Photography as a Mindful Practice
“Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field.”
My journey with professional photography started six years ago.
I was in a place in my life where the direction ahead of me felt blurred. I spent many hours researching what my next move should be, looking for answers everywhere, without realising that perhaps what I really needed was to stop and calm the waters of my mind. Only then would I have been able to see the answer in clear waters.
After the big overwhelm of forever researching and trying to figure everything out, I finally stopped and waited. I was so tired of trying to have everything figured out that I decided to give myself some time to breathe.
And then, unexpectedly, one day, the answer came.
Photography.
I caught the wave and, very briefly, found a beginners' photography course. I never considered myself a creative person, but I was willing to try. Something in my gut was telling me to do it.
The course was mostly focused on the technical aspects of photography, and I learned a lot. But there was something I didn't realise at the time. Every time I picked up my camera, I was trying to fit into the frames my teachers had given me. I was looking for the "right" composition, the "right" light, the "right" photograph.
And once again, I was blocking my own creative flow.
But despite that, something beautiful had already begun to happen. For the first time, I started noticing - the little details of the magical world around us.
I had the time to stop and watch. To notice the light falling between the trees, a tiny flower growing between cracks in the pavement, the way someone's shadow moved across a wall, the changing colours of the sky.
I had time to catch a good shot, but more importantly, I had time to admire the present moment. It was a completely new journey for me.
The photos weren't my best ones. Some were technically imperfect. Some would probably make me laugh if I looked at them today. But they taught me something much more important:
There is a whole new universe when you learn to notice.
When you give yourself the time to stop and really look, the ordinary becomes much less ordinary.
I learned even more about myself during my second photography course, which was focused on creative expression. There weren't many rules. There was really only one:
Feel the photograph.
Express yourself, give that feeling to someone else.
And that was when I fell in love with photography.
I began to understand that a photograph isn't only about what you see. It can also be about what you feel. I learned so much about my own emotions, my way of seeing the world, and the things that naturally caught my attention. I realised that my photographs were carrying a little piece of my own soul. They were not simply pictures of the world. They were pictures of how I experienced the world.
Here are some of my photographs from that time, from a project I called Beyond the Surface.
Photography as a mindful practice
If you want to begin exploring photography as a mindful practice, you really don't need fancy equipment. You can use a professional camera, an old digital camera, or simply your phone. The equipment isn't the important part.
For me, photography is almost like trying to catch the present moment and hold it forever in a few pixels.
But before you take the photograph, there is something I would encourage you to do first:
Don't photograph anything.
Just go outside, walk, look around and notice what grabs your attention.
Maybe it is the shade of the trees. A beautiful decoration on someone's balcony.
A flower growing where you didn't expect to see one. An old door. A street sign.
A reflection in a window. A person's hands. The way the sunlight touches a wall.
It could be anything.
Of course, I would suggest spending some time in nature if you have the opportunity. The natural world is so abundant, and being surrounded by it can give us a completely different kind of space to slow down and reconnect. But you don't need a forest or a mountain to practise this.
It could be your everyday walk to work, your walk to the grocery store, the street you have walked down a hundred times, your own garden or even the view from your window.
The invitation is simply to be there.
After you've taken your moment to notice, give yourself some more time to feel what you've noticed.
What is it about this particular thing that caught your attention?
Does it bring you peace?
Curiosity?
Nostalgia?
Joy?
Melancholy?
Beauty?
Only then, grab your camera or your phone and capture it. Because I think there is something important about giving ourselves those few moments before taking the photograph. Otherwise, we can easily start experiencing the world through our lenses rather than through our feelings.
Photography, for me, is not about collecting beautiful images. It is about becoming more present to the world that is already around me.
A few tips for practising mindful photography
1. Slow down before you shoot
Give yourself five or ten minutes where you don't take a single photograph.
Just observe. Let your eyes wander without searching for something "worthy" of a picture. You might be surprised by what eventually catches your attention.
2. Photograph what you feel, not only what you see
Instead of asking: "Is this beautiful?"
try asking: "What am I feeling when I look at this?"
Sometimes the most meaningful photograph isn't the prettiest one. It is the one that makes you feel something.
3. Look for the details
We are used to looking at the whole picture. Try looking closer.
A crack in a wall. A shadow. A single leaf. Hands holding a cup. The texture of an old building. A tiny reflection.
Mindfulness often begins with noticing what we normally overlook.
4. Take fewer photographs
Give yourself a little challenge: Take only five photographs during your walk.
When there is a limit, we naturally become more intentional about what we choose to capture. Instead of photographing everything, we begin to ask ourselves: "Why this?"
5. Photograph the same place more than once
Return to the same place at different times of the day or different times of the year. Notice what changes. Is it the light, the weather, or the colours?
And perhaps, what changes most is you. The same place can feel completely different depending on the season you are living through internally.
6. Don't worry about making it "good"
This one is important. Not every photograph needs to be beautiful. Not every photograph needs to be shared. Some photographs can belong only to you. They can simply be little reminders:
I was here.
I noticed this.
I felt something.
That is enough.
7. Keep a visual journal
You could create a small album on your phone called "Things I Noticed." Add one photograph every day or every few days. Don't overthink it. At the end of the month, look through it. You might discover that you've created a little visual diary of your life without even trying.
A little invitation for you
The next time you go outside, I invite you to leave your camera or phone away for the first few minutes and simply allow yourself to be there. Walk slowly and notice the light, listen to the sounds around you, feel the air against your skin, and pay attention to the little things you might normally walk past without seeing. When something catches your attention, don't rush to photograph it. Stay with it for a little longer and ask yourself what it is about this particular moment that made you stop. And then, when you feel ready, take your photograph - not to create something perfect or to prove that you were there, but simply to keep a small piece of that feeling with you.
Maybe, as you begin to practise this, you will notice that photography becomes less about searching for beautiful things to photograph and more about discovering how much beauty was already there, waiting for you to notice it.
Beyond the photograph
Perhaps this is what photography has given me after all these years. Not only photographs, but a deeper attention to the world around me. It has taught me to pause, to look twice, and to find beauty in places I might otherwise have walked past without noticing. I have come to understand that creativity doesn't always begin with making something, sometimes it begins simply with noticing. And perhaps mindfulness is much the same. We don't always need to escape our lives or search for somewhere else to find peace. Sometimes we only need to become present enough to truly see the life that is already happening around us.
So the next time you find yourself rushing somewhere, perhaps allow yourself to look up. Notice the sky, the trees, the way the light falls on a building, or the tiny detail you would normally pass without a second thought. There is so much happening around us when we give ourselves the time to see it.
Perhaps this is the most beautiful thing photography has taught me: the world doesn't always need to become more beautiful. Sometimes, we simply need to become quiet enough to notice that it already is.
