Drawing the Line

“you should always stop eating before you feel completely full

‘

Yasutani Roshi

 in these last few years i have pretty much learned to see the world as a photoshoot.  when i started doing photography, i had some kind of vague feeling that there was a limit to the great shots i would get.  that i would  eventually run out of subjects or ideas for interesting pics.  

well, just the opposite has proven to be true!  the more i tune my eye, the more opportunities i see all around me.  and the more i share my pics and see what others are sharing, the more ideas i have for new subjects or treatments.  just about anything can be visually interesting if you approach it in the right way!

but i’ve decided that there has to be limits.  a cut-off point.  sometimes i find myself in situations where everywhere i look there is something to be captured with my camera(s).  so i have to draw the line.  just stop.  because sometimes the obsession to get the pics can start to interfere with the experience of being there.  i have seen it happen....

this i believe:

some things are meant just to be experienced – not shared, photographed or documented.  because doing that adds a different dimension to the experience.  a dimension of thinking, planning, rehearsing…. all of which can detract from the true zen of being there.

 personally, i find the trend of sharing and documenting every tiny and intimate detail of our personal lives on social media to be over the top.  there are no limits to it and, taken to the extreme, i feel it’s an unhealthy trend.  it takes us out of the moment.  and we need to be spending more time in the moment…. not less (thanks for listening....)

i spent a couple of days hiking in the mountains this week and this was one of the things i was thinking about.  when i was thinking....