Mindful Photography: Improving your Mental Health with a Camera
Struggling with meditation? Try mindful photography to gain multiple health benefits.
How many times have you heard that mindfulness is good for you? I’m guessing too many to count. If you’re like most people you want do things that are good for you health but are not always sure what that is. Mindfulness can be a confusing topic when you start to explore it. Is it meditation? Being aware of your surroundings? Active listening in conversations? So many opinions it’s overwhelming. What does mindfulness even mean?
According to Headspace (2020),
“Mindfulness is the ability to be present, to rest in the here and now, fully engaged with whatever we’re doing in the moment.”
In my earlier days of yoga and wellness I had a vague idea of how to practice mindfulness. I thought by slowing down, smelling the roses, and tasting my food before I shoveled it down that I had mindfulness cased. If I’m honest I did think there was more to mindfulness than this but my life was busy, too full and I never had the time. It was just too easy to let my current habits run my day.
Enter photography, a tangible way to practice mindfulness…
Do you remember the days of film photography when you only had 24 or 36 photos in one roll of expensive film? I’m dating myself with this question but I’m okay with that!
Back in the days of film you had to really pay attention to what you wanted to capture in your frame. Think for a moment, or five, about that thing you really wanted to photograph. Examine it from a bunch of angles, find your lighting, and decide your distance before snapping the button. Then all you could do was hope for the best! It was incredibly common that a few weeks later when you picked up your packet of photos to have forgotten many of the photos you took!
Now we’re in a different world. No longer limited by the amount of film left in our camera we also get instant feedback on how the picture turned out. We can take as many photos as we want. Edit and delete with a few clicks and swipes of the phone.
Mindful Photography challenges us to slow down to really see what’s around us. Gives us the chance to sink into the here and now. Your heartbeat slows, worries for the future disappear and concerns about the past drop away. By the end of a photo session you will feel lighter, calmer and ready for the rest of your day. All you need is 5 to 10 minutes and a camera of any kind!
Ready to find inner peace through Photography?
No fancy equipment is needed.
The best camera is the one you have. For most of us that is our smartphone so don’t hesitate to use it!
Before you start:
Put your phone notifications on Do Not Disturb.
Go to the room or outdoor area you want or can photograph in today.
Close your eyes. Notice how you feel in your body. Are there any areas of tension, tightness or stiffness?
Observe without judgement.Take three deep breaths. In through the nose, out through the mouth.
Open your eyes and slowly scan your space.
Now it’s time to take the photos! Try one of these three ideas to get started…
#1 Fill the Frame with Colour
Look around you. What colour is reaching out and grabbing your attention? Maybe it’s a fabric, a patch of plants, the sky….go with your first instinct of what is holding your attention. Take a picture filling the whole square (the frame) with that object. Look at your photo.
What details do you see?
Is there texture?
Does the colour change shades?
Is there a background that makes the colour pop?
Does
the background make the colour fade?
Change your position and take the same photo from a different angle or with a different light. How did this change your photo?
#2 Get Closer
I’ll share a secret...you don’t need the whole item in the photo. Interesting things happen when you get closer. Stories begin to form, details begin to appear, mystery enters the world.
How does the picture change when you include only the bottom of the item?
How does the picture change when you include only the top?
What happens when you fill the whole frame with the subject?
Reflect on the different emotions the same subject can portray when photographed from various distances.
#3 Discover the Power of White Space
Subjects don’t always have to be in the center point of a picture. They also don’t have to be the biggest part of your photo. White space is the area around your subject. Typically it’s all the same material, like a background. Place your subject to the side of the frame. Try both the upper side and lower side.
Surround a subject with open space of one kind of texture or colour .
Play with altering the amount of white space. A lot, a little...
Try the same subject with different white space if the subject can be moved.
Be creative! White space can be any empty space… grass, countertop, sand, floor tile…the options are endless.
Wrapping Up Your Mindfulness Moment
After spending five to ten minutes on your photography end your session with an intentional deep breath. Close your camera app. Put your phone in your pocket or face down on the ground. Close your eyes.
Notice how your body is feeling. Are there areas of stiffness, openness, restlessness or peace? How is the space between your thoughts?
Take three deep, extended breaths. Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth. Let all judgement, thoughts, comparisons, and accolades about your photo go. The moment has passed.
Your Mindful Photography session is complete :)
And those pictures….don’t look at them until later.
Some people choose to delete them. Letting the photos exist only briefly is a practice embracing the present moment. Others create a mindful photography folder to keep a ongoing record. My personal practice is to choose one picture from the session to keep and delete the rest. I usually keep that task as a mindfulness activity for another day. I could have a whole other blog post on that topic too! Let me know if you’d like to see it :)
Mindfulness is a health practice that takes many shapes and forms. Photography done in a mindful way is only one of them. With a regular mindfulness practice you will be amazed with how your focus and emotion regulation improves through time. Change doesn’t happen overnight but let me know what you think after six months of regular mindful photo sessions.
I hope this practice brings you the peace it has brought me. Enjoy trying something new & let me know in the comments below how it went :)
~ Sarah
P.S. All pictures in this blog entry are my own (except the title photo…that’s from Getty Images). To see more of my mindful photography journey, check out my photography Instagram account at sarah.krystle
