When I close my eyes, I don’t see a blank space, family, or the noisy city I live in, but instead I see something else, something I consider to be one of life’s most beautiful joys. Instead, what I see is the bright blue skies, tree branches whistling in the wind, ocean waves crashing on a sandy beach, I see the worlds natural beauty. I see myself outside walking through a bright meadow, birds chirping all around me while the wind rustles through my hair. I love nature and all the beauty that comes with it.
Whenever I get the chance too, I am out in nature, weather at the beach, on a trail, or just at a park enjoying the blue skies. It is when I am at the most peace, my most reflective, when life is coming at me the slowest. My entire life when I had these moments of awe in nature, I have taken a mental image that I can come back to, when life is busy, fast, and difficult. This repetitious act became a sort of meditation for me, where I would go into my happy place. Two years ago, I decided to rather than just take mental photo’s I could bring a camera, during my adventures.
Why I love Photography, and why you should try it.
At two years into this hobby of mine, I not calling myself an expert, but to me photography is not just how crisp the final image is, rather, it’s about the journey. I have fallen in love with the entire photo process, from creating the composition I want, to the process of editing them after. I have fallen in love with photography because of three primary reasons, it puts me in a meditative state, it provides motivation for me to improve a skill, and finally it gives lasting memories.
My Meditative State
When I have my camera in my hand, I am in the moment, looking at the scenery in front of me, not whatever else I’m dealing with. As crazy as it sounds holding an instrument meant to capture memories, when I am holding my camera, all I can think about is the present, and how my life is going. As the photographer, it’s my vision that comes through the image, I can make it whatever I want. If I want to showcase a long life, I can take an image of a baby bird, if I want to showcase peace, I can take a photo of a grand vista. The point is that I can show any emotion I want to through the image I take.
When I am on my hikes, I enjoy making wildlife my subjects, but with that, in my meditative state I get grounded in that the world doesn’t revolve around myself. The birds, snakes, sea life, or any other wildlife that I have photographed don’t care if I’m there, don’t care if I got my shot, or don’t care that there in my way, instead, they are living in the moment, living life. When I am conducting my everyday business, I can feel that sometimes the world is against me, sometimes in my favor, and sometimes I believe the world owes me.
When I am in nature, I get that the world doesn’t owe me anything, doesn’t want to harm me, and not trying to help me. It doesn’t matter if I miss a deadline, the ocean waves will continue to crash on the beach, it doesn’t matter if I got a promotion at work, the Salmon will continue to jump upstream, it doesn’t matter if I lost my house, the sun will always rise and fall each day. This grounds me to the knowledge that whatever happens to me at any time is small in the grand scheme of things.
I view photography not as something I need to become the best at, but as a hobby that makes me slowdown in life and appreciate the small mundane phenomena. With photography, I look at it as a tool I use to get in a meditative and reflective state. This means while I appreciate that I am getting better as a photographer, I care more about the experience hiking or enjoying the scene, then getting a perfect shot. It’s about being able to slow down and enjoy the dolphins playing in the ocean waves, or watching the sun rise over the mountains.
Improving Skills
Photography is a hobby that also teaches me a multitude of skills in addition to just improving my camera skills. While understanding your camera is vitally important in taking great photo’s, it’s not the only skill you can develop doing this activity. The photo’s you see in magazine’s and up on wall’s were taken at the perfect time, there was a vision behind it, every angle of the composition was chosen to fit with the vision, and the photographer had the patients to wait for the shot, and not rush it.
The first skill it teaches me is that of my eye. What I mean by that, is photography helps me have a creative vision. Just because I am in front of something beautiful doesn’t mean the photo of the exact same scene will show just how gorgeous it was. When looking at scenes now, I’m thinking to myself “Why is this so beautiful, and how can I show it”. Is the light only covering the foreground, or maybe it’s the geometry of the objects. Whatever it is, how can I show it on a 2D canvas. Do I need to think out of the box, is it up to how I edit the photo, or do I have to showcase a bit of patience to wait for the right conditions. This is the kind of creative vision that photography helps me develop.
The next big skill I am developing, is being patient. Sometimes you come to a scene that looks good but, in your vision, you can make it better by adding another element. To make that element a reality, you must be patient. This could mean waiting a few minutes to get the sun in a better position, or it could mean coming back on a further date because the conditions might be different. By developing my patience, it helps me in other areas of life because I learn to just be with anticipation of getting the goal I’m after, rather than falling for instant gratification that is easy to succumb to. Patience also helps me appreciate living in the moment and enjoying life, which is what I initially fell in love with about the outdoors.
Finally, I am developing my ability to be detail oriented. What I’m finding is that I am becoming more aware of everything in the composition, from where the subject is, to seeing what’s at the corner of the composition. Dong this not only improves my photography but makes me think if they are other ways of doing things. If there is a branch right next to a gorgeous vista, can I move my viewpoint to get it out of frame, could I go lower, or higher, or is there a way I can use that branch to add something to the composition. While photography is training my head to think this way I can apply to all areas of life.
Creates A Moment in History
Photography to me is never about the actual photo itself, instead, it’s about the emotion or memory it invokes by viewing it. Every photo I look at, invokes some kind of emotional response, it might be that of wonder, fear, joy, or inspiration. The photo puts me in the moment, I visualize the moments that lead up to it, and the moments that followed. What was the journey the photographer had to take to capture it. This is the beauty of photography, and why I believe it is such a powerful art form.
My photos are powerful tools I use to bring me back to the exact moment I took it. When I review my photos, I instantly remember, where I was, the journey of getting to that exact spot, what hardships I took, how I was emotional feeling. My photos instantly become a time capsule of all that effort, patience and thought that went into taking the photo. Through photography I also get a chronological slide show of my life, my interests my mental states, my simple joys.
Looking back now to the photos I took when I bought my camera two years ago, I can see tremendous improvement in not only my composition, but my editing of the photos. I see at how I didn’t balance my photos with the histogram, or my composition was too busy, too out of focused, I can see all the little things that I have since improved on.
Conclusion
While some might see a picture and just think it’s an image, I see so much more. I can see the skill that taking the photo took, I can see the effort that was taken into the composition, I get filed with emotions of joy, wonder, exploration, mindfulness, or anger. Then, when I am out taking the pictures, I get to examine life, be in the moment, and get away from reality. I love all aspects of taking pictures, as in the entire process I get some value pout of it. Photography is a hobby I wouldn’t trade for anything in life.