Copyright 2002
Wilderness Drum, Inc.
All rights reserved

Closer to the Earth
Steve Beyer

Introduction Before you leave home Fears and prohibitions Beliefs Your senses Asking permission Sensory powers Camera walk Being something else Changing perspective "Artist Unknown" Thinking about nature On not naming things Gratitude Gifts from the wilderness Writing about nature Getting close Watching quietly One creature Decomposers Wilderness symphony Competency

Camera Walk

This experiment is another way to use your senses in new ways in the natural world. It requires two people – one to be the photographer and one to be the camera. The experiment has been given a variety of names -- camera walk, mirror walk, sensory nature walk.

 You are a camera taking pictures of a new world on which your spaceship has just landed. With your eyes closed, the photographer takes your head and points you toward new and amazing images – tree bark, moss, a beetle, a sunset. The photographer opens the shutter by pressing on your left ear lobe, which makes you open your eyes, and closes the shutter by pressing on your right ear lobe, which makes you close them again. The photographer can take quick snapshots or long video panning shots; the camera can take extreme close-ups as well as extreme wide-angle photographs.

You are a special kind of camera. You can not only take pictures but can also record sound, smell, and touch. The photographer uses these special features to record more remarkable things about the new planet. The photographer can keep the shutter closed and record a smell by putting something under your nose, or a touch by putting your hand on an object. The photographer can open the sound shutter by pressing both your earlobes at once, which keeps your eyes closed but opens up your ears.

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