Pondering a New Thought. What do you think?

On another website a therapist who works with photography to help people make changes in their life wrote "Your photos are actually "self-portraits" even if you are not in them". WOW, I mean Whoa! that caught my attention, made me feel a little bit uncomfortable so I knew I was in the learning mode with God at that moment and I had to think about that statement. Especially since I have been a little less than satisfied with some of my work. Her belief is that we take pictures of things that move us, people we want to spend time with, actions that amaze us. These snap shots can give us an idea or our mood, our journey through time, our future.

So I began thinking about what was bothering me about the pictures. They were too blurry, they weren't crisp or as "Pretty" as some of the other professional photos I see, I can't get the f stop, ISO, aperture correct, etc, etc, etc. And in this self analysis I realized a few things. 1) I am in too much of a hurry to be perfect 2) Because I am in too much of a hurry, I am taking pictures just to have a picture, but not really to learn the process and 3) Like everything in my life I rush, look for quick, fast easy ways, and don't enjoy the experience. And so, what do I get? Blurry photos. It is self portrait of my hurried, fast paced existence. The beauty comes from slowing down, looking for the best shot, perhaps not always taking the photo, but just enjoying that quiet solitude, those moments when no one is around and you are seeing it all take place around you.

I am challenging myself to make the time to slow down. To no be so worried about getting a shot, but to spend more time with the learning, more time with relaxing and enjoying the visuals. Finding composition through my own life interpretation.

I love to learn new things about myself, about processes, about people. Its no surprise to me that this new revelation about myself has come up "once again". It just is. I hurry. I move fast. A lesson to learn is the slowing down. Perhaps we will begin to see a change in the way we take photos as we slow down and enjoy the process.

This also translates itself to photo editing. Photoshop should not be used to just slap on some layers and call it a day. It should be another slow process where we feel the photo and find ways to translate the moods into a finer print. Textures, words, layers can all be useful in expressing what we saw during those quiet moments but it can only be done if we took the time during the shot to feel the experience, to relish and enjoy the shot. What do you think?