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I found my voice in nature

It's been seven years since I left city life and my dreams of fashion and interior photography behind. The city was too noisy and the focus on career and consumption got to me. I sought something calmer and in the deep northern forests I found the quality of life I needed.

After moving I stood on the porch with my morning coffee, watching the fog dance across the lake. In the cold winter evenings I ran outside with my tripod to capture the northern lights. There and then something shifted in me, and I've been working as an outdoor and lifestyle photographer ever since.

Looking at the world through the viewfinder has given me a new appreciation for nature. It has made me care more about the environment, encouraged me to learn more about plants, animals and fungi, and even helped me combat a strong fear of insects. Using photography to capture nature and share it with others has made me grow so much as a person – I am stronger and braver than ever before, the city girl I once was is no more.

E-M5 Mark III • M.Zuiko Digital ED 20mm F1.4 PRO • 20mm • 1/400s • F4.0 • ISO400

The feeling of wind in my hair as I stand up high overlooking a beautiful landscape is worth something to me that I cannot put into words. I never had this feeling while living in the city.

What nature means to me

As nature grew to become a bigger part of my life, I realised that what truly matters are experiences, not things. I started to downshift and get rid of stuff I didn't need. I learned to say no to things that did not make me happy.

I also realised that those experiences did not have to happen far away on some grand adventure. If we slow down and are attentive to our surroundings, those wonderful moments can be found all around us in our everyday life. And photography is all about observing the world; with our images we can show others how we see things.

The forest is my workplace and I often find myself outside hiking, picking mushrooms, trying out outdoor clothes and gear or gathering around a fire with friends to talk about life, cook food and watch golden sunsets. I am lucky enough that it's my job to capture it all and use my photos to share it with the world. I think a part of why I shifted my focus to outdoor photography is because I hope my images will inspire others to head outside and find what I have found in nature.

E-M5 Mark III • M.Zuiko Digital ED 20mm F1.4 PRO • 20mm • 1/6400s • F1.8 • ISO200

Photography has helped me find my way in life and with my camera I navigate through nature in a new way.

E-M5 Mark III • M.Zuiko Digital ED 20mm F1.4 PRO • 20mm • 1/2500s • F2.2 • ISO200

Bringing a thermos of coffee and heading out to a lookout spot to enjoy a golden sunset is an amazing nearby adventure. There's something about that golden light and seeing the sun slowly move down behind the horizon that makes me feel alive!

Upshifting by going smaller

Despite downshifting in my life, I continued to haul a heavy DSLR and big lenses around for a long time. It never occurred to me that this was also an area where I could scale down and take some weight off my shoulders... literally. Until a friend opened up my eyes to Olympus.

I've now been using it since the autumn of 2019 and have never looked back. Reflecting on that, I find it interesting that I made that shift in the autumn. To me it's a season of a change, it feels like it's in autumn that the new year actually starts for me. It's in the autumn that we harvest what we've grown in the summer, storing it for winter. We pick mushrooms and berries, filling both freezer and pantry for the winter. We prepare for the dark months ahead. As we bundle up inside with thicker socks, warm soups and cosy candlelight we say goodbye to a year of warmth and light.

It's also my favourite season and inspires me and my work the most.

Capturing autumn

Working as an outdoor photographer means I spend long, active days outside moving through varied terrain with a lot of gear. My favourite lenses have always been the 17mm and 25mm F1.2 PRO, but sometimes I've had to make a choice about which lens to bring due to everything else I have to carry with me.

I need something that lets me capture the big pictures as well as close-ups. But now I don't have to choose anymore. I got to be one of the first to try the new M.Zuiko 20mm F1.4 PRO and found it to be the perfect focal length, in between my two favourites. It is a wonderfully versatile lens that enables me to capture everything that I need to without weighing me down or sacrificing high quality.

It feels appropriate that I got to work with this new lens just now to capture autumn and the outdoors. I love being outside in the autumn: the air is crisp and fresh, everything smells earthy, the colours have shifted from green to orange and heavy fog shrouds the forests in mystery. My photography is definitely heavily inspired and influenced by the seasons and mother nature herself, especially in autumn.

I feel I have now come full circle. Moving away from the city and to nature opened up my eyes to photography in a whole new way, and through photography I see nature in a new light as well. With my camera I walk slower and hone in to look at colours, shapes and textures that I'd otherwise walk right by. By exploring nature with my camera I've gained a new-found interest for wild food and I am learning more and more about foraging and mushroom picking.

Through my photography I get to share this new knowledge and the wonderful world of fungi, which means a lot to me.

Find your inspiration

I am not a photographer that gets into the nitty gritty of gear, in terms of stats and numbers. To me my gear is a tool I need to create, and what's important to me is high-quality results from gear that is easy to bring along and sturdy enough for the outdoors. That is why the new 20mm F1.4 PRO is perfect for me and what I do.

Whether I am out with a master forager shooting for a mushroom book, capturing lifestyle photos for a local outdoors shop or working with tourist destinations to promote a destination, I feel confident that my gear enables me to capture everything that I need to tell a story. Pairing a small camera body, in my case the E-M5 Mark III, with a high-quality lens with a low profile makes me feel very nimble.

Good gear that enables me to create with ease inspires me. During my time with the lens I have really put it to the test, and it has surpassed my expectations! There's been many long days outside in the forest, shooting more than I have in a long time and I've fallen in love with so many of the photos I've captured with the 20mm F1.4. This lens feels made specifically for photographers like me!

I've taken it on hikes both in the deep forests near my home and mountainous regions of Lapland, hiked to a lake where I've made a fire and cooked dinner with friends and I've taken the lens out in the rain and fog.

