Winter is a great time to practice the Photographic Sage's characteristic of Wu Wei...Effortless Effort. I don't go looking for images, I stay put and let the images come to me. (You can read the first post, back in February of 2012, on Wu Wei here. There is also a PhotoTao Card on the practice.)
Practicing Wu Wei is a a great way to ease into the contemplative practice of photography. It is not a "doing" sort of thing. It is simply "being". (Not easy if you have a Type A personality!) In actuality, Wu Wei is the ultimate visual listening exercise...a way to do without doing. This is what I have been experiencing this winter because of the frigid temperatures, ice and snow. It is a very restful and often surprising thing to "not do"!
You might like to review all the Characteristics of the Photographic Sage by clicking here.
2 comments:
Patricia, I love what you say about letting the image come to you - simply being - listening, even a sense of waiting. And thank you for the link to your series on the Characteristics. I will go back and review all of them!
Traditional photography is so much about "chasing the shot", "capturing the image"...with contemplative photography, especially from a Taoist perspective, we can simply stay open and wait. The landscape will always walk in...
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