Week 2 - Intentions

My intentions with this project, with my photography and with my life in general, are to slow down and be present. To “be here” in every sense of the phrase, sinking my mind down rather than flitting about with extraneous thoughts, bringing my attention to my center so that I fully possess my physical self. I want to view and respond to the world from that quiet self in there, the one who is simply a witness to the busily and anxiously running part of me.

With my photography this means both slowing down to think about my settings before pressing the shutter (far too many bad exposures because of hurrying and thoughtlessness!), and raising the camera to my eye only if and when a moment truly moves me. This means doing less shooting, but also doing more shooting, if that makes any sense. It means less frantic shutter pressing when I have camera in hand, but also not letting moments pass me by because of uncertainty, inconvenience or laziness.

It took me a long time this week to decide on a photo that fits these intentions, not so much because there weren’t others, but because I didn’t have one that had really compelled me to take it. Then tonight these two were winding down before bed, and I knew this was the moment I wanted to capture for week two. Aaand of course I didn’t have my camera on me, but luckily kids who don’t watch a lot of tv tend to be very captivated by it when they do, so they held still until I grabbed it.