The Invisible Mentor

A Look At How To Look At Everything by David Finn & The Zen of Photography: How to Take Pictures With Your Mind’s Camera by Paul Lester

A few years ago I attended a series of photography events hosted by the Toronto Camera Club. Richard Lautens, a Toronto Star photojournalist led one of the events. Richard suggests that taking the picture is easy, the harder part is setting up the shot. Before you click, click, click, he recommends that you first ask yourself, “What’s going on here and how do I feel about it? To me, this means that you remove the dividing line between photographer (or amateur photographer) and subject.

In How To Look At Everything, the author David Finn writes, “The artist Henri Matisse used to tell his students that the inner feeling that they had when looking at something was more important than what they saw literally with their eyes. What was important was to “render the emotion” awakened within them. He urged them to close their eyes and hold the vision, and they would see the object better than with their eyes open.”

How can you apply this to your life? Do you stand on the sidelines and watch life go by, or do you fully immerse yourself in life? Are you separate from this world or do you consider yourself to be a part of this world?

Later in the book David asks: “Is your mind focused on other thoughts as you try to get where you’re going as fast as possible? When you stand at the corner waiting for a traffic light to change, does your eye wander to see what’s happening while you wait, or do you just stare at the sign that reads DON’T WALK, waiting for it to change? Is the time you spend walking in the city a meaningful experience, or is it just a period empty of meaning…”

In The Zen of Photography there are 100 Zen sayings, many of which we can also apply to our lives. I have pulled 10 of the sayings and listed them here as great ideas. I am sure that your 10 sayings would be very different from mine and that’s why I encourage you to read the book. I think the best way to absorb the book is to take one saying at a time and reflect on it.

10 Great Ideas

1. The past is a learning memory. The future is a yearning goal. The present is the only moment that exists. You can stretch that moment out forever if you are constantly aware of every now
2. Every person has a story to tell. Every person is looking for a caring spirit that will listen
3. When you begin to care you realize, as you look in a passersby eyes, we have all experienced the same tragedies, triumphs and fits of boredom. We all feel the same emotions. We are all the same person
4. Anything can be practiced. A guitar piece to a positive way of life. Practice is simply concentrating on a single action or idea until it no longer exists in your conscious mind
5. You can only learn when you are ready to listen
6. Technology interferes with the spirit. Machinery suppresses the fun. The mind thwarts the heart
7. Your goal is not to be the best photographer, the best runner, the best musician, the best writer, or the best anything. Your goal, if you really need a goal, is to be yourself
8. You cannot want to be anything. Either you are or you are not. If you are, you are being your natural self and peace will come. If you are not, your ego directs your actions and you will always be disturbed
9. A teacher learns from the student. Who then is the real teacher/student? If the teacher is the student, then we are all students learning from each other
10. Since no one can learn unless ready, the best teacher does not give answers. The best teacher facilitates questions

This tells me that everything is connected, we are all connected, that there is no us against them. We can do better in life, if we stop, listen and experience the moment. There is truth to the adage that we should stop and smell the roses.

Excerpt Ambeck Edge September 2006

Related posts:

1. How to Carve Out the Time to Read in a Busy World

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