Will give you some pointers to help develop your eye through mindful photography training. Whatever you call it, being mindful is never a bad thing.
As a newcomer, you may have experienced a quick fix in mind and heard yourself saying,"If I just have the right equipment or one particular camera, then I will be able to take much better photos!" Yes, I am nodding along with you.
Develop your Way of Seeing
Of course it is true that good glass and better detectors can help; but in the event you first develop your attention -- the lens through which you look at the world -- you will have the ability to craft images which have a much greater impact with any device, in any situation. And your photography will accurately reflect your own special view of the world.
Your Attentional Aperture
One approach for developing your lens is to incorporate the notion of mindfulness into your photography. I have developed a practice that combines walking with mindful photography. It's a been a true gift to both my craft in addition to my health and well-being.
"The best way to capture moments is to listen. This is the way we cultivate mindfulness. Mindfulness means being alert."
The Way to Develop the Art of Seeing Through Mindful Photography
As a tool to learn to be present, you can use your camera with photography. You'll notice more of this beauty that is all around you, and direct your focus that resonate with you. I think you will be surprised that you had never seen in that way before or might not have noticed.
The Human Brain
Why is that? Recent studies have shown that your brain doesn't process the huge majority of all stimulation that it takes in. It's simply a matter of efficiency and focus, which at an level was necessary for our survival, plus it helps us to learn skills we need as kids.
However, as an adult, you have a choice; you can adjust your Attentional Aperture. The aperture is, in regards to your camera's lens. You open or close the aperture to let in less or more light and to change the Depth of Field in the picture. You can also do the same with your mind and your attention.
Mindfulness Basics
Let's start with a mindfulness basics. You're probably not paying much attention to the nuanced forms that are above, below, and next to you.
In a state that is mindful, you're present and aware of your surroundings, discovering the details. You make choices about where to put your focus, energy as well as your breath.
I use my camera to help me spend more time. Here's how:
Backstory / Theory
I do a photo that is mindful walk as part of a daily exercise that includes a meditation, stretching breakfast, and exercises. It is my commitment to begin my day with practices that strengthen body my mind, and soul. My regular pays tremendous dividends in helping me weather the inevitable ups and downs of work and daily life, by beginning with what psychologists call a set-point that is favorable.
The photograph walk evolved over time. I've lived in San Diego for 11 years here in the same area and I have taken a walk almost every day. When I first started, it was strictly for exercise and sunshine, both agents. A couple of years later, after finding the benefits of yoga and meditation, I included in elements of mindfulness and conscious breathing (concentrate on the breath) to my walk.
But in 2011, I found that the missing ingredient. I did a job that is 365, that year -- posting, shooting, and writing about at least one photo every day for a year. My morning walk became a crucial aspect of the project as it provided me with subject matter for a few of my daily posts. I started to use the concepts of mindfulness and realized that the very act of taking a photograph can provide some of the same benefits as meditation.
Photography as Meditation
How so? Neuroscience has determined that multi-tasking is a myth. Your brain can't do two things simultaneously, which is focusing on your breath in meditation has such a profound effect and is the core tenet of that practice.
If you have shifted your brain's focus into the measures required to take a photo, at the very moment your mind isn't engaged in all of the ideas (good, bad, and ugly) that preceded it. Even for a nanosecond you've pulled on your brain out of its routine and into a mindful state.
This may sound obvious to founders. As you may know, that's what happens any time you write or keep or make art your attention. Doing those things for a prolonged time period can result in a calm and satisfied feeling -- you're in what some call a"flow state" (see the work of Mihály Csíkszentmihályi)
Doing so on a regular basis as part of a regular, also helps build pattern recognition towards the things you find appealing and intriguing. It literally"trains" your mind to look for more of the same later on. As neuroscientists like to say about neuroplasticity, the brain's capacity to evolve over time, "Neurons that fire together, wire together." Your personal"lens" is being created by your own conscious and conscious decisions of what to photograph and create.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A quote from the 3rd century and true to canvas beauty anything you happen to be beholding.
Some may say that not all art is beautiful, that, in actuality, it should not be beautiful, constantly when it comes to art. As with many aspects of life, such as faith, peace, love and happiness, the view of one man is vastly different to another. It is, then, one's opinion. Or not?
A nice quiet day spent with a day or family without bombs exploding around you? What's faith? Is religion thinking that you will have a wonderful day today or believing in something so deeply that nothing else matters?
And that is what it comes down to -- interpretation.
From a stance, beauty is what you make of it, what your taste is, what calls to your heart, soul and mind.
What is beauty in art
Objectively, the harshest of viewpoints, and not always the truest means the basis of purity accuracy and dedication. Object views are often what society has decided is.
But we can look to decide whether art is, in fact, beautiful and what beauty is.
Famous definitions -- What is Beauty?
Leo Tolstoy, a Great Russian author, coined this phrase, which sums up art beautifully --
Strong emotions, weak emotions, important emotions or irrelevant emotions, good emotions or bad emotions -- if they contaminate the reader, the spectator, or the listener -- it accomplishes the role of art."
Consequently, if we take these words to heart, it might appear that art should evoke a feeling inside of us. Whether it is a feeling or good, it must cause a change of being.
What is beauty in art? What makes art beautiful?
What is Beauty in Art?
Art can be so strong an influence, that we can be motivated to make ourselves to a work of art. Art as a therapy not just relax them, but let them think clearly about matters that are troubling and could instil a sense of well-being for a few. Some art may have the opposite effect. An art piece may have us building up feelings of anger, of pure anger after being subjected to those graphics and we may just react differently to individuals.
But isn't that the beauty of artwork. If strong emotions can be aroused by something within us, cause us to behave in a specific manner and possibly say things that we would not say, then surely that makes art a gorgeous reflection of our emotions.
The view that"art is fake (representation)" hasn't only been challenged, it has been moribund in at least some of the arts since the 19th century. It was then replaced by the concept that art is expression. Rather than reflecting states of the external world, art is held to reflect the artist's state. This seems to be implicit from the significance of expression: the outer manifestation of an inner state. Art as a representation of outer existence (true"seen through a temperament") has been replaced by art as an expression of people' inner life.
However, the terms express and saying are ambiguous and do not always denote the same thing. Like many other conditions, express is subject to the ambiguity that is process-product: the exact same term is used for a procedure and for. "The music expresses feeling" may mean that the composer expressed human perception in writing the music or the audio when heard is expressive (somehow yet to be defined) of human perception. Based on the first sense are theories about the creation of art. Founded on the next are theories concerning the conclusion of its creation and art's material.