Exercise One: Color

"Possessiveness, craving, and other forms of desire cut us off from artistry because they are bound up with projections about objects of desire and possibilities of fulfillment."
--The Practice of Contemplative Photography, by Andy Karr and Michael Wood.

I'm reading this book blending Buddhism and photography, and it reminds me (as if I needed reminding) how longing cuts us off from the present moment. This book is, in Joko Beck's words, "nothing special." It is a reminder of the everyday miracles of color, line, shadow, and shape, and how delightful pure perception is, freed of concepts, ideas, and expectations. Pure perception opens up photography to THIS moment. It takes us out of what might be, what has been, and what will be, into what is. This book is just what I needed.

Exercise one is to shoot color. The authors suggest we go beyond the conventional (avoid flowers and nature altogether), beyond craft or technique (avoid contrived angles, filters, very slow or fast shutter speeds, "textures," and HDR), beyond "self-expression," into pure perception of (meaningless) color, shadow, and shape.

I took my car to be worked on at 8 a.m. today (trying to find the source of the mold growing in the trunk/boot) and took a stroll around Firestone, looking for meaningless and striking color. No luck finding the source of the mold, but I had such a good time taking pictures, it was as thrilling and new as it was when I was ten and got my first Brownie camera.