E-M5 Mark III • M.Zuiko Digital ED 20mm F1.4 PRO • 20mm • 1/250s • F1.6 • ISO250

The colours and textures mother nature creates never cease to amaze me. Ferns are one of my favourite plants to photograph!

Telling a story

I often work to create a photo series to tell a story, and my rule of thumb when doing so is to think in terms of 'full body', 'half body' and 'portrait', regardless of what I am shooting.

If I'm out capturing a hike I want to show the big landscape to give viewers an idea of where the hike is taking place, that's the full body image in this example. The half body image can be a closer photo of the people hiking: a backpack, maybe a campsite where everyone's having lunch. Portrait can be an actual portrait of the people hiking, but by that I'm also referring to details in general: hands tying up hiking shoes, details of a backpack, a close-up of plants native to the area or wild berries that we stop to eat along the way, etc.

If I always remember to capture a few different photos from each of these three ground pillars I know I have a good variety to tie a story together.

In all of these scenarios the forest is more often than not my backdrop, and that can normally be a bit 'messy' or busy, there's a lot going on. But by shooting at a wide aperture and using the calm, smooth background blur that the feathered bokeh of this pro lens offers makes that a non issue for me.

Being prepared for the outdoors

Often when I'm out in nature, even if it's for work, I am also there to enjoy the outdoors and I partake in the activity I am shooting. As lovely as nature is, when you're out in it you need to come prepared. The weather can easily change and depending on what you are doing, the risk of injury could be higher. Because of that, I use an outdoor backpack instead of a camera bag as I need to carry more than just my photography gear.

I wear proper outdoor hiking shoes and always bring food or lighter snacks, extra layers or rain gear, maybe a knife and a foraging bag, water and a first aid kit. My pack is heavy so it's important that my photography setup is minimal and takes up very little space in my bag or feels light on my shoulder.

There's a beautiful forest on a small mountain a short walk from my house, and if I see the fog roll in around the tree tops I am quick to pack my gear and head out. It's such a moody atmosphere when the fog lies deep in the forest and I love capturing that! I am also often out in the rain as it makes nature glisten in the most magical way.

E-M5 Mark III • M.Zuiko Digital ED 20mm F1.4 PRO • 20mm • 1/3200s • F1.4 • ISO200

The way nature glistens and comes alive in the rain is something worth bracing the weather for!

E-M5 Mark III • M.Zuiko Digital ED 20mm F1.4 PRO • 20mm • 1/250s • F1.8 • ISO200

E-M5 Mark III • M.Zuiko Digital ED 20mm F1.4 PRO • 20mm • 1/640s • F1.4 • ISO250

The weather and water doesn't bother me at all, because the M.Zuiko 20mm is weatherproof I trust that it will have my back no matter what.

E-M5 Mark III • M.Zuiko Digital ED 20mm F1.4 PRO • 20mm • 1/400s • F1.4 • ISO250

Heather is such a beautiful plant (and makes for great tea), and when everything is wet it glistens in a different way and the background bokeh feels all the more alive and vibrant!

Close by adventures

In Sweden we are lucky enough to have the freedom to roam and nature is very easily accessible. We don't need to travel far to experience great things; nearby adventures are all around us! This is something that I feel very strongly about.

As I moved up north and nature kept providing me with amazing experiences I realised that we've been doing something wrong. We work so hard for most of the year and then we have about two weeks holiday in the summer where we try to cram as many experiences in as we possibly can, and we end up being anything but rested afterwards.

I don't know why we do that, when we can spend weekends and evenings throughout the entire year going on small excursions. It can be as simple as preparing sandwiches at home and heading to a beautiful spot to have lunch outside on a Saturday or meeting up with friends to cook dinner over a fire on a weekday.

I've used an outdoor app to scout for nearby lakes that have a shelter and fire pit, and after a quick drive from our home we are out in the forest, making a fire and enjoying a nice meal together. We relax in a different way outside, and sitting by a fire watching the flames dance and the embers fly up into the sky touches us deep within. Fire has an amazing way of making people open up to deeper conversations.

It's simple outings like these that I live for and treasure dearly.

Put yourself out there

I hope this article awoke something in you, an urge to go outside. Pack your camera, some snacks, water and head out. It does not matter if you travel to a forest, explore your garden or go to a nearby park. Just remember to go slow, look at the world through your viewfinder and explore the colours, shapes and textures out there. Take in the big scenes and home in on the details. A tiny mushroom hiding under leaves, the texture of tree bark, berries glowing after a rain or the steam of your coffee backlit by a fire or golden sunset.

Nature is out there and free for everyone to explore. Just remember that she doesn't wait or hold off a storm for us. Be prepared for whatever weather you might encounter. Put yourself out there – who knows what you'll end up finding?

Live slow and stay wild / Rania

Featured products:

M.Zuiko Digital 20mm F1.4 PRO

About the author

Rania Maria R

I live in a small, northern town in Sweden called Sundsvall. It's located in a valley surrounded by forests. Here I work as an outdoor & lifestyle photographer. I try to lead a slow, mindful life rich with experiences, not things - enjoying the small things in life and going on close by adventures. Nature is what heals and inspires me and you can really feel the colors and textures of nature in my pictures. They're moody, warm and down to earth, kind of like autumn - which happens to be my favourite season.

My hope is to use my photography and online presence to tell stories that inspire others to spend time in the wonderful nature that we in Sweden are lucky enough to have very close at hand. As I've found my calling and my niche I've also curated clients who share my interests and love for nature, like Lundhags, High Coast Whisky, Naturkompaniet & Elles Utemat. 

Besides photography I love foraging and cooking with wild food, bouldering, having good conversations by a fire, exploring craft beer and playing boardgames.

Live slow and stay wild! / Rania

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