> On 3 Jan 2019, at 00:36, Larry Colen <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Some years ago I was toying with the idea of going pro and was figuring out > what it would take to make a living at photography. I knew that I wouldn't be > able to go from zero to enough paid gigs to make a living in any sort of > reasonable time, but I was able to get enough free gigs to simulate what it > would be like to work as a photographer. It took about two or three weeks of > that to suck all of the fun out of my photography and convince me that I > didn't want photography to become my job, I wanted to keep it as something > that I did for fun. It is nice, however, when occasionally the fun I get from > photography includes cashing a check. > > Now pardon me as I was philosophic, and perhaps a bit pedantic... > > From my study of Aikido, I have realized that almost any activity can become > a "do", (pronounced doe) aka dao, tao, or translated "way" or path". For me > to treat something as a do, is to work on improving my skill at it for the > meditative benefits of working to improve your skills at that activity. For > me, photography can very much fall into that category because there are so > many areas to improve one's (especially my) skill and understanding. For me, > simply working on holding the camera still while taking photos can be a skill > that can never be perfected, only improved. Composition, lighting, and even > putting a model at ease are just a few more of those skills. > > So, to me, walking around with my camera looking for photos, even when I > don't have my muse, isn't necessarily a onerous chore, but an opportunity for > a few minutes of meditation. At least that's the theory. >
Influenced in all things by Henri Cartier-Bresson, I read a few years ago a book that he recommended to photographers, called Zen in the Art of Archery, by Eugen Herrigel. This had a very profound philosophical and practical effect on my approach to photography and now when I'm taking pictures I close my eyes, breathe slowly, rhythmically and meditatively to make myself one with the cosmos, visualise the spirit of the image, then throw my camera at the subject. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
