by Editor Kimberley
Edited and published by Yvette Depaepe, the 8th of July 2022

Mindfulness is described as a state of awareness, the ability to be fully aware of where we are and what we are doing; to be actively attentive; perceptually and cognitively focused on the present moment.

The connection between mindfulness and the potential to make extraordinary images may not be immediately apparent.

'sun salutation' by Christine Frick

Often photographers spend a lot of time focussing on the technical elements of the craft. Choosing the “right” equipment, camera and lens, deciding on the correct shutter speed, aperture, ISO etc. Sharpness is an obsession in certain genres such as in wildlife photography. When we see an image we like, we may instinctively look for the technical shooting information. There are thousands of videos on photography channels about the technical stuff, camera reviews, lens reviews, how-to videos on capturing sharp images, use of histograms, post-processing techniques etc. AI software programs now even blur these lines and take technical quality to even new heights by sharpening soft images, removing noise from improper exposures, and increasing resolution on overly cropped images. The power of Photoshop and Lightroom to create digital images or art is only limited by your capacity to learn and tolerance for time spent sitting in a chair working on a computer.  

Yes, you must have a good understanding of how to realise technical quality (TQ) if you are to create remarkable or unique images, but TQ is not the whole picture. If you’re wondering how all this translate into developing your “art of seeing”, well, it’s simple, if your mind if preoccupied thinking about all the technical stuff or shooting an image with the view that you can “fix it later in post”, then your mind and eyes are less likely to be open to actually seeing the image you want to make verses creating an image after the fact. 

The development of this more creative aspect of your work may be unintentionally blocked by mental noise and that’s where mindfulness can come into play.

The more basic elements of photography that are linked to mindfulness and perception or “the art of seeing” are light, colour, composition, and subject.

 We’re familiar with them because these are some of the criteria that images get evaluated against during the curation process. There’s been some discussion recently about this in the Forum section of 1x. Curation is a whole other “subject matter”, and this article isn’t going to wade into the debate about whether subject matter should be included as an evaluation criterion in curation.

The discussion harkened me back to a meeting I attended years ago in my professional life. The only decision that I recall being made was, that after two days of rousing debate, we could finally agree that we couldn’t make any decisions because we couldn’t come to a consensus on the definition of consensus. Clearly, mindfulness could have helped that discussion move along in a more productive manner.

With that said, its common and natural to experience a creative block at some point in this craft; that your creative juices appear to have just stopped flowing, blurred like that stream shot with a super long exposure. We hunt and peck like birds searching for something different to photograph, or we default to shooting the same subject matter over and over and over (and over). 

Mindfulness practice teaches us to slow down, to be in the moment; to stop thinking and just be. To observe, without applying the lens of interpretation, not filtering what we see through our egos, to be non-judgemental.

The digital world is binary, but the real world isn’t comprised of just 1’s and 0’s, black and white, good and bad, 1% or 99%, publish or reject.

 Seek to develop an appreciation for the uniqueness of each moment by fostering an awareness of the five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch. Consider common objects with fresh eyes, look for shapes, textures, contrasts, colours, space, lines, etc. Learn to slow down, make time to absorb the world around you Consciously open up your mental aperture, dial in single shot, and most importantly…be kind.

If you are interested in exploring the benefits of mindfulness in your photography, consider checking out some of these resources:

* Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
* Photography and the Art of Seeing by Freeman Patterson
* Mindfulness in Photography : https://truecenterpublishing.com/photopsy/mindfulness.htm
* 5 Mindful Photography Exercises You’re Not Creative Enough To Try [MayBe]  :
   https://www.thedailymeditation.com/4-mindful-photography-exercises-youre-not-creative-enough-to-try-maybe

Enjoy these lovely, mindfully selected images from our members on 1x.

'Walking in the sky...' by Alexandr Kukrinov

'Room for Thoughts' by Nanouk el Gamal - Wijchers

'Alena' by Benny Pettersson

'Rhythm' by Nel Talen

'Wheat' by Peter Krenek

'giallo' by Luciano Caturegli

'A lotus' by Yanny Liu

'Beachhouses' by Elisabeth Wehrmann

'Behind the pillar' by Greetje van Son

'Music of Light' by John Fan

'Silence' by Huibo Hou

'bench' by Marei

'stand alone' by Rofl Endermann

'***' by Przemyslaw Kruk

'notihng more to say' by Harry Lieber

'Red & yellow' by Ales Krivec

'Simple minds' by Andreas Agazzi

'Life in Blue' by Alfonso Novillo

'Meeting room' by Luc Vangindertael (laGrange)

'Dancing in the rain' by Malaïka Weber

'Flower of Paradise' by Bess Hamiti

'Feeling tired' by Piet Flour

'The cat' by Izabella Végh

'Stay away from the light' by Don T.

'Contemplation facilities' by Jeroen van de Wiel

'Moments of Transition' by Andreas Agazzi

'Seeing double' by Jacqueline Hammer