Category Archives: Articles

If we want to have more flashes of perception we need to stay connected with the process of creativity. We do it by embracing not only the flash but the grind as well. The grind in contemplative photography is the practice of discernment.

Discernment is at the heart of the creative process and changes the quality of our images. No longer limited by seeing conceptually, opens the opportunity for direct visual expressions that are fresh and authentic.

Presence is at the heart of improvisation in any medium of expression. It makes it possible to be spontaneously creative. However, to be open and let the heart speak takes work and does not come easily. Meditation in action is the vehicle that can make it happen.

The author talks about how one can access and facilitate the process of creativity when one has forgotten how to be creative. He outlines how Zen meditation practice (zazen) can rekindle one’s inherent creativity and how it can be applied to photography. Engaging in this process adds richness not only to one’s images but to one’s life as well/

In Zen there is a fundamental difference between the seeing of ‘self without form’ and the seeing of ‘self with form’. An example of formless seeing is the ‘flash of perception’. It changes how form is expressed in a new way and manifests as a intangible vibrant quality that is ordinarily not seen.