse yourself in nature. The Bay Area has 4.4 million acres of open space available to everyone, whatever their ability. If you need a little inspiration, here are just a few of the physician-approved places where you can hike, play, sleep or just sit outdoors.

East Bay parks

Alameda and Contra Costa counties run several Park RX programs, including a successful collaboration with Oakland’s UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, which has helped more than 3,300 children and their families visit local parks for outdoor activities. And the East Bay Regional Park District, which oversees 100,000 acres of parkland in both counties, makes it easy for everyone to get out into nature with free guided walks and activities.

Easy day trips: Join one of the free Multicultural Wellness Walks hosted on eight Saturdays a year that draw 50 to 60 people — from kindergartners to octogenarians — each time. Join the walk at Berkeley’s Tilden Nature Area from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Aug. 26, 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sept. 16 at Castro Valley’s Lake Chabot and 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 28 at Martinez’s Briones Regional Park. The Park District also runs regular bird-watching walks, which are free and available to everyone. Find details at www.ebparks.org/recreation/hiking.

Overnight jaunts: Skip the Tahoe crowds and head to Del Valle Park Regional Park, ten miles south of Livermore. This East Bay gem is a warm-weather oasis, with a five-mile-long lake, sandy swimming beach and boat rentals — and five cabins you can book for an overnight stay. (The campground is still closed due to winter storm damage.)

From the marina car park, take the East Shore Trail south for a flat, paved trail to the swimming beach. For a more challenging hike, head north and cut inland along the Ridgeline Loop for spectacular views over the lake.

Find details on other East Bay Regional Parks, including several with campgrounds for families, groups or backpackers, at https://www.ebparks.org.

South Bay sunshine

Santa Clara County regularly offers hikes and activities to families through its parks and Santa Clara Medical Center. And if you’re looking for themed outdoor experiences, families can learn about gardening through the Veggielution program at San Jose’s Emma Prusch Farm and local wildlife via guided hikes at San Jose’s Santa Teresa Park.

Easy day trips: Veggielution Community Farm is open on Friday and Saturday mornings to anyone who wants to learn gardening skills and volunteer at the six-acre farm — and you can buy produce from the Veggielution farm stand on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 647 S. King Road. Learn more and register to volunteer at https://veggielution.org/.

And local parks offer easy guided hikes of every variety, from a forest bathing experience — Showers of Bliss at Saratoga’s Sanborn from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Sept. 10 —  to a ranger-led redwood exploration at Watsonville’s Mt. Madonna County Park from 4 to 6 p.m. Sept. 19.

Overnight jaunts: Mt. Madonna has yurts available to rent at its camping area, offering an easy way for families to try out camping without investing in a ton of equipment. Tent campers and RVers are also welcome.

This beautiful park features a diverse terrain of oak woodland and pristine redwood forest. In summer and early fall, the shady forest is a welcome escape from the heat. For an easy walk, take the one-mile Miller trail to explore the crumbling remains of timber baron Henry Miller’s former summer home. Find Santa Clara County Parks details at https://parks.sccgov.org

If you prefer your outdoor experiences with less rustic sleeping arrangements, Land of Medicine Buddha is a peaceful Buddhist retreat hidden in Soquel. The simple rooms are free from electronic distractions, and guests can hike, swim in the spring-fed pool and enjoy a massage. Find details at https://landofmedicinebuddha.org/.

Peninsula pursuits

in San Mateo County, the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) collaboration with the San Mateo Medical Center’s Park Rx program extends beyond trails and parks. It includes a beautifully renovated cabin, conceived as a place for healing and nature immersion high in the Santa Cruz Mountains near LaHonda and Loma Mar.

Easy day trips: Hiking trails and nature activities abound in these county parks, and special events add to the outdoor fun. Woodside’s Wunderlich County Park, for example, will host a family fun day from 1 to 4 p.m. Aug. 27, complete with petting zoo and pony rides. Woodside’s Huddart Park will hold a wheelchair- and stroller-friendly Community Nature Day from 1 to 3 p.m. Sept. 30 that includes nature games, meditation and “Walks With Your Doctor.”

