Category Archives: Mindfulness

Cool Blog: Becoming Awake

Thought I'd share, and archive, this wonderful blog find: Becoming Awake. This is the effort of Rita Desnoyers-Garcia, and in her own words it centers on:

Reflections of a mother's everyday life and how to use these observations to become more conscious of Self and the connection to the Universe. Awakening to the truer, Higher Self.

The entries are wonderfully insightful, and Rita has some nice prompts at the end that foster insight, reflection, and imbue hope. I'm always glad to find folks like Rita because they are nourishers  of common humanity, waterers of the seeds we want to harvest. Rita seems to be watering seeds of love, kindness, caring, mindfulness, and deep reflection. I don't offer her site as resource — it certainly is that, but it is much more, and to offer it only in those terms takes away from what it truly is, an expression of an ethics of care. So let me offer it to you as a fellow traveler in mindfulness, in seeking and fostering a life in harmony, nourishing wellbeing and peace.

Those of us interested in mindfulness and photography benefit greatly from writings and efforts that call us to deep reflection, to stop and look deeply. Rita's blog is such a bell of mindfulness.

I've been referring to her as Rita even though the presumption of familiarity is awkward on my lips. I just don't know what she would prefer. Check it out. Have to share it also in my other blog.

Read More »
posted by Nacho, 30th December 2008 , Categories: Mindfulness Tags: ,

Where Does the Mindfulness Reside?

A question I’ve encountered recently: what is mindful photography… about? The short answer is that mindful photography can be about anything. The better answer however is that the subject of photography is not what is mindful or not. Hence, just because I take a photograph of a Buddhist monk does not mean that I am a mindful person, that the shot was taken mindfully, nor that mindfulness resides somewhere in the image. We should probably move to defining mindfulness, but I will skip that for now.
Well then, where does mindfulness reside? For me, and given my own background practicing mindfulness, it resides not in me as container (nor in other objects as repositories of mindfulness, all bottled up for use here and there),  but in my disposition to enact an ethos of mindfulness. That means that mindfulness is not a thing. It is instead, a practice, an attitude, a disposition and inclination, a sensibility, it is a way in which we relate to all that is. Whether taken in a spiritual way, from a Buddhist perspective, from a scientific and medical perspective of stress-relief, or even from an artistic understanding of presencing, mindfulness is not about the subject, it is revealing of the relationship of being fully present.
But, can a picture be mindful? My concern here is that folks will think that we can create another genre or category of images, those under the rubric “mindful” and somehow expect them to not just look a particular way, but evoke a particular response or set of responses. The key is that as photographers we can practice being mindful observers of the world, as well as engage in our techne with as much mindfulness as possible. Such a disposition can enhance our witnessing of the moment, our photographic imagination, our seeing deeply, and infuse our work with such a character (ethos). The outcome might be that our images are more than mere representation, and become revealing of the world we inhabited at that moment. Notice that I did not say “the world as it was at that moment,” nor “the world as it is.” What might be revealed in such photography is the way we mindfully experienced that moment. That mindfulness opened our eyes to elements of the situation that we perhaps treated, composed, and/or addressed differently as a result of our being fully present. That makes a difference in our images, and in how a viewer in turn sees what we present. Of course, our own mindful persona might influence the subjects we select, our imagination, our artistic vision. And let us not forget that the viewer brings much to that experience.
Read More »
posted by Nacho, 26th November 2008 , Categories: Mindfulness

Presence & Getting Better at Photography

At some point photographers come against a few questions regarding skill, craft, vision, and art. One question that emerges, and a relatively easy one to answer is: what does it take for me to do this not just well but with excellence? It is natural that an initial concern is with how we can become good at this activity. We recognize that there is a great deal of technical matter to master, and if we are motivated, we set about learning as much as we can about such aspects of photography. Invariably however, we come to the realization that in order to “do this” with excellence we need to see photography as much more than just pushing a button, changing a lens, using a tripod, “reading the light,” and so forth.

When we get enough technical expertise under our belt, we say, how do I move to the next step? What can I do to make my images be stunning? That is a whole different concern than the ubiquitous query in online forums regarding how to make an image “pop.” What we ask at this later stage is truly how do we become more than just good technicians. A friend of mine would say that at such a point, a person is asking “how do I further my artistic development, how do I nurture artistic vision and imagination?”

I agree. But I also think folks that really delve into photography have another question often not articulated, and perhaps it is the same question about vision but phrased differently:

Read More »
posted by Nacho, 21st September 2008 , Categories: Mindfulness