Up: [[Zen Camera]] Created: 2023-06-28 ## Observations This Week I’m not consistent in taking 7 photos a day. I make sure I take at least one photo a day and then there are days when I take a dozen. For week 3, I’ve taken 59 photos so no problem with meeting our weekly quota, but I wonder if there’s a downside to being inconsistent. However, I don’t like feeling like I’m on rails and have, for the last few months, been trying to accept and even embrace a habit of inconsistency. [[New Sneakers Don't a Visual Story Make!]] Three weeks into our Zen Camera work, I’m noticing two themes in my photography. I love edges, particularly between water and land or water and sky. And I cannot stop taking photographs of the section of the old dock along the river walk. Those two themes are represented in my favourite photos of this week. ## Favourite Photos #Photo ![[ZC3 - old dock at river.webp|300]] #Photo ![[ZC3 - Lake Ontario in Whitby.webp|300]] This one was at Lake Ontario in Whitby with Gayle. ## Chapter Two — Awareness David Ulrich was helpful on the first page of this chapter when he described Zen Buddhism as *a system of thought that allows our minds to soar, that examines the human condition, and attends to our individual evolution in fluent, effective ways without being theistic.* (p.55-56) That sentence confirmed for me that, while I want the mindfulness, the deep awareness of Zen, Jungian or depth psychology is the system of thought that guides me. It is the lens through which I see the world so that, for example, in the very next paragraph when Ulrich is talking about paradox, I think in terms of [[Tension of Opposites]], a Jungian concept. Ulrich’s comment about ‘eye candy’ as images made when only the eye is excited really hit home. I mentioned last week that I was setting up some supports to help me immerse in contemplative work. One of those supports is a deep dive into my [[Senses]], both through reading a couple of books about senses and, more significantly, through really attending to my senses via body scans and the like in my Embodiment work and all contemplative Art, Writing and Photography work. I yearn to achieve the kind of attention Ulrich refers to where I *look inward and outward simultaneously, becoming aware of the outer condition and my internal responses to the thing seen.* (P.58) I think, though, that my development of this kind of attention will likely need to come more from art, writing and embodiment work rather than photography. There seems to be a big focus in this chapter on taking photographs of people or events, things that are moving and changing. I’m not comfortable with that, have no particular desire to take those sorts of photos. ## Next Week I think this will be another multi-week chapter. There’s a lot here! I’m going to try seven photos a day for the self-portrait exercise this coming week. The week after I would like to try a variation of his second task and take daily photos of that section of dock on the river walk, see if I can go deeper. I will try to be more diligent about daily meditation. It will be guided meditation using my Apple Fitness+ app and will range from 10-20 minutes a day. I’m good with that. The rest of the exercises in this chapter are ‘to be considered.’ I’m not sure yet what’s possible or desirable for me.