To live a life grounded in God
Meister Eckhart’s Book of Darkness & Light
you don’t need information;
you need to be informed by
the spark of divine presence
you always carry within you.
But you’ll have to practice
this, with concentration,
like you would if you were
learning a skill or art.
To grow in this craft of photography requires practice. At the present moment I have over 90,000 images in my archives. A rough guess would be that less than 5% of them are good images. I’ll define good as images I’d want to print, frame or sell. And, I post many images on this blog that I would not define as good but want to share them anyway. There is something about them I like. Which means I have a large number of keepers that are lessons and teachers. The lessons they teach may not be something I understand while looking at the image on my computer. Some lessons may be unconscious and only known or understood until I’m in the field and something intuitive, that spark within me, tells me to change my composition or some technical aspect of my equipment. And, that is the lesson practice offers!
This morning’s clouds, predawn colors and reflections at Arapaho Bend Natural Area were a good way for me to start this day. My only hiccup was making an 8 ounce pour-over rather than a 12 ounce pour-over. 😂 I hope you also have a good day in whatever you do!
6 Comments
Faye White
It’s the same with painting. Most of my recent paintings are far from perfect but I learn something (hopefully) with each attempt.
Now I have to google a ‘pour-over’. 🙂
Monte Stevens
I was pretty sure you would relate to practice, even in your baking. Hope Dr. Google lets you know what a pour-over is. I make them now because they are much easier than a French Press or espresso machine.
Tom Dills
I made a “pour over” one morning on our recent trip, when I forgot to put my cup under the Keurig-like dispenser. But it was a “pour over the counter and the (fortunately tile) floor. 🙁
Interesting idea about our photographs being lessons and teachers. I get it completely but never thought of them in that way. As long as we are paying attention to the lesson we can learn from them, even from the rejects.
Monte Stevens
Too funny, Tom. Did you get photos or videos? Looking at our photos as lessons is someone else’s idea but I am learning how to use them. We can also carry that into our post-processing. I like it when I am shooting something and can realize that the last time I did this I didn’t like it. Hope you are having a good day!
Mark
I like the metaphor, that many images are lessons, whether or not we know what is meant to learn by them immediately or sometime in the future. I think that is one reason I like just randomly jumping into my archives, to see if a new nugget of discovery or knowledge can be found.
Monte Stevens
I like the metaphor also. And, when I think about it some of those good images have give me wonderful lessons, also. I think many of us, now that we are in the digital age, randomly jump into the archives to see what nuggets we can mine. Whatever, I love the art of practice! Thanks for the observation!!