A picture is worth a thousand words – said somebody once. Whoever they were, they were wrong.

Words and images tap into different parts of our brain and they inspire us in different ways. There isn’t a constant that we can multiply one by to get the other. That’s why we need both when we want to get the message across to as many people as possible that nature is amazing, it’s under threat and we can save it.

There are photos that can move and inspire us in ways that several pages of text can’t (and vice versa but that’s a different blog). Just ask any advertising exec. And as a general rule I find advertising execs are good people to ask because unlike artists and poets they have to translate their work into hard sales or they get fired pretty quick. In a previous life as an entertainments journalist I asked lots of amazing artists for insights into their work and the impact it had on their audience - frustratingly they often had very little clue.

If I were to boil my job down into four words it would probably be, effective words and pictures. Like the advertising exec, I need to know that the images and the words we use are having an impact.

Here in the Trust’s communications team we produce a beautiful magazine (really, a lot of work goes into it by some very talented people – it’s pretty special), and we also create social media content, leaflets, posters, interpretation boards, webpages, newsletters, reports, Netflix documentaries (OK I may have lied about that one) and whatever else we need to get our message across to our audience. Photos take up most of the space in these communications, they are the first thing that people will see and they are probably the things that will stick with people the longest.

People and nature

We know that people love nature, so our job is to make that connection and inspire people to take action for wildlife. To join us, to donate, to campaign, to volunteer, to make a change in their life that will help nature. So we are always on the look out for images that connect the wild to us humans – photos that show the impact we are having on species and that show what they mean to us.

An image of a wildflower in summer is a beautiful thing – and I like nothing better than scrabbling around grasslands on my knees with my camera trying, and usually failing, to get the perfect focus and angle on a pyramidal orchid. But an image that captures the way an orchid filled meadow can make a nature reserve visitor feel is gold dust. These are the images we can use to inspire people to take action, and that action will help us save more meadows and more orchids.

You may think we have files full of these sorts of images to draw on, but in fact they are much harder to find than a stunning shot of a barn owl hunting at dusk or a frozen split second kingfisher dive. We can’t use a picture too many times or it loses its impact and old photos of people look old in a way wildlife photos don’t.

It isn’t easy. Too staged and it looks stocky (i.e., like a photo from the kind of image stock sites that are full of fake smiles and impossibly cool office spaces). Too candid and it looks awkward. But every once in a while, in the right light, with the right composition, you can capture something that shows how nature enriches our lives in a way that many thousands of words can’t.

Photography Competition

Try taking an image that captures people and nature and enter it into our photo competition (shhh, don’t tell anyone I told you but the people and nature category received the lowest number of entries last year so your chances of winning are much higher!). It could be you or your friends or family visiting a reserve, doing something for nature in your garden, campaigning for the planet, or volunteering. Or it could show nature in an urban, human environment.

There are some great prizes to be won from competition sponsors OM Digital Solutions, in association with Campkins Cameras, and competition supporters Opticron. But even if it doesn’t win, it may be just what we’re looking for to go on a poster, leaflet or report – and that might be the thing that inspires someone to make a difference for nature. And we will always credit the photographer of any image we use.

Here are a few of my favourites.