Whoa

I have two free hours of time right now. What am I going to do with it?

I've been exploring the idea of controlling time -- mostly I've been trying to figure out how to slow it down so I can actually do everything I want to do and everything I need to do. One trick I've found is to make what I want and what I need be the same. It's more efficient.

However, it takes practice and it takes discipline. You also have to spend time thinking about what your time is worth, what time means to you, how time makes you feel, etc. I used to really get anxious about time. If I had to do something important that put pressure on me, I used to get terribly nervous and anxious. I realized though, that those feelings of anxiety and nervousness were the same physical feelings of excitement -- I just needed to change my mental label of the feeling.

It's helped tremendously.

In regards to time, it's helped me realize that the super important event that was coming would simply come and then go and it should be looked at no differently than any other typical/non-emotional event in my life. It would have a beginning, middle and then an end and I would be placed back into the life that I had been in before. What was the big deal? Why was this event causing me to be anxious? No reason. It was just in my head.

I've started to use my camera as a form of meditation. I'm taking film this semester and the art is all about the relationship of time and light. It's making me slow down and think. I highly suggest shooting in film and spending time in the darkroom. It keeps your mind calm.

I took this picture of the moon earlier this month. I used a telescope lens from my film camera and held it to my Canon. It did a pretty good job. I took it out in front of Mackie's house in Dublin, Texas. We all went camping out on her land. It was such a good experience. I'll be posting a few pictures from that sometime soon.

It's important to spend energy processing what happens in your life. Not only do you have to recognize and understand your own feelings, but it's important to be aware of how your actions affect other people. Photography is all about perspective. It's all about finding different perspectives and exploring ideas and feelings and intuition. For me, that's the most enjoyable part of the art.

Now, it's time to focus. =)