Up: [[Photography]] Related: [[Spirituality]] Created: 2024-05-05 Christine Valters Paintner suggests finding a non-moving point to focus on — a vase, chair, spot on the wall on floor. Focus completely without hardening into a stare. Then, while maintaining the point of focus, become aware of your peripheral vision. She makes the same comment as David Ulrich in *Zen Camera* about the vision of a contemplative practice being one of holding the tension between focus and diffuse awareness, *keeping the gaze soft, receiving what is around you rather than trying to penetrate into its meaning.* The photographic exploration is to choose any object from everyday life that you engage with daily but without much real attention. She suggests beginning with a soft gaze and then becoming curious about the object and trying to take 50 photos of it in a 15 minute period — from different angles, in different kinds of light, against different background colours. Try not to force. Keep a connection to your heart while working. Interestingly, her suggestion after these 50 images is to restrict yourself to taking one photo a day for the rest of the week and to watch to see how you’re feeling with this restriction. If frustrated, *return to your heart. Let go of the need to analyze this experience. Sometimes just a single image is enough when we bring ourselves fully present to it.* (p. 26) > [!User] Christine Valters Paintner, *Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice*