Beginning the exploration...

Okay so here goes nothing...

So I am new to this whole blogging business, but as a prospective future journalist I figured I should give it a go, so that I can start exploring some of the themes and ideas that I want to look at in my future career. I am currently at University studying English Literature, but here is the twist - I am mad about wildlife! Books are an interest but the great outdoors is my passion, really you're probably wondering why on Earth I am studying English, well it's really just a means of giving me the tools I need to fully exploit my passion and share it with others!

This first blog, my very first, is concerned with where I began as an amateur photographer aged 7 or 8 when I was bought my first "digital camera". At the time this was a 4 million megapixel fujufilm with very limited features but I snapped a magnificent "hairy" Caterpillar. Compare this to my current two cameras of choice, my beautiful Nikon 1 J2 or my ever impressive Nikon D3000 then you can see how far the digital age has advanced even in my short lifetime of 19 years. However, no matter what the camera you are using, I feel that this new click and delete digital age has allowed a huge expansion in the exploration of the natural world because now you can simply keep going until you get it right.

So aged 7 or 8 I was probably, being a huge tomboy, lurking around in some dirt or grass somewhere, encountering the world in a very tactile way. My parents always encouraged the outdoors and in hindsight I can see, aside from the excitement of the dirt, why. It is magical. As a child you see things which as an adult you do not, likewise as a child our perception of things is far more innocent. I am of the belief that we would not fear spiders if someone else had never said that they were scary. For this reason I think it is important that all of us at some point take a step back and sit on the floor and engage with the little things that make our world what it is! At 7 or 8 I knew only of butterflies, spiders and bugs, now aged 19, and having refused to let go of my childish inquisition I know of Common Blue Butterflies, Emerald damselflies, Hawker Dragonflies - all the same things but an increase in knowledge has allowed to me appreciate them all separately. 

Throughout this blog therefore I want to explore my return to childhood, using my new adult knowledge and my more advanced equipment, and try to capture the world at my feet which was once hand height. I live in the bountiful North Yorkshire, a location which can to a British citizen seem to be just another place in the UK however I urge everyone to explore the UK when they can! I have travelled abroad and think it is fantastic don't get me wrong, but I think it was the time spent in the very different foreign countries that made me truly appreciate what it is that we have here in the UK right on our doorsteps, right under our feet.

From now on I will be recording what it is that I find under my feet when I step out into the beautiful world around me...

Naomi