“You can find pictures anywhere. It’s simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them.”

– Elliott Erwitt

Mindfulness

Before taking a photograph, we have something come into our awareness that we decide to document – something we see, or something we notice. Mindfulness is choosing to pay attention to the present moment without judgement. As photographers, we must look closely at our environment to create a good photograph. Mindful photography is less about the immediate judgement of an image, and more about the process of slowing down and pausing in a moment as we capture an image. This practice makes us a better artist and human.

Time

Photography is inherently connected to a present moment. Taking a photo is about observing and capturing a split second of time. Most of the photographs I shoot are around 1/125 – 1/2000th of a second. It’s such a tiny amount of time. In early photographic processes such as the daguerreotype, neck braces were used to hold the head still enough to not get a blurry image. This is because the technology had not advanced enough to have the fast shutter speeds as we do now. Most daguerreotype images had the shutter open for about 20 minutes. By the 1840s, it was reduced down to 20 seconds. Now it is only fractions of a second of a moment in time that is captured. Taking a photograph is documenting a split moment in time, and mindfulness is about bringing awareness to a moment in time. Mindfulness and photography are intricately connected to each other through their relationship to time.

“Photography takes an instant of time, altering life by holding it still.”

-Dorthea Lange

Being Present

The tricky part about picture taking is that it can take us out of that present moment, making it difficult to pay attention and be fully immersed and present. It can feel impossible to be present and also document an experience. There are f-stops to worry about, ISO numbers to figure out, and compositional framing. How can we figure out how to stay present while also photographing? I’ve found myself loose out on moments in real time because I’m too worried about documenting it. Photographing through a mindful lens allows a meditative and contemplative process of documentation, choosing to slow down and immerse ourselves in the experience of our moments.

Article Summary

Photographing through a mindful lens is about paying attention to the process of photography through a contemplative approach.
Mindfulness and photography are connected through their relationship to time.