Tiergarten in Berlin is a busy and a peaceful place to be – it depends what you are looking at, and at what time of day you are standing there.

The photo above, a street light, trees, and lots of soft light flowing over the green leaves creates a sense of peacefulness that we all need in these turbulent times.

Streets and Relaxing Scenes in Berlin

Streets like these were designed to create a feeling of relaxed calmness that people could walk along and enjoy without feelings of fear and tension creeping into the situation.

Pretty Trees and Deeper Meanings

Streets that are lined with trees may look pretty, or you might think that they block your view of interesting buildings, but the purpose, apart from creative beauty in a city, has a deeper meaning.

Out on the Savanna

According to studies undertaken by Colin Ellard and others, when humans lived in tribes on large open plains, it was a dodgy prospect to simple wander around in a large open area – especially if you weren’t armed with a spear or something. Wildlife and predators were always a problem.

People would naturally choose open areas to live in, at the edges probably, and use the open space to farm, hunt, and to keep an eye open for predators and enemies. Sounds like second best to living at the top of a mountain.

Natural Camouflage

But, it was always better when these plains had a few trees dotted around on them. This helped to camouflage groups of people walking across the open areas. Makes a lot of sense.

Built up areas that Remind us of Back in the Olden Times

Today, studies find that neighbourhoods that are built with a bit of natural foliage in mind, tend to help the locals to relax and feel safer when going down to the shops. It seems that the evolutionary process has left us with a need to blend into landscapes. We feel happier when we know that we have an opportunity to hide, or be mistaken for a tree or a large bush when moving around the city. Evolution leaves us with a lot of interesting and problematic mental baggage.

Stop, Look, Think, and shoot.

Whenever I see a scene, or a good photo opportunity when I’m out walking, I’m always interested in the deeper meaning of why people and myself would find it interesting to look at. Delving into how I feel about the light splashing onto the street, the green leaves and the dark sky helps me look for the optimum frame and light settings to get a shot that captures the scene as I see it.

It’s nice to think deeply about taking photos, and why we take so many photos these days.

Mobile Phones and Charcoal

Give a kid a mobile telephone and she’ll look to see how many megapixels the camera has. Selfies, random shots, info-shots to friends, images of weird things seen, photography seems to fill a gap that was missing all these years.

I wonder how we all survived when we lived on the plains and in the woods? Oh, yes, we had charcoal and pigments. Images of our environment are important to us.

More articles and posts on photography

My Medium Page which has many articles on interesting subjects – always good for Sunday reading