Sunday, March 16, 2008

Meditative Photography

My new friend Henry taught a Meditative Photography class at his house on Saturday. There were six of us. I went with no expectations, but early on I realized I knew exactly what it was about. It's about being present in the moment. It's discarding any other thoughts except "be here now". I didn't know the name of it, but it's something that Nancy and I remind ourselves on the first day of every photo shoot. It always takes us a little time to get into that special place where everything in front of us is precious. We tell each other that this is the only moment we have in this place at this time. We photograph with those eyes.

That's what we did at Henry's. We did a slow examination of the things around us in his backyard, then we took our cameras out and about, returned in 30 minutes and shared our photos. It was fun.

Since I was in the neighborhood I popped over to the arboretum, which was really bad timing for three reasons. 1. bad midday light 2. weekend crowds 3. kids

At least I scouted out what was planted where and I can return for a more efficient shoot next time.

Today was the monthly meeting of Texas WAX, and we took down our show, and made plans for the next venue.

I'm back at the computer, processing photos for the purchase order I received on Friday. After this I'm designing the remaining two parts of the large hotel installation so I can get approval on it this week. Yep, another busy week ahead.

2 comments:

Kesha Bruce said...

Sounds like a great class. Any chance you'll share some of the photos you took here on your blog?

"Be here now". What a wonderfully useful meditation to take into the studio!

Martha Marshall said...

It's hard sometimes to remember to get into that mind space, but really necessary, especially for an artist.

Thanks for the reminder, Robin.