Contemplative Photography

For me, Time lapse photography is a meditative process.

On foot, in the city armed with only a micro tripod in my Sony a 6500, I look for images that might capture the essence of the community.

I set my camera to two frames per second and set up a shot, each shot taking roughly 10 minutes.

It gives me time to observe the bustle around me, or often the moments of quiet peace in the midst of cities that our home to millions.

I notice, for example, a dog bowl filled with water along the walkway left by a stranger for a stranger. I take five minutes to time lapse the dog bowl.

I notice graffiti spray painted on a brick wall that is back rounded by official art commissioned by the city, two kinds of aesthetic, that have now become one aesthetic. I take 10 minutes to time lapse that juxtaposition and watch as people walk their dogs or drive the cars past the sidewalk.

I watch the clouds slowly move by, as a pair of squirrels tumble and play on the small tuft of grass in between the brick wall and the sidewalk. I wonder who it is that mows that small piece of turf.

Above all else, I marvel at the incredible harmony of it all. The interplay of the sun and the clouds, the harmony between the humans and their pets, the pedestrian spaces and the roads, the delivery of goods and goods to the coffee shops and restaurants, the wooden poles holding electrical and phone wires, and the sewers and pipes under my feet.

What a miracle human civilization is.

I think the fact that it takes 10 minutes to get a shot forces me to slow down and contemplate, to see the harmony and feel the gratitude for existing. When perhaps my default is to worry about traffic or getting things done, this jolts me out of that cycle of stress-worry-entertainment.

Friends, find yourself a contemplative artistic outlet, a device that forces you to slow down.

This is where the miracles live.