Being present (and being playful)

Teeth, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

I titled this photo "Teeth" for obvious reasons. But that was not why I took this photo. Instead I noticed an abandoned bicycle in the forest and wanted to do something different, feeling a bit playful. And although the photo may not be perfect, it was fun to take it.

Later I was pointed towards a nice posting about photography, titled How to disappear: "Photography is only a little bit about cameras and lenses and technique. [...] That's maybe 20% of the job. The rest is presence. [...] I'm engaged in what is happening around me in the moment. And I'm engaged, as a witness, to what is happening inside me as I hang with the scene I'm in. It's from that dual attention that I work the photographs."

The requirement of being present may explain why it seems that I have to shoot 100 photos before getting one reasonable good one, and then I may get several in succession. It takes time to get rid of all of the other stuff requiring attention and just be in the moment, flow with it, play with it.

What I have found out is that the best moments in doing photography are the playful ones - doing something just for the fun of it, not expecting anything great, just trying what will happen. In those moments there is something similar than when children play - they are totally focused, but not forced to focus, they just are there in the moment and go with it, not having other voices in the head demanding attention.

That is for me the real secret of photography - it allows me to play, and makes me to be present.

Update: "Being present" seems as a concept similar to "the flow", as described in Wikipedia: "Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity."