Joyous Creation
Here are a few photos from a spontaneous Sunday afternoon stroll in the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle. I’ve been reading Sean Tucker’s excellent book The Meaning in the Making and thinking a lot lately about my motivations when I go out and take pictures. I’ve been approaching each trip with less of a focus on results and treating each photo as a simple act of joyous creation. It’s a subtle shift of mindset, and it’s really easy to fall back into the sort of low-level anxiety that comes with the desire to get amazing shots every time, but I’ve learned counter-productive to have that mindset. It’s kind of that perennial non-attachment idea. Wu wei.
I’m still working on the idea, but this is what I think about Joyous Creation right now (specifically related to photography):
Joyous creators don’t get upset when they miss a shot. They don’t move on from a good spot out of FOMO, only because they’re truly ready to move on. They don’t take pictures that cross any personal boundaries in any way because why would they? They do however, frequently move out of their comfort zone because part of finding flow means being at the edge of your ability. They don’t stress out over new situations, they embrace them with beginners mind. Joyous creators have no fear of failure because it just means they tried something new and it didn’t work out, and now they know. Joyous creators don’t measure their work by comparing it to everyone else, they measure it against their own standards. Joyous creators enjoy the comments and the likes but they don’t create for the comments and the likes.
I’ll expand more on it soon, but that’s where we are for now. Enjoy the photos. There probably won’t be a post tomorrow. I’ll be on a boat.
