Saturday, November 30, 2013

The A, B, C's of Contemplative Photography - T

T is for Transience (and also for Taoism, and Transformation, and Threshold, and Texture, and...)

the state or fact of lasting only for a short time

   Nothing is more transient for the photographer than light.  Those times of superb light are fleeting and rare.  Perhaps that's why photographers venture out at sunrise and sunset and on foggy days.  It is the luminous light they seek.

   Feelings and impressions can be just as fleeting.  When we sit or walk through a landscape we may experience these transient moments when some hidden mystery is exposed for just a short period of time.  This is when the contemplative photographer must either pull out the camera or the journal.

   One has to have as quiet a mind as possible for these moments to occur.  It isn't as simple as choosing the right time of day or the right weather conditions.  It is only achieved with heightened receptivity.  The soul must be tuned into the right frequency to hear it.

   Some days, for hundreds of different reasons, my inner frequency is simply not tuned in.  I can stay outside for hours and I receive nothing...a big fat zero.  I don't let that discourage me.  I know if I just continue to venture out those transient moments will occur.  It will happen when I don't force it and when I least expect it.  That's the wonder of it for me.

 

2 comments:

Mystic Meandering said...

Lovely post. I find it's much the same on the "spiritual journey" - looking for the luminous, the hidden mystery in life itself - needing quiet, solitude and silence - and heightened receptivity to be aware of it. I recently missed a *really* good shot that caught my eye, but was preoccupied and missed it... sigh...

Patricia Turner said...

It is so incredibly difficult to stay "in the moment" with our continually chattering monkey minds isn't it? It is amazing how much we miss in the now while our heads are in the past or the future!