Lets Connect

Connectivity is the most important tool in your creative armoury

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I have just added several new workshops for 2026 to my website. Next year will be the last time I run retreats and workshops like this so if you haven’t joined me yet, but want to there won’t be another chance. Retreats for 2025 and 2026 are as follows Etrh, Cornwall, Romania, Prussia Cove, Cornwall Iona, Scotland,

Since moving to Cornwall I have discovered a new path for the way I work with photography and with people, one I hope to share at some point but not yet.

You can read all the details and sign up if you wish by visiting https://www.discoverstill.com/retreats

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Volleyball Net

I love seeing with curiosity, finding joy in a moment that reflects the felt sense of a moment frozen in time by my camera. This volleyball net fascinated me, the wind whipping the surface of the water around it as it flapped feebly in the air, but in its space it commanded my attention. Photography is a time to pause and set yourself against the busyness of the world.

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Hi,

How are you all?

I have had a pause from all things social media recently, in fact I have gained back two hours a day by not browsing Instagram and other apps. Two hours a day is a lot of time to lose to something that feeds insecurity and doubt (mostly), although I do acknowledge that used sensibly, it is great for keeping abreast of what friends and family are doing.

During my time away I have enjoyed walking, swimming in the sea, photography and painting I have also been reading and re-reading books that resonate with me, there are three that really keep delivering and I would urge people to read them, keep them with you and refer to them in quiet times.

The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh

The Healing Power of Nature: Van Gogh

Letters to a Young Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke

Two of these were recommended to me by my friend and talented photographer Colin Brett he thinks in a similar way to me.

In each of these books the importance of being your best authentic self and retaining a deep love and connection with nature is repeated time and time again. I think this message is more important now than ever.

Why?

Well it seems to me that the human race has become literally a race, a race to see who can do the most, share the most and lose sight of themselves the most, we have sadly joined a competition with everyone on the planet for attention, like children wishing for more love from a parent we post our lives for others to judge or like, offering these strangers the chance to issue messages of hate, critical acclaim or complete dis-interest. None of these responses are healthy for our self esteem.

But does this modern need to to overshare reveal anything more to ourselves about who we really are or, what we really like.

Firstly I must look at why I share on social media; I share because I want to help people find a deeper connection with their life, in the same way as I did. My aim is not fame or fortune or free stuff - although I do try to sell my workshops - I don’t want you to be like me or photograph like me, I just want to share some lessons that were painful for me to go through so that hopefully you can either find a way back to who you are or avoid burnout.

In reading these books again and again I realise that the way I try to live my life is not new, it certainly is more difficult now in the age of distraction, but the message is the same as Rilke, Van Gogh and countless other have advised. Spend time, with nature, in nature and become nature.

Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo in January 1874 “do go on doing a lot of walking and keep up your love of nature, for that is the right way to understand art better and better. Painters understand nature and love her and how she teaches us to see” (the translation from old Dutch varies slightly)

I think we could fairly say artists these days instead of just painters, artists like you and me, people who create often and freely.

I have a little challenge for you, the next time you are tempted to pick up your device to see what the world is doing, catch yourself, put the device down and look out of the window, walk in the fresh air, sit against a tree and really experience what the world is the doing, the real world. Breathe in deeply and out slowly, commit the experience to memory fully, the textures, smells, colours, sounds, live that moment, life is for experiences.

Not wanting to contradict my message I have a book coming out in the New Year here is link to the Google Books page where you can preorder it if you would enjoy reading how I find beauty in the most mundane moments of my day.

Thank you for your time today

Best wishes

Paul

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If you are interested in beginning your practice of still life photography I am offering 121 workshops at my studio. These sessions will cover lighting and camera craft but more importantly subject choice, composition and expression. The cost of a day in my studio is £280 which includes lunch, coffee and cake and collection from your hotel, rail station of Newquay Airport. Email me to start the conversation

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The retreats I am offering for 2025 are as follows:

Erth Cornwall Mindful Photography Retreat, 27- 31st October 2025 Last Places

Erth is special place sitting in the curve of a river just inside Cornwall. It is a place where time slows down allowing you to decompress by exploring your photographic creativity and leave with a handmade book of your images

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