That Time of the Year Again

We are soon approaching Christmas. Today, in Bergen, Norway, were I am presently staying, I woke up to heavy snowfall this morning. It was really exciting and made for a perfect Christmas mood. Of course, it’s still close to two weeks till Christmas, and the snow may be gone again by then. That’s the way the winters are around here. At least the temperature is falling again, so there is actually hope for a white Christmas.

Of course, I had to get outside and photograph the winter-clad city. I enjoyed just walking around, observing people and cars and even bikes struggling to get through the massive amount of snow—at least before the snowploughs had gotten around the city.

Photographically, the result was somewhat disappointing. Nevertheless, it was still lovely to try to capture the Christmas mood, the energy and the bustling people and city. I have long accepted the fact that some days I am just not going to get any great photos. As much as I keep trying, the muses didn’t seem to hear my call. Or more likely, mentally and creatively I wasn’t present enough. I had my thoughts preoccupied with some concerns of a different kind, and that always makes it harder to unfold creatively. Today was rather a day of sketching, just enjoying being outside and not worry about whether I would capture strong imagery.

Enough of that.

Talking about seeing, and Christmas, I want to extend an offer to you, my readers of this blog. Christmas is traditionally a time of giving presents. But what about giving yourself something extra?

Until December 22nd, I’ll put my eBook “Photographically Seeing—Seeing Better, Seeing Deeper” out for sale. You’ll get it for half the ordinary price.

“Photographically Seeing—See Better, See Deeper” is an eBook about seeing and indispensable for any photographer wanting to develop his or her perception and photography. For a photographer, seeing is where it all really starts. If you don’t see anything that interests you, you won’t be able to take any interesting photos. This eBook will teach you to see what is rather than what you believe is there.

Get it now. The price is only 8 $, half of the regular price. The offer only lasts until December 22nd. ORDER HERE.

With that I will log out for this year. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you again in January.

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Photographically Seeing

Are you ready to learn and understand how you eyes work—and how to make your visual perception sharper and better fit for the task of finding potential photographs? My new eBook “Photographically Seeing—Seeing Better, Seeing Deeper” will take your seeing—and thus your photography—to the next level.

For a photographer, seeing is where it all really starts. If you don’t see anything that interests you, you won’t be able to take any interesting photos. Obviously. However, there is a big difference between seeing in general and seeing with the intention of taking photographs.

“Photographically Seeing—Seeing Better, Seeing Deeper” will take you on a journey into how our eyes and brain work and teach you how you can develop and train your perceptive skills.

By training your perceptiveness, you not only improve your ability to discover and see potential subjects better and thus are able to create stronger and better photographs, but the opposite is also true. In the process of photographing, you train yourself to see more deliberately and clearer. The camera can consequently help liberate your awareness to see clearly and keenly, to know something about who you really are, and open your being to an unfading swell of empathy and compassion for those you meet along the way.

Maybe it’s time to discover how to see again? By taking the time to truly focus on what it is you see you’ll be able to create more engaging photos. Rediscover what it is you really see, and you will probably find that your photos will change dramatically. Good seeing doesn’t ensure good photography by itself, though, but a captivating photographic expression is impossible without it.

“Photographically Seeing—Seeing Better, Seeing Deeper” is 106 pages packed with useful information and practical exercises to make to see what is rather than what you believe is there.

Order the book “Photographically Seeing—Seeing Better, Seeing Deeper”

Barriers to Seeing

Seeing is where all photography starts. We need to see in order to find subjects and discover the potential for a good photo out in the world surrounding us. However, it’s not always as easy to see as we would like to when we are photographers. The reason is partly the way our eye and brain work against discovering the photogenic in our everyday environment. Another challenge is various barriers to photographically seeing.

In most cases our seeing is hindered by a range of mental barriers when we photograph. One of them is not being able to let go of self. Preoccupation with self is probably the greatest barrier to seeing, and the hardest one to break. You may be worrying about your job, or kids, or other responsibilities, or you may be uneasy about your ability to handle a new lens or to calculate exposure. There always seems to be something standing in the way of fully and consciously seeing. Too much self-concern blocks direct experience of things outside yourself.

It might be easier said than done to cease all those trivial thoughts that take place all the time. There is a constant inner dialogue going on in our minds. We are always preoccupied with thoughts and internal exchanges. If we can’t let go of self-concern, these constant thoughts act like a shield to both new impressions of the world and creative insights that otherwise might have been released from the subconscious. Although the mind never rests, we can learn to defer our attention away from this never-ending inner dialogue.

If the mind is not overcrowded, not preoccupied, and blocked by thoughts of all kinds, then without effort it can perceive the dog running after a bike, see the couple kissing on a bench and be aware of the flower about to burst into bloom, all those small details that we normally would overlook. A quiet and unoccupied mind can perceive it all without labelling it. Such a mind is a living thing, intensely so, and by far from dead as otherwise could be associated with an unoccupied mind.

A variation of not being able to let go of self is the desire to be original. When we hold on to such an idea as being “original”, we inhibit the creative process. In doing so, we are not creating anything original, but just trying to be different. By forcing ourselves to be original, we close ourselves down to what is, we see nothing with open eyes any longer, but apply a contrived and limiting approach to seeing. Don’t worry about originality. It will find you; you do not need to find it. There is nothing new under the sun—except for you. You will be shaped by what has influenced you, but your way of seeing, and your approach to photography is yours and yours alone.

