Sometimes life can seem so stressful, as we are pushed or perceive we are being pushed, to achieve more, and do more.
I think sometimes it pays to step back and breathe through your photography. I have been reading about ‘mindful photography’ recently and have started to walk away from the computer, switch the phone off and spend an hour or so with my camera.
On the website mindful.org they describe mindfulness as “fully attending to what’s happening […] to the space you are moving through” (https://www.mindful.org/what-is-mindfulness/), but with digital photography it is hard to leave the control of the computer behind for obvious reasons.
I have tried my best to escape the robots by putting an old manual focus lens onto my old Fuji xpro-1, switching it to manual exposure and looking at what I am intending to photograph, which is the space I choose to be in. I looked at what I wanted to have in focus and what I didn’t, I chose an aperture and distance from my subject that allowed me to include all I wanted in the frame and to blur the background, I chose something to have in the foreground and looked at how the light was changing as the day began.
I focused and pressed the button at what I thought was the right moment. It felt great to not look through the lens as I set the aperture and shutter, which is why the Fuji was ideal for this journey. I remembering feeling relaxed and mindful.
A few days later, when I posted the images on social media people joined in the journey and pressed ‘like’ and commented. I enjoyed the feeling of community.
Live life and best regards
Stewart