In the age of the selfie taking photos of yourself has become an everyday occurrence. Half of all teenagers regularly post selfies. Driven by social media algorithms, many of us now flock to natural places for the best selfie background.

But what happens when our pursuit of the perfect selfie starts damaging nature – or even ourselves? Many people have been severely injured or killed by taking risky selfies and photos in dangerous locations. Indian researchers catalogued 259 selfie-related deaths worldwide as of 2018.

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Read more:
Dangerous selfies aren’t just foolish. We need to treat them like the public health hazard they really are

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And the search for the perfect selfie can injure animals like quokkas, crayfish and glow-worms, protected plants and even First Nations rock art. Selfies have even become a biosecurity threat.

Spare a thought for our land managers, tasked with caring for the natural places sometimes despoiled for a photo and emergency workers entrusted with rescuing selfie-seekers. As our new research has found, Australia’s land managers are often at their wit’s end trying to keep people safe in nature.

The problem? Fences and warning signs don’t work well. Hardcore selfie-seekers jump the fence and perch on the edge of the cliff to get the shot. We may well need selfie educational campaigns.

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Read more:
Instagram is making you a worse tourist – here’s how to travel respectfully

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Selfies make a new brand of tourist

Social media tourism is drastically changing who and how many of us go to places such as Figure Eight Pools in Sydney’s Royal National Park or Josephine Falls not far from Cairns.

As one land manager told us:

We noticed a massive increase in the number of people, and the kind of visitor that we were getting. We’re getting a lot more people who are maybe urban based, didn’t spend a lot of time in national parks, weren’t particularly familiar with the concept of bushwalking

Land managers told us these new kinds of tourist were motivated to seek out photos and selfies. The problem was, many were willing to ignore warning signs or bans on drones to get their photos.

You know, it’s all just to get that photo, really. That’s it. People definitely, more so now than ever, I think, are coming for the photo. They’re not coming for a bushwalk and to look around at the trees and to experience nature.

Drone use is common, even when it is banned.

They break the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) rules [on drones], every flipping day, they annoy the people, the guests, the wildlife […] I’ve got eight crashed drones in the park currently [risking] environmental harm to the park if they catch fire or the batteries leak in the World Heritage area, in the creeks where the rare crayfish are.

For other land managers, the challenge is the damage to the environment. Plants get trampled, wildlife disturbed, and in some cases, delicate ecosystems suffer long-term damage.

Someone goes swimming, puts it on social media and suddenly there’s 100 people a day coming to go wild swimming where the platypus and the glow-worms live. And in a wet year, suddenly all the vegetation around the rock pool is trampled, it turns into a muddy mess

Mainstream tourism bodies can make the problem worse by promoting social media hotspot locations.

I was horrified the other day noticing promotions for these Figure Eight pools. I just thought, “You’ve gotta be kidding me. How many times have we told the tourism industry to stop it?”

Safe selfies?

Perhaps the thorniest challenge for land managers is accommodating increased interest while keeping people safe. That’s because selfie-seekers sometimes deliberately avoid safety measures like fences. As one land manager told us:

They want to get a photo without a fence in it. Look at me with my toes over the edge of the crumbly sandstone cliff.

Other land managers are working to assist this new demand by reshaping nature to make better scenery – and keep visitors safer. At Moran Falls in Queensland’s Lamington National Park, a famous view across the gorge had been obscured by vegetation. That drove some visitors to jump the fence at the viewing platform and stand directly on top of a very tall cliff.

As a solution, land managers got an arborist to trim the trees blocking the view and then use the fallen limbs to hide the goat track made by selfie-seekers.

Once we improved the view and the photo shot, people were happy to take the photo from the platform. But when the view was impeded from the platform, they would undertake risky behaviour and stand on top of a 300ft cliff, right on the edge, to get the photo.

Why do traditional measures like signs and warnings often prove ineffective? The answer may lie in social validation. For many, the risk seems worth the reward if it means garnering admiration on social media.

Nature-based content on platforms like Instagram and TikTok often performs very well, giving other would-be influencers the incentive to seek out new locations.

What can we do?

Land managers have repeatedly told us signs aren’t working for these new tourists. As a result, there’s an urgent need to communicate risk and safety information in novel ways which resonate.