Yet another barrier is expectations. If you expect to find something in particular, that’s exactly what you will find. Think of a colour and suddenly you will see that colour everywhere, in everything and more often than you would usually notice it. Likewise, if I am going on a trip to Cuba—a country I know all so well—I go with a head full of mental pictures of what the country will look like and what kind of photographs I’ll expect to find and make. If I remain unconscious about these expectations, they will more likely than not prevent me from seeing what is there and seeing anything but what I already have made my mind up about. What we expect to see blinds us from what is actually there.

Another barrier to seeing is the mass of stimuli surrounding us. We are so bombarded with visual and other stimuli that we must block out most of them in order to cope. We develop tunnel vision, which gives us a clear view of the rut ahead of us, but prevents us from seeing the world around us.

This is another excerpt from my soon to be published eBook “Photographically Seeing—Seeing Better, Seeing Deeper”. It will soon be made available. And of course, I will announce it here.

It All Starts with Seeing

There is a saying that “some people see more in a walk around the block than others see in a trip around the world”. This is a reminder that for the most part we see only what we expect to see. That is why it’s so easy to hide something in plain view.

It’s quite obvious that being able to see is an indispensable quality for any photographer who wants to create engaging images and surprise the viewer with a fresh vision. Anybody can see, one might point out, but the fact is, it requires more than merely taking in the world through the eyes to see beyond the obvious, to become observant and consciously register what is going on in front of your eyes. Yes, most of us “see” equally well if you talk about the physiological process—more or less that is, of course. However, seeing with the intention of really seeing is not merely a physiological process and not something most people do, no matter how sharp their eyes might be. Seeing—in the finest and broadest sense—means using all your senses, your intellect, and your emotions. It means encountering your subject matter with your whole being. It means looking beyond the labels of things and discovering the remarkable world around you, even when it has become habitually mundane.

There is a whole process of internalized steps behind capturing a photograph. It all springs out of you as a person. You bring yourself, and whatever you are, into the visual world. Your whole previous life experience and personal development becomes part of the equation. Being who you are, you see the world differently than any other person, simply because you are who you are. Perception is shaped by values, upbringing, and culture. No two persons see the same way. Your way of experiencing the world is unique. However, most of what you see goes unnoticed by your conscious mind. Then suddenly something triggers you, visually and emotionally. There is what could be called a momentary encounter between you and the world. It might be anything from a strong colour splash or an odd object to extraordinarily beautiful light or some human interaction. This initial flash of perception sparks a desire to take a photograph and finally results in your camera registering a photo when you push the shutter button. Somewhat simplified the process can be described this way:

Personality → Perception → Picture

Who you are is nobody’s business but yours, and not something you necessarily need to work on or improve, not to become a photographer at least. I certainly have no say in who you are or ought to be, but let me just point out that it does ardently affect the way your photography will manifest itself. In the end, that is what makes your photographs different from any others.

Personality aside, for a photographer, seeing is where it all really starts. If you don’t see anything that interests you, you won’t be able to take any interesting photos. Obviously. However, there is a big difference between seeing in general, as indicated above, and seeing with the intention of taking a photograph. In many ways, we have to unlearn the regular way of seeing. If you “only” see as you do when you walk down the street without a camera or when you are socializing with your friends or whatever you do when you are not photographing, you will miss out on the interesting and captivating photos.

This is an excerpt from my soon to be released eBook “See Better, See Deeper”, a book about seeing with the intention to take photographs. It’s an in depth study into all aspects of seeing and learning to see better. I will get back with more information when it’s ready.

Back in Business

As some of you may have noticed, I am slowly getting myself back into the blog sphere after a longer summer break. Slowly meaning I posted my first “Last Week’s Instagram” here on my blog earlier this week. And from now on I will be back fully and once again committed to writing about photography and creativity.

The break was necessary to gather strength and momentum and inspiration, not only for blogging, but for life in general. I needed some air under my wings, get free from the daily chores—as we all do from time to time.

However, it’s not been anything close to a normal summer break. I have actually worked, but with tasks I have long wanted to do and not found time for. The worldwide corona outbreak certainly limited the usual summer activities I would normally embark on, such as travelling, visiting friends and just get away, anywhere. Instead I have, yes, worked.

That doesn’t sound much like a break, you may object. For me it was. Just changing the daily routine makes a big difference. But work? Yes, that too, when it’s fun. This summer I have built a new online program. Unfortunately, it won’t be something for most of you, since it’s targeting a Norwegian audience and a very specific such. More interesting I hope, is the new eBook about seeing photographically, that I finally have finished this summer.

It’s been years in coming, the text long been ready, but I just haven’t found time to put it all together and layout the pages. Well, this break changed that. I still have a few tweaks to do before I will release the book, but the photo following this post is the front page and a little teaser for what to come.

The eBook goes into details about what it takes a photographer to be able to see and understand what can become a photo. Seeing is where it all starts. If you don’t see anything worth photographing, you won’t be able take captivating photos. Naturally. So “Photographically Seeing—See Better, See Deeper” will teach you how to open up your eyes.

That’s all I will say for now. Of course, I will be back with an announcement soon, when I am ready to launch the book.

On different note: I hope you all have been able to enjoy the summer here on the northern and the winter on the southern hemisphere, even with the limitation imposed by the corona outbreak.

It’s good to be back.