The Power of Images of Nature

The vacation photographs that seem to get the most “oohs” and “aaahs” are always shots of nature. Whether they’re landscape or portrait, tropical or deciduous, with or without wildlife doesn’t seem to matter much. We like looking at images of nature, whether we’ve photographed a scene ourselves or not.

Our fondness for nature scenes, particularly if they look like they’re complete with the resources that would been handy, survival-wise, for our species when it was young, makes sense. It seems that all of the sensory processing circuits in our brains have developed to find it desirable to encounter the sorts of conditions that would have signaled to us that food was likely nearby and escape from predators that found us tasty was possible. These responses are so fundamental that today just looking at the sorts of spaces where we would have thrived eons ago gives us a psychological boost.

When we see nature scenes, either in photographs or art, our stress levels fall, our mental performance improvise and we are refreshed mentally. So adding a nature screensaver to your computer is a good idea, and you may even get to see it occasionally if you have a chance to stop typing long enough for it to appear. The same goes for a conveniently accessible electronic file of nature shorts. Nature on the walls throughout your home or office is more likely to be available for viewing when you need it, always ready for gazing.

The sorts of nature scenes that are best for our mental state are images that seem ready for us to step into. Our brains do realize we won’t be able to merge into an image, even though that seems to happen all the time in movies (how many times have you see a character move from the real world into an animated world in films?), but we like to think we could. A relatively clear foreground, without a blocking hedge or fence, for example, is best.

The “best” nature images feature clumps of trees that look ready for climbing spread across a meadow. It’s fine if there’s some sign of human life, say a cottage in the distance or a gently curving road, but the weather should be stellar and the plant growth and condition should say “spring.” Bonus mental welfare points accrue if there is a gently burbling brook or peaceful lake in view. Signs of nearby predators, say lions or tigers or bears, are undesirable, as are jungle-like plant growth that would make it difficult to see trouble approaching. Research also shows that seeing close-up images of flowers, ones where the blooms fill the frame but stems aren’t obvious, can speed our return to normal after we’ve been stressed.

Images of nature can help us live our best lives and avoid being debilitated by everyday stressors. Nature images will work for you, even if you don’t have much time (vacation or otherwise) to work on them. Fancy printing and frames aren’t required for positive returns on effort invested.