The tools land managers have are often preventive – barriers, boardwalks and signs, coupled with punitive measures such as fines. But this isn’t working.

Better risk communication, as New South Wales authorities are doing with time-sensitive risk warnings for Figure Eight Pools, may help.

Our research points to the need for fresh strategies to tackle social media hotspots and selfie-seeking by understanding what drives social-media tourists, improving risk communication and developing partnerships.

This problem has been created by the confluence of social media and human psychology. It may well be that the solution lies in the same intersection.

Responsible selfie and tourism campaigns on platforms like TikTok and Instagram could be a start.

After all, it’s not that national parks shouldn’t have visitors. It’s finding ways to deal with this spurt of interest which doesn’t harm people – or nature.

Property Brothers star Drew Scott pulled out all the stops when it came to decorating son Parker’s nursery! In the latest glimpse of his only child’s room on August 20, the doting dad showed off a very unique piece of furniture.

Drew snapped a picture of his wife, Linda Phan, lounging on a U-shaped chair in the center of Parker’s nursery. “Date nights lately,” he captioned the candid Instagram snap. In the background of the photo, Parker’s adorable wardrobe and colorful collection of toys were on display. 

The unique seat is actually part of a small jungle gym that Drew, 45, and Linda, 38, installed for their son. The pieces come apart and can be put back together easily, allowing Parker to play and climb around the room whenever he wants. 

Drew and Linda welcomed their first child together in May 2022. In the months leading up to parenthood, the couple excitedly decorated Parker’s room with a nature theme in mind. 

“We wanted to create a place filled with whimsy, adventure and love, and the theme of nature kept coming to us,” Drew said in October 2022. “We want to instill in Parker the passion for the natural world that we have.”

The HGTV personality candidly revealed the sweet personal touch that he added to the room — bringing in the same cradle he and his brothers, Jonathan and J.D. Scott, slept in as babies. 

“It was wrapped in a blue tarp for four decades and it sat in their barn for the most part,” Drew shared of the decision to restore the cradle after his parents packed it away. “And so, it was in rough shape.”

The couple called Anthony, their construction lead, to help bring the cradle back to life with a few adjustments. 

“Can you imagine that Jonathan and I were both in it together at the same time?” Drew asked his wife in a video about the story behind the cradle. “I have pictures of me and Jonathan as babies in this. I think it would be really cool to get our baby in that and send it to Mom and Dad.”

Since becoming parents to Parker, Drew and Linda have been very honest about adjusting to the changes made to their sleep schedules and daily routines. Still, they wouldn’t trade parenthood for the world. 

“We’re still catching up on sleep whenever we can, but every moment we spend with Parker is the best moment of our lives,” Drew gushed of fatherhood. “We’re tired, happy parents.”

There is an oft quoted saying, “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” It is attributed to Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, believed to have lived in the sixth century B.C. Back then I’m sure just about all journeys were made on foot. Today’s daily photojournalism forays technically start with a first step: waking up. But the trusty photo vehicle is enlisted for each day’s journeys.

Driving Cape Cod is challenging any time of year. For this slow-moving motorist, always on the lookout for an interesting photograph, it can be downright maddening. I wouldn’t want to walk to each assignment, but when several assignments stack up in Hyannis, I park at the Main Street office and walk. This removes the biggest challenge any driver faces, where to park.

If you are carrying a camera, the art of seeing can be practiced to a high level on foot. But most days the travel pace is at least 30 miles per hour. If something catches my eye, it is likely in the rearview mirror by the time I can pull over and backtrack to the subject. This abrupt technique defeats just about any chance of a subtle approach, scaring away wildlife and humans alike.

Days sometimes turn into weeks when looking for interesting photos that turn out to be failures. When all seems lost, on the busiest of days, photo ops pop up everywhere, if only I was walking. Last Tuesday, driving in West Yarmouth, a flock of male turkeys, all puffed up and looking for action, circled around a bird bath drinking. Traffic was heavy and a string of tailgaters were already aggrieved about my speed. By the time I could double back, the turkey boys were done with their libations and had moved back to pecking at the grass.

