Farmers harvesting rice. Mae Hong Son, Thailand.

Are you taking photographs simply to prove something to other people, a tool used for comparing and competing? Like that broiled lobster tails with garlic and chilli butter, you had at the restaurant the night before. How about the one with your friends jumping mid-air together, are you doing it because that is what everyone else is doing? Is that the only reason for going there? Today most people are photographing a false reality created for social validation. With that approach, they fall short of being true to themselves capturing moments that lack meaning? If you do not want to cheat yourself from creating memories that are more reflective of your experiences, then there are two things you can do. Put the camera and smartphone down, or start being more mindful with your photography. 

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is not just paying attention to what is taking place in front of you or living in the moment. If it was as simple as that then it’s fair to say that most animals are mindful. Take for example a dog, she might be paying attention to what is taking place in front of her and “living in the moment” but is she consciously aware of the moment? Coming back to ourselves imagine eating an apple, from its first bite you are fully aware of yourself eating that apple, your focus is on the taste, sweetness, how juicy it is, freshness, crunchiness, texture, fragrance and anything else you can think of. Unfortunately a few seconds after biting into the apple our mind goes on autopilot lost in thoughts of yesterday or tomorrow while consuming the remainder of the apple. To be mindful is to focus on the present experience of eating the apple. Our thoughts stay on the taste, sweetness, juiciness, freshness, crunchiness, texture, and fragrance for each bite until the apple is finished.  If this can be done then you are consciously in the presence of reality, you are living in reality. The apple becomes real and if the apple is real then the person eating the apple is also real. 

Mindfulness in Photography

Today many things are made to be disposable if not there is a disposable version for that product, like disposable cups, plates, ink pens and lighters. Our photography has also become disposable thanks to digital technology. Snap, snap, snap, delete, delete, every day over a billion thoughtless images are taken unlike the era of analogue photography (using film) where most photographers did not have that luxury of wastefulness. With a roll of film only having 12, 24 or 36 exposures those photographers had to put more thought and contemplation into their photography. 

On the path to becoming more mindful of your photography, you will have to start asking yourself why you are taking that photograph? To answer that you have to spend time experiencing the thing that you want to photograph using curiosity as your guide. Curiosity is important because it changes our perception of the moment. It helps you to ask questions that enrich the experience. What is here? What am I seeing? Is there something that I am unaware of? With these questions, your eyes slowly move around observing your surroundings revealing things you have not noticed before. The practice also develops other attitudes that strengthen mindfulness such as patience, contentment, acceptance (letting things be), awareness of judgment, gratitude and being fully present in the moment.   

An unfortunate common practice is taking pictures of the obvious and quickly moving on to another area trying to cover as much ground as possible. Those photographs while still pleasing to the eye only conjure the memories of the efforts taking the photographs and very little about the experience of the place.  This is why it is good to slow down. Given the extra time spent observing and being present in that moment,  you can have photographs that are more reflective and with meaning. But mindfulness is not limited to the environment, similar to the example of eating an apple it is also being fully present in an activity. Taking good photographs benefits from this as your mind is not on autopilot wandering on thoughts of the past or present but fully immersed in the activity of taking a picture.  No longer distracted you can extensively explore and experiment with composition and design principles that best expresses your moment and point of view. 

Something Worth Sharing

Photography is used for telling stories not only about a place but also about our experiences because we took photographs at that place. It is a tool for documenting our journey through life. We also use journals for documenting our experiences and thoughts but before writing anything in that journal we had to experience it first. The same goes for our photography, if you really want to get the most out of it as you do with a journal then you are going to have to experience the moment first. This will influence the photographs that you take and you will also find that it is easy to write captions for those photographs. This is because you now have something worth sharing. Remember, life is a journey, not a destination so take the time to experience it before taking a picture.