Figuring Out My Calling: Contemplative Photography

     Last summer, I began this blog with the idea to explore ideas about mindfulness as it connects to photography and teaching.   As I've blogged about my own pictures and conversations I've had about photography with my friend Grace, it became very clear to me that we both use the art of photography as a way to be mindful of the world around us and to relax.  However, it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I discovered that there is an actual term for this type of photography, contemplative photography, and other people who write books and blog about it.  Now, one of my favorite books about photography is called, The Practice of Contemplative Photography: Seeing the World with Fresh Eyes, by Andy Karr and Michael Wood.  It is teaching me more about one of my favorite arts and providing me with exercises to further enhance my ability to be mindful and artistic.

     To put it quite simply, contemplative photography helps the photographer to be mindful of the world around her and to live an artistic life.  According to Karr and Wood, "training in contemplative photography will deepen your ability to live a creative, artistic life...appreciating the details of our ordinary existence.  The practice of contemplative photography will definitely increase your appreciation of the world around you, which is infinitely richer than you could ever imagine."  They go on further to describe the contemplative mind as being "free from preoccupation."  They describe a mind that is open, fresh, and receptive to whatever arises...a mind that is not bound up with either thoughts or emotions.

    Filled with beautiful and thought-provoking pictures that serve as illustrations of this concept, the book also contains many interesting exercises that enhance the photographer's ability to enter a contemplative state of mind.  According to Karr and Wood, the "purpose of these assignments is to help you connect directly with the visual world and to express that experience photographically.  Assignments provide specific intentions for you to work with....The assignments have been developed for the purpose of training...as methods to help you align eye and mind."



     Today I tried out the first assignment and really enjoyed the experience.  First Assignment: Color.
Here were the guidelines for this assignment:


Look at color out of context without labeling it, without conceptual knowledge of what you are looking at.  Just think about it as flashes of color.


Guidelines:
1.  Black, white, gray, beige, are not colors 
2.  Look for bold, vivid colors
3.  No graphic designs, words, letters, numbers, flowers, nature
4.  Get in close and don't shoot anything extra


The assignment further instructs the photographer to:
--stop physically when stopped by a flash of color.  Spend half a minute looking further, contemplating what stopped you without lifting your camera.


--understand what you see-- Where does your perception start/end?  What's included/what's not? Is the perception horizontal or vertical?


--Look at the perception through your viewfinder and ask if that is what stopped you


The assignment even gives photographers a way to walk away from a shot without frustration:
When you struggle to take a picture or lose track of what stopped you, walk away & start over




      What I love about contemplative photography can best be summed up by Beumont Newhall, a photographer, writer, and curator.  "We are not interested in the unusual, but in the usual seen unusually."  This first assignment of Color certainly helped me to see color in a new way today as well as ordinary objects within my neighborhood.

The photograph above was my favorite from the Color Assignment.  On my own, I never would have thought to just isolate the colors as a point of interest for a picture.  My eyes will definitely be more open in the future towards this type of composition.

The same flashes of color from a different perspective...

I like how this picture shows swatches of colors, making a three dimensional space appear to be two dimensional.

After my experience with the Color Assignment today, I am looking forward to future assignments and how they will help me be even more mindful of my environment.  I also recently discovered a website for this book that contains the assignments and a gallery with readers' photos who have completed each assignment.   http://seeingfresh.com/

Flowers: A Sign of Spring!

     I absolutely love the month of May!  Despite the allergies and the busyness at work, May brings sunshine, warmth, beautiful nature, and of course, my birthday:)  No matter how much stress I am feeling, it is hard not to burst into a wide grin when I walk outside in sunny spring weather.  One of my favorite signs of spring are the beautiful flowers and trees that slowly peak their heads out and then suddenly one day are in full bloom.  Since flowers and trees are such a common subject for photographers, I try to be mindful of finding interesting ways to portray them through capturing bright colors, interesting angles, intriguing lighting, interesting arrangements, and scenes that provoke emotions.

Bright Colors

 

Pinks and Purples

A Beautiful Red Rose

Intriguing Lighting

Whenever I grab my camera, I am always drawn to the way that light illuminates subjects, especially when it does so in unexpected and interesting ways.  In the following picture, the bright sunshine made an ordinarily mundane and commonplace object beautiful, a gray metal fence.  It also highlighted the brilliant colors of the flowers.

 
In the following shot, I was captivated by the yellow glowing eyes of the cat and how they reflected the colors of the yellow flowers in the grass.  The cat has a demonic look which contrasts nicely with the happiness of the yellow flowers.

In the next picture, I like the way that the sunlight illuminates the petals of the flower.   The lighting is further emphasized in the shot due to the crispness of the flower, and the unfocused background.

Interesting Angles


Taking pictures of flowers at interesting angles can make the pictures more engaging than they might be otherwise.  I enjoy playing around with the angle at which I hold my camera as well as the angle at which I stand while taking a picture.

I love these purple flowers but when I took the shot head on, the composition of the picture was rather boring.  However, simply shifting the angle of my camera created a more engaging composition with a slanted door and frame of the house.

Rather than head on, I took this picture by leaning over the fence to capture the image of the flower from above.  Not only does this angle capture the inside of the flower, but it also exaggerates the difference in size between the pink and the purple flower.

