In today's day and age, busyness is disguised as productivity. The busier we are, the more we feel like we are doing something of importance. Constant scrolling, sending messages, and consuming content often masquerades around as productivity too. I often lose track of an hour of my time to scrolling and watching videos "for inspiration" or to "teach myself" when really, I'm just procrastinating. In the past few years, I have learned that mindfulness is key to creating as well as enjoying photos, and I want to share a little bit of that with you.
With digital cameras, phones, and social media, it is so easy to snap a million photos before thinking "why." Often I will run out of space before thinking about how intentional I was with my photos. Out of the fear of missing a moment, I take as many photos as I can without realizing how many details I've missed. Sometimes it's out of excitement and sometimes it's going through the motions that cause me to rush the process. My settings and focus may have been off, maybe my composition could've been better, or worst of all - I was so busy clicking the shutter button and looking through my camera that I missed a beautiful moment around me. These have all happened to me countless times and there's only one solution, to slow down. If you're anything like me, you've probably been told to put the camera down and "live in the moment". And that is honestly the best advice I can give, have your camera ready but look around you and take in your surroundings. Take the extra time to line up a shot or wait for a moment, you may miss a few shots but the ones you go home with will be more fulfilling. The intention and story will begin to show through your photos.
However, putting mindfulness into practice can be a lot easier to say than do. Just like when applying mindfulness in the rest of our lives, applying it to a creative process takes practice. As if you were trying to learn to meditate, set aside a few minutes each day, or each week to take photos slowly. Be intentional with this time and plan out what you want to do beforehand (but leave room to improvise). Maybe give film photography a try, being limited by a roll of film is a great way to get into the habit of mindfulness. Or chose just one aspect to focus on and keep it simple (focus on just lighting, or one object, or one focal length, etc). And perhaps most importantly, review your photos often and multiple times. Revisit old photos and critique them, look for things you may not have seen in them before and see if you can see a growth in the photos you take over time.
Now if you are a photographer, like taking photos with your phone or just enjoy looking at photos, this next part is for you. I mentioned before the mindless scrolling of photos on social media, we consume media so quickly that it only takes a matter of seconds before we decide to move on to the next photo, video, etc. Try pausing next time you see a photo you enjoy and answer a few questions.
Why do you like this photo?
What does it make you feel?
Where is the focus and what details can you see?
What is the lighting like?
Is there color, if so, what tones and temperatures are there?
Now the list of discussion points can go on and on, but this is a basic foundation for beginning to view photos. If you are a photographer yourself maybe ask additional questions such as "What would the set-up for this photo look like?" or "How would I have shot this photo?"
Try viewing photos with others as well and bouncing ideas off of them. Ask people who know nothing about photography as well as those who are experienced in it and see how your perspective may change.