In episode 329 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Richard Campion.
Richard is a Devon-based professional photographer, who specialises in wildlife photography.
We came across his work through great friend of the pod and all-round legend William Jones-Warner who recently did a collaborative project with Richard capturing wild otters in the Isle of Mull in Scotland.
Richard grew up in Jersey originally and got into photography relatively late.
It started when he moved to London in 2015 and he was in a corporate job in The City he deeply disliked.
During this difficult period where he experienced symptoms of depression and quite severe anxiety, Richard would try and combat it by going for short walks and looking for wildlife. That summer, his sister visited him and bought him his very first camera, and the rest is history.
He began capturing the wildlife he saw on those walks, building that love of nature and animals, and he eventually got himself out of that state of mind.
Now, he has built his photography career to the point he can do it for his full-time career. He offers workshops and photography tours to clients, including the chance to see beavers, seals, brown hare and red deer.
In this episode we discuss this journey, his career highlights so far, working with Will and their plans for a wildlife podcast in 2026.
For Richard’s mental health journey, we discuss his diagnoses of OCD and ADHD.
He was diagnosed with OCD and this manifested in rituals, health OCD and intrusive thoughts which his brain told him he needed to do in order to protect his mum and sisters and prevent them from dying.
We discuss his journey of self-awareness, acceptance and ownership of both these diagnoses, the tools he’s used to manage them from childhood to adulthood, and where the conversation is for people living with OCD now, vs when he was a child in the 1990s.
As always, #itsokaytovent
You can find out more about Richard’s work here.
You can follow him on social media below:
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Music: @patawawa – Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk
