What Is A Contemplative Photograph?

Quite simply, a contemplative photograph is one that is taken with some thought in mind while taking the photograph.  Oftentimes, people will take a picture of something that stimulates their mind in a pleasing way so when they get home they will have a pleasant memory of their experience.

The contemplative photograph takes into account what direction the subject is facing?  Where is the sun in relation to your subject?  Do you want a shallow depth of field or do you want everything sharp?  What lens is the right lens to take the picture with?  So often we buy a camera with a kit lens and never take it off while there may be another lens that would work better for the situation and the subject.  Is the shutter speed you need for the depth of field you want sufficient for you to hand hold your camera or do you need to use a tripod?  If you forgot your tripod, do you need to increase the sensitivity of your sensor?  If you are shooting a sunrise, would a purple sky help?  Perhaps you need to use a filter to accomplish that. Where should you focus?  All of these questions go into the making of a contemplative photograph.  As you can easily see, much more goes into taking a contemplative photograph than just taking a simple snapshot.

One of the things I often do is to give myself assignments for a particular photograph that I want to take that day.  Sometimes their are lines in songs that I listen to that may stimulate my assignment, other times it might simply be to go out and photograph a particular color against a contrasting color.  You might feel that is too limiting, but we will talk about my system in another post.  Sometimes, I just listen to inspirational music and let my mind drift while I walk.  I will listen to music that has the ocean coming in, guitars that have a rhythm to them that I enjoy.  Sometimes a saxophone does the trick for me.  You have to make that decision for yourself.

My meditation and mindfulness does not stop when I take the photograph.  I think about how I am going to process my picture before I take it.  Sometimes the least suspecting photographs turn out awesome in post processing.