Natural landscapes are complex. Working landscapes are complexity plus disruption. In other words, we add variables to the complexity because we are altering systems that we may never fully understand. As land managers, we need more than just dry, precise science to relate to it. We need to unleash the abstract and creative power of human imagination.
I have come to believe that managing farming activities within a complex living system is more about navigation and less about control. This was a hard concept for me to embrace initially, having grown up in a conventional farming culture. Then, over a period of 20 years or so, I became so immersed in modern environmental science which has gotten really good at measuring things. This amazing ability to measure can create a false sense of knowing. In the recent past, I have gotten so emotionally and intellectually vested in the science of my management that I realized I was making myself blind and numb to the natural world around me! In science I had found certainty in my management choices but I lost my perspective and my connection. I had stopped seeing the fields through the data.
Coming out the other end, I now feel that science, like all endeavors, is only a part of the whole picture. Science is an objective approach to observing a phenomenon and this is an important tool for discovering our world. However, I would add that living and working on land is also an art form. By art form, I mean "any activity regarded as a medium of imaginative or creative self-expression" (Oxford Dictionary).
The decisions we make on our working lands are a reflection of how we see the world. Listening to our feelings and tapping into our emotional intelligence make our decisions more and more a reflection of our creativity and imagination. Photography is such a powerful land management tool because it captures complexity, triggers complex thinking and unleashes the creative power of imagination. There are varied ways that well organized photographs help us to be imaginative and creative in our land management choices.
Grazing activities, plantings, seeding and land treatments can be more easily recorded by simply taking a photo of the event. Photos have a lot of information embedded in the image. You can tell where you did it, when you did, and what you did. You also get the added benefit of seeing that activity in the context of the general conditions such as climate (dry period verses lush, etc.) and which tools you used.
Over time, a well organized photo collection becomes a valuable tool for observing trends and discovering new patterns. Photos are like quick notes to ourselves and this photo journalling can uncover deep insights about changes over time. Document how your fields are evolving, establish cues for when to expect certain species and where. For example, the growing abundance of meadowlarks and grasshopper sparrows, when the wild nuts and fruits are nearing ripening or when the annual Monarch Butterfly migration happens. There are so many possibilities!
Many land regeneration strategies take multiple years to come to fruition. Using visuals to record subtle changes over time is a great affirmation of your strategies. It can be intimidating to try a new land practice. However, a few years later with photos, you can see it all come together. I can not overstate how important this self recognition is to feeding your imagination and creativity!
A good photo can capture details that you only notice after going back and looking more closely. This is one of my greatest pleasures in taking good quality photos, particularly macro photos. Discovering the very small world operating on the farm, seeing things in the landscape that I missed at the time I pushed the shutter button. These images are the most profound in changing my thinking about how things are working on the land. The details, patterns and colors all collide in my head and trigger really interesting questions and observations of the ecologies at work on the farm! See how this single Milkweed blossom on a single day in July hosts an array of species.