Embracing the Art of Mindful Photography: A Journey from Capturing to Receiving
The words we use when we photograph
Have you ever thought about the words we use when we photograph being harsh words? We use words like take a picture, shoot, point, frame, retouch away, burn out. We are also often on the hunt for the best picture. We participate in photo competitions, where much depends on whether the technique we used is good enough. Photography also involves performing, having equipment worth thousands to get the best pictures. We also often say, “Yes, that picture was nice, what kind of camera do you have?” And thus, we shift the perspective from the photographer to the equipment. If the pictures are good, it’s attributed to the equipment and maybe a bit to the photographer.
Switching the mindset from hunting to receiving
In Mindful Photography, we think differently. We don’t say that competitions and striving for the trophy picture are wrong, as they can naturally develop us technically, but we think the opposite. We have a different approach. Instead of striving to get the best picture with the best equipment, we let the world unfold for us just as it is, and that the world actually allows us to create pictures with the equipment we have at our disposal. Instead of understanding photography as taking pictures, we see photography as receiving pictures. Instead of hunting for trophy pictures, we see pictures as gifts!
To become a Mindful Photographer, you need to shift from a trophy-hunting mindset to a receptive mindset. You need to accept things as they are right where you are now. Because you surely have something around you right now that can give you a picture. That you can create a picture just from how the light falls on the floor.
There can be photographic gifts where you least expect it
Yesterday, when we had a theme meeting in “Look Beyond” about this topic, we had a 25-minute exercise on this, where participants were to look for patterns in their own home. One participant captured a pattern formed by the light through a cabinet that fell on the floor. The pattern she saw on the floor became two dancing light figures embracing each other. It was actually incredibly good. This was a gift she received, and she wouldn’t have seen this if she had thought in the “usual” way and tried to hunt for something that should be really good.
Powerful stuff to change mindset
In the book “The Mindful Photographer” by Sophie Howarth, it refers to Photographer Julie DuBose describing the shift in mindset from hunting to receptive to what is like this: “We cannot receive until we surrender our agenda, our spin, because until then, there is no willingness to accept. We do not believe that we will receive, and we are afraid we will fall flat and look and feel foolish… It is like being lost in the middle of the ocean and realizing no one knows you are lost. You may have to give up hope of ever being found. You may have to surrender your hope of returning to shore.”
Liberating
It sounds like powerful stuff, to change our mindset to rather receive than hunt. Yet, there is something liberating about it. It’s about accepting what is, being calm, looking around, being present, breathing, feeling that you are present and alive here and now, to then discover and get an impulse to receive what you have seen, i.e., photograph it.
To be patient
Waiting, letting things be, patience, and an open mind I probably wouldn’t have noticed this deer if I had been in hunting mode for the best picture. Here I sat quietly in a boat, and let things be as they were. Hoping that something might emerge, but it wasn’t a given. The deer emerged as a gift, a treasure that came out of the forest. It showed itself for a few moments before it disappeared again. There’s hardly anything that can match the joy I feel when I experience moments like this. And it’s about accepting what is, patience, and having an open mind for whatever may come.
It is when you have a receptive open mind that you create your picture. It’s then that you are open to what comes to you.
