As the 2011 ended, I found myself feeling mentally better than I have felt in a long time, so I began looking at all the images I had captured in the soon to pass year. As I view those images, and there were many, only a few truly inspired me. I felt I had lost something. Nor could I figure out what it was.
A few months ago, another photographer suggested that I read a book by Zen Master Daido Loori who is also a photographer. I researched Daido Loori and his Zen photography. He states, ‘Many worry about the past when the past does not exist for it is in the past. They also worry about the future which also does not exist for it is in the future.” He goes on to talk about how Zen photographers live in the moment when capturing an image which is the Zen way. I realized that I had let the past and future clutter my being, thus affecting my work.
Reviewing again those images that inspired me, I realized I had experienced ‘in the moment’ when I took them. Reflecting, not worrying about the past year, I realized I had let the past and future worries clutter my being, thus at times affecting my Miksang. I am a person who seeks out beauty in simplicity. Being receptive to simplicity requires a clear mind. I love becoming one with my surroundings. To feel, hear and see all there is before capturing a moment. Those moments allow a cleansing of sorts of my mind and soul, thus my logo, Spa for the Mind, Eye Candy for the Soul’.
When one takes the time to study the images I have captured you will see a pattern. It will present itself as a captured image experienced while in a Zen moment. A photojournalist will take you on an exhilarating visual ride while they transverse the world capturing images. A portrait/glamor photographer will wow us with their magical artistic talent and touches. A Landscape and Fine Art photographer capture’s a painting, whether it be that created by nature, man or a mixture of both. Each of us shines in our own fields and each of us will bleed over into others as we all have, the eye “Miksang”, and want to capture all that catches that eye.
One of my written prose, ‘A moment taken to observe the ever-changing mural, is a soothing tonic to ones mind’, is something I try to inspire others to experience. You need not be a photographer to seek out and enjoy a moment. Most gratifying moments for me is when others, while spending time with me, will begin to observe their surrounding and share with me their discoveries. In our fast paced life, these moments are truly a mental spa.
Prints available at www.deebrowningphotography.com
Dee Browning Photography 