In taking pictures of the flowers from outside of a metal gray fence, in some of the shots I included the fence and in others I stuck my camera in between the metal bars.  I found that the pictures that included the gray fence were a different take on the flowers and helped to frame them in an interesting way.

I also like to experiment with taking pictures of flowers from below.  The following is a picture of one of the most gigantic sunflowers that I have ever seen, taken in Providence, Rhode Island.

Interesting Arrangements

The way that flowers are arranged in a composition can affect how engaged the viewer is with the picture.  In the following shot, the flowers follow in a diagonal line from the foreground to the background of the picture.  As a result, the viewers' eyes travel from one point of the photograph to another.

Sometimes colors pop in a picture when there is a limited amount.  In the following shot, the bright yellow buds jump right out from the page since they are surrounded by nothing but green leaves.

When we look outside in a mindful way, Mother Nature often provides us with intriguing scenes.  All we have to do is open up our eyes and see clearly to view them!   I love how this green leaf slices through the yellow flower.

Sometimes the angle in which a flower's leaves fall can be intriguing...

Standing underneath a tree, I took this shot and found this incredible pattern created by the flowers on the trees.

Evoking Emotions

Pictures of flowers can often evoke emotions such as in the following shot that exudes happiness.

 
My challenge to you as you are outside enjoying the beautiful spring weather and the prettiness of Mother Nature is to appreciate the flowers outside in a new way.  Make note of the way that the light illuminates them and try to view them at different angles (head on, above, below, from the side).  Think about the way in which they are arranged and how that affects the way that they look.  Most of all, just take a minute to stop and appreciate their beauty.

Random Acts of Mindfulness: Three Examples in Two Days

     Stressed out this past week, I became so absorbed in way too many details that I forgot to be mindful-- forgot to slow down and be aware of the present moment.  Just within the past two days, three examples of mindfulness presented themselves to me.  They reminded me of the power and the impact of awareness of the present, of the here and now.

1.  Driving home from work on a sunny Friday afternoon, I witnessed a scene that is rare in the frantic, quick-paced world in which many of us live.  As my car slowly crept up to a red stoplight, I glanced to my right and noticed a vehicle that had stopped in the lane next to mine.  The driver hopped out of his car, closed the driver's side door, and began pushing the back of his pick-up truck.  Immediately, a man dressed in a suit on the sidewalk, walked straight up to the man and volunteered to push the truck while the owner started his car back up.  No sooner had the man placed his keys in the ignition, then another man, more casually dressed, ran over from the sidewalk to help push the truck into a parking spot about 100 feet away on the side of the road.  Halfway towards its destination, a man riding his bicycle toward the scene, promptly parked his bike and joined in on the effort.  Still wearing his helmet, he too pushed the truck from behind.  Three strangers, suddenly united by an event that they had witnessed, jumped to action as they were mindful of the moment and aware of how their actions would positively affect others.  At the end of a crazybusy week, this scene was inspiring.

2.  This afternoon I enjoyed a relaxing lunch with my good friend Nancy and a former colleague of ours.  I loved the cafe.   The atmosphere speaks to me with its multiple areas for dining (some tables and some comfortable couches and chairs), a delicious menu, and flyers that adorn the bulletin boards announcing concerts for singer/songwriters and book clubs that meet in the cafe.   While waiting for our meal, we began chatting with one of the owners of the cafe who spoke of the multiple activities she manages to squeeze into her week including working at the cafe as well as taking a class.  It turned out that her class is none other than the Stressed Based Reduction Workshop at MGH, created by Jon Kabat-Zinn.  She talked with us about meditation, full body scans, exercises on CDs, and the effect that the techniques are having on her life.  Although she mentioned that she initially had difficulty getting into the techniques, as she has continued with the course, she has been realizing the benefits that they have had in helping her to slow down and relax.  Listening to her speak reminded me of the impact that every mindfulness workshop that I have taken has had on me.   It was a great reminder for me of why it is so important to keep up with mindfulness practices, especially during times of increased stress and busyness.  It is precisely when I have the least time for mindfulness practices that they are the most important to include into my daily routine.

3.  After lunch I was nervous about driving home since I was in an area that I don't normally drive to.  Mapquesting directions to get there, I had forgotten to write down directions for the way home.   Notorious for my lack of a sense of direction, my friends are usually patient with me in describing different routes, drawing out maps for me, and describing landmarks.  One friend described multiple ways that I could drive and with each option, my eyes glazed over more and more as I lost track of the street names and the turns.  Nancy turned to me and said, "You can follow me.  I am going in the same direction."  Mindful of how stressed out I become about driving in unknown locations, not only did she volunteer to lead me to the correct place until I knew where I was going, Nancy was also incredibly aware of where my car was as I followed her.   There were multiple occasions where it would have been very easy for her to lose me whether it was driving around a rotary, being stopped at a stoplight after she had driven through the yellow light, or having a huge truck enter the highway.   Each and every time Nancy made sure that I could still find her car-- even pulling over to the side of the road to wait for me.  I deeply appreciated the care that she took to make sure that I did not get lost, especially as the dark sky threatened an imminent thunder storm!


Mindful acts can take many forms-- whether they consist of being aware of a scene unfolding before us, learning and practicing mindfulness techniques to reduce stress in our daily lives, or being aware of how our actions positively affect others.  Acts of mindfulness are inspiring, invigorating, and relaxing for me.   As I enter a very last seven weeks of school, I hope that I remember to take time to be mindful.