A few months ago, I was playing around with my meditation and breathwork and wondered if there were any calming nature videos on available on YouTube. I didn’t want the mystical music in the background, just the sounds and sights of nature.
Well, the one that immediately pops up is about a decade old and has something ridiculous like nearly 40 million views. It’s a low def video with a static view of a river and lasts for a couple of hours.
I thought, I’m into meditation and breathwork. I love nature. I’m an aspiring photographer. Why not make my own videos?
The Video
Better Things To Come
Although the town I live in is a Plain Jane bedroom community with little character, we are in a bit of an epicenter of nature. The Bruce Trail passes nearby and the trail is accessible just to the north and south of town. There are two rail trails and several non-operating parks under Ontario Parks, the local conservation authority and various municipal governments.
So, what it boils down to is that nature is easily accessible. In addition to the regular photography and videography that will consume my time this year, I’m adding long, peaceful, calming nature to the mix.
This first video was taken along the Credit River on a very cold day for spring. I believe we’d come off a warm spell that ended with a lot of rain. That meant that much of the ice was gone and the waterflow was decent.
The problem was, it was cold! It didn’t bother me at all physically but the camera battery did not love it at all. This should have been a longer video but the battery died much quicker than normal.
Don’t Let The Wildlife Break Your Focus
I had to set up on late season crunch snow and I was off any sort of main trail. Therefore, to keep my noise out of the video clips, I needed to quickly step back and then stand perfectly still for the duration. I couldn’t even turn on my phone because it would inevitably start off some notification that would sound as loud as a fire truck in the quiet forest. I was basically meditating while taking a video for meditation.
Because of my silence and lack of motion, the local wildlife made a few cameo appearances. They either didn’t notice me or didn’t see me as a threat. So, on two occasions in the above video, you will see some furry creatures go by. I believe the first is a Marten or something similar. The second is a Beaver.