More: Photo Shoot: Misadventures in bird photography

Traveling the homestretch back on Route 6A, another moment of nature was playing out. It looked like it could end in a fatality. What first appeared to be a leaf skittering across the road turned out to be a young snapping turtle, taking determined steps across the highway. Fast-moving traffic didn’t see the animal, just past the center line and heading north. Again traffic on my tail prevented a sudden stop. On the busy road, it took almost five minutes to reverse direction and find a place to safely pull over. The turtle had miraculously crossed the busy state highway. It was reluctant to pose, I backed away and stood guard until it made it into the woods.

It was a brave single step that started that snapper’s purposeful journey, an inspiration for all who navigate Cape highways in summer.

Steve Heaslip is the Times’ chief photographer. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter/X: @cctphoto

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Photo Shoot: The First Step

Irwin shares her 2-year-old daughter with husband Chandler Powell

Bindi Irwin’s daughter is making sure her family is photo ready.

In an adorable photo series shared on the nature conservationist’s Instagram, Irwin’s 2-year-old daughter Grace holds a hairbrush as she stands between her grandma Terri Irwin, 59, and dad Chandler Powell, 26. Bindi, 25, snaps a photo as the four of them smile together.

“Grace has her hairbrush at the ready to make sure we all look our best,” the proud mom wrote in the caption. “These are the little moments I will cherish for the rest of my life.”

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Related: Bindi Irwin Admires the ‘World’s Magic’ with Her 2-Year-Old Daughter Grace: ‘My Sweet Girl’

Earlier this week, Irwin shared a sweet photo to her Instagram Story of herself and her daughter as they admired the “world’s magic” while sitting together on the forest floor. Wearing a green baseball cap and a khaki-colored shirt, Irwin held her daughter while they looked out at a nature scene.

“Admiring the world’s magic with my sweet girl,” she wrote across the photo, where the little girl sat on her mom’s lap.

In March, Irwin posted photos from her daughter’s second birthday party, writing in the caption “Garden party with our birthday girl. .”

In the first image, Grace wore a cute striped dress and floral bow, and held up a “Happy birthday” sign and a festive party hat.

In the other, she’s shown positioned in front of a wall of trees, as she sat at a decorative table with Doug the Pug party favors and a massive cake to her side.

Prior to her birthday party, Bindi marked her daughter’s birthday with a special message shared on Instagram.

“Our TWO year old girl! Happy Birthday to my whole world. ,” she wrote alongside photos of herself, Powell, and Grace.

“Grace Warrior, you are the sunshine that fills our lives,” the mom of one continued. “Every day I am amazed by your hundreds of words and smiles, fascination for the natural world/every animal you discover and your adventurous soul.”

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Read the original article on People.

Instagram-worthy fields of blooming sunflowers are proving a big hit for farmers, thanks to visitors sharing their beautifully curated images on social media.

Content creator Stacey recently shared a photo of herself sitting on a swing in a field full of sunflowers – it quickly attracted more than 1,000 likes and scores of admiring comments.

“Whenever I post anything with sunflowers it always has huge interactions,” said Stacey.

The 36-year-old from Pontyclun, Rhondda Cynon Taf, said sunflowers made the perfect backdrop for a social media image.

“There’s that contrast of the yellow flower and the blue of the sky which is so eye-catching,” she said.

“You can’t look at a picture of sunflowers and not feel happy and it makes you feel joyful just walking around them.”

Stacey said she was thrilled if her social media posts encouraged others to visit.

“Getting out in nature is so good for our wellbeing and it’s a good way of increasing tourism… and then obviously they’re good for bees and insects,” she said.

Stacey’s photos were taken at Rhossili Sunflowers on south Wales’ Gower peninsular, one of the many sunflower visitor attractions that have sprung up across the UK.

It is run by fifth generation farmer Rob Morgan, who set up the attraction four years ago in a bid to “diversify to survive”.

He said it had been non-stop since opening their doors to the public on 10 July.

“People love the whole experience from leaving their car,” he said.

“The walk out to Rhossili Bay, then the multitude of different flowers and wildlife, the bees, birds, butterflies, the porpoises in the bay, seals, sea birds, choughs.”

He said the positive influence social media had had on his business was “huge” as it “motivates people to get out”.

