Mindfulness can be an important part of photography. Yes, I’ve gone out to enjoy using my camera. Yes, I’m enjoying spending time with friends and looking forward to enjoying a coffee together. But alongside all the obvious skills of photography – considering the light, composing the scene, capturing the decisive moment – observation is the skill I keep coming back to.

It’s particularly the case when photographing a familiar location. If you’ve visited a garden many times, you know its secrets. You know what flowers are the most photogenic. What angles reveal the garden’s character. Where to stand to perfectly capture the characterful shape of that particular tree that everyone loves.

Sometimes, it’s very nice just to sit and observe. Place the camera by your side. Listen to the wind in the trees. The birds flying overhead. Enjoy the breeze through your hair.

Important, too, to acknowledge that the real world is never far away. Perhaps there are cars on the road outside. A gardener cutting a hedge in the distance. A fly buzzing past.

Sometimes – and more often as I ease into the less hurried world of retirement – I will spend as much time sitting as I do taking photographs. So yes, mindfulness is the word I need to use. And I didn’t arrive at it via meditation, forest bathing, yoga, or spiritualism. I’ve arrived at mindfulness simply through using my camera.

Duddingston Loch, Edinburgh, as seen from a bench in Jock Tamson’s Gairden. I spent a good twenty minutes here, just enjoying the moment. The photo captures the feel of the moment by defocusing the lens to concentrate on the shapes and colours of the scene.