Up: [[Zen Camera]] Created: 2023-08-06 I ended up taking quite a few photographs this week, delighted with the improvement in them just from angling the lens properly. For Pete’s sake! I sort of did Christine Paintner’s activity from *Eyes of the Heart* that I talked about last week in [[Contemplative Photography Process]], although not completely. I did pause; I did try to connect with my heart, and I did take the same image at different times of day and different angles. But I didn’t do 50 shots in 15 minutes and I didn’t move the object around to give it different backgrounds, although I could have done that quite easily. The object is a wooden Tara that is in the backyard. It’s the only wood sculpture I have and the only mass produced one. Others are original works by Zimbabwean stone sculptors and impossible to move. Tara is significant, if often overlooked by me, because of an interesting art course I’d taken that was based on an equally interesting book by Rachael Wooten called *Tara: The Liberating Power of the Female Buddha*. The course, taught online by an artist named [Whitney Freya](https://whitneyfreya.com) worked through the book, and a quality of Tara, one chapter at a time. After studying and painting Tara for the better part of a month, I went looking for a likeness of her and found her. I am happy with the way she has stood up and weathered the rain and sun. #Photo ![[Tara early morning.webp|400]] #Photo ![[Tara from the back.webp|400]] It has taken the better part of this week, but I’m finally slowing down. I’m starting to pay more attention to the sensations in my body. And I’m delighted to be more present to an experience *and* at the same time be surprised by what I didn’t notice in the moment. For example, I was very present to the moment captured in this photo, but completely surprised by the ducks when I looked at the image later. I’m good with that. Noticing, noticing, and more noticing. #Photo ![[Surprised by the ducks.webp|400]] ## Next Week I’m glad we’re moving on to Identity. It has been good to spend all of this time in Awareness *and* I’m looking forward to some new material. I haven’t read the chapter yet so am making no commitments as to what specific activities I’m going to do this coming week. And I’m thinking maybe that’s a sign of progress. Our Zen Camera work is a meander through luscious and rich inner and outer worlds, not a forced march from one goal post to the next. I love the ease we have with each other, J, and the freedom to make this work our own.