“Some of the photos are unbelievable… people love posing for their pictures with their loved ones, dogs and children.”

He admitted there had been occasions where the beautifully curated images had not reflected the reality of the visit.

“I’ve had couples here who have argued, had a terrible time, and then all you see is this lovely picture on Instagram,” he laughed.

Portia Jones, a travel journalist and host of Travel Goals Podcast, said the success was down to farmers like Rob “understanding the social media appeal and then leaning into it”.

“They’re creating backdrops, plots, letting people pick their own flowers – it’s brilliant from their perspective isn’t it because the customers are doing the advertising for you,” she said.

“There are even guides online now about how to take the best sunflower pictures – what time of day, what you should wear.”

With sunflowers currently in full bloom, the flower is having its moment in the sun on social media too.

“People want to jump onto whatever’s popular and sunflowers at the moment are in their peak period,” said Portia.

But what drives so many of us to want to share our days out on social media?

“On a much deeper level I think we’re all moving towards ‘brand me’,” she said.

“Once upon a time social media was for seeing what your friends are up to and now it’s for telling people what you’re up to.

“It’s creating this image of a digital self. I’m just as guilty, I post loads of pictures!”

Every year, on August 19, we observe World Photography Day – a globally recognized celebration of the photograph and its history. What actually is World Photography Day, though, and why does it take place on this particular date?

This is the date that recognizes the invention of the Daguerrotype, a process that was devised by the French artist and photographer, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre in 1837. His idea was then effectively sold to the French Academy of Sciences, which subsequently gifted the process to the world on 19 August 1839.

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The idea to recognize World Photography Day as we know it now didn’t take hold until 1991 – and for that, we can thank respected Indian photographer OP Sharma.

“The idea came to me in 1988 when, over and over again, in various publications that documented the history of photography, I came across this date: 19 August 1839,” he told Harmony – Celebrate Age magazine. “It was recorded as the date on which the then French government announced the invention of the Daguerreotype process of photography as a ‘free gift to the world’.

“I proposed the idea to several masters and photographers around the world, about 150 of them, including the RPS and the Photographic Society of America (PSA)… by the beginning of 1991, everyone took a unanimous decision and we started celebrating World Photography Day that year.”

What is a Daguerreotype?

Louis Daguerre was an artist and physicist who also became a famous theatre designer. He was the business partner of inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, whose heliography method is the forebear of the photographic process. Niépce’s image View From The Window At Le Gras, recorded on a polished sheet of pewter plate coated with light-sensitive bitumen in 1826, is the earliest surviving permanent image from nature.

Daguerre, however, developed his own unique process following Niépce’s death in 1933. He invented the Daguerreotype in 1837, which was a positive image recorded on a copper plate coated with silver iodide. Latent images produced in-camera were developed by exposure to mercury vapor, and were then fixed by a strong salt solution.

Daguerre sold his process to the French Academy of Sciences in exchange for an annual pension of 6,000 francs, in addition to an annual stipend of 4,000 francs to the Niépce estate. The process was announced on 7 January 1839, and full details were given ‘free to the world’ on 19 August that year – except in Great Britain, where a patent was filed by Daguerre’s agent.

When was the first photograph of a person?

Each daguerreotype was unique and couldn’t be reproduced except by re-photographing the image or the scene itself. Even so, they quickly became very popular.

Daguerre’s View Of The Boulevard du Temple, taken from the window of his apartment in Paris in 1838, is a unique example of early street photography that includes the first known recorded image of a human being.

It shows a busy Parisian street that would have been filled with people and carriages. However, the 10-15 minute exposure meant that none of them stayed still for long enough to be recorded. The one exception is a man having his shoes shined in the bottom-left corner. Has he appeared by accident, or did Daguerre ask him to pose?

Samuel Morse noted on seeing this picture in 1839: “Objects moving are not impressed… Consequently, his boots and legs are well defined, but he is without body or head because these were in motion.”

So, now you know where World Photography Day comes from, celebrate the occasion by getting out there and shooting your own images to ‘gift to the world’ – share them on social media with the hashtag #WorldPhotographyDay, and make sure to tag us on  Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!

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