Season 3 - Episode 7: Getting a Little Zen

In this episode I take things back a notch and talk about a little about mindfulness and wandering to get out of a photographic slump.

Next week I will have Dylan Golby on talking a little more about this topic so, take a look at his video on this topic here.


calming music provided by:
Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/ilya-kuznetsov/serenity License code: SRLV569SDVZFJTBQ

Intro music:
Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/yeti-music/chasing-balloons License code: TSE3SMQ9LCFSZMOW

Transcript

JT: 0:09

welcome to season three, episode seven of the Sajin photography podcast. My name is Jason Teale, and today we're going to take it down a notch. We're going to get in touch with our hipster hippie. Low key side. And maybe if you want, take this time now to get out your yoga mats and maybe put on a cup of camomile tea, because we're going to get inside our heads a little bit and we're going to get even a little sin. But what I want to talk about today is. A little bit odd. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna warn you first that this is not going to be your usual podcast today because I'm going to talk about wandering and I'm going to talk about getting a little Zen, because those are the two books that I really just want to go over a little bit and talk about how they've sort of changed my creative. Mindset over the last few months. So here, uh, let me, let me get you in the mood for a second. One moment. There you go. All right. So just breathe in, breathe out and let's get started. So the first thing I want to kind of go on about is the idea of camera wandering. I'm going to, I'm going to actually like pat. Maybe somebody else has already done it, but camera wandering is this idea that I have. When I was reading the book, the wander society by Carrie Smith. Now, if you saw the reviews for this book, it's yeah, it's a hit and a miss. Some people think it's really hokey. Some people think it's really amazing. I was sort of, you know, on the fence a lot about it because it did remind me a lot of the readings that I did for my outdoor recreation degree. And during that time I met a lot of people that were sort of the. Walt Whitman wannabes. And they were really, I would say the predecessors to the common day hipster and maybe like the version 1.2 of the hippies. So I really fought hard, my cynicism while reading this book, but it did have some gems. Past all of the hokey leaving messages in the woods. The idea of wandering. Now, if you look at the definition of wandering, it is to walk, explore, or amble in an unplanned or aimless way with a complete openness to the unknown. And this had a really interesting idea that came to me. It was that fact that I, myself. When I go out to shoot do have a plan. I love making the plan. I love sitting down with a cup of coffee and just hammering out the details of my next photo shoot. And this goes down to, you know, examining the title charts to figuring out the direction of the sunrise too. Even just figuring out if I can get roof access for a cityscape. So the idea of just Willy nilly wandering with your camera, you know, bongos playing or something like that, it didn't sit well with me until. I started playing around with film. You know, I've talked about this in previous episodes where I'm gaining this love of film photography, and a little bit more appreciation for street photography. These all played into that. And what basically happened was after reading the wander society. I started thinking about the idea of just wandering with the camera. Hence, camera wandering, where you just take a walk and you sort of go where your creative mind takes you. And to illustrate this, I was wandering around one day and I really started noticing how wires were attached in the poles and that are buildings. And if you. Or in Korea, you probably have seen those massive clusters of wires just thrown together or looped around the pole, or even just dangling off the main line. And I really just wandered around clicking away. Yeah. These are not keepers. I'm not looking to take the next greatest coiled wire masterpiece, but I really just clicked away. And I think I had my Pentax Spotmatic F with me, I was just going where my brain took me and I ended up like walking. Yeah, probably five, 10 kilometers round trip with this, just this idea of just following my brain. And I think like that's one of the things that I really want to sort of push with this conversation today is the fact that sometimes you just need to go out with it out. Any expectation, not for your Instagram, not for your portfolio. Just for your creative mind. And this is where I'm saying it gets a little bit woo. You know, but the key takeaway from this first section is to just wander now part of the wander society they talk about, I think it's, my Latin is not really up to par, but they say Salvator AdBlue Alondo, which is, it is solved by walking. And I think that when you are sort of stuck photographically, when you're stuck. Trying to re do old images or go to old locations, or you just feel that you're in a rut, this sort of wandering with your camera and then not really needing to produce anything that you're going to show. Anybody can really help get you out of that. Rut. It just sort of exercises your creative and photographic mind. This is not about sharing. This is not about, you know, trying to brag on Facebook about all the cool places that you go to. This is simply just walking and wandering aimlessly with your camera and photographing that, which catches your eye and just being creative with it. Um, I think one of the quotes from the book says watering is not a mindless task. Is instead the opposite, the gateway to enlightenment a surrender to the great mystery. And I know, you know, you can probably, maybe I'll put some bongo sound effects in the background, but again, you, you sort of get when you're wandering with your camera, you're, you're quite in tune with the photographic medium. But you're not really trying to accomplish anything. You're, you're opening up to that sort of mystery, that narrative that you haven't really thought about yet. And I think that's a key point for the first part of this episode is to realize that some days you just have to wander aimlessly some days you just have to click away like you did, when you first got your camera. And we're just experimenting because I think that's the thing that we sort of lose who's along the way. We're so pressured to produce something because we think that, you know, people regardless as photographers, so we have to produce this amazing ton of bullshit. And it's not going to be always that way. So if you're in this rut, take a walk and I think that's, was it Walt Whitman said one time. He said from this hour freedom going where I like my own master. And I think that's a good segue into sort of where I want to take this next part of the episode. And that's to transition to the other book that I just finished reading a couple of weeks ago. And that was Zen camera by David. Or all right. I'm hoping I pronounced that properly. This book was a little bit more zoned in, on creativity, photography, and finding that Zen balance because, um, David is a professor, but he's also a student of the Zen philosophy as a religion. He's a great photographer. That's actually what he teaches. So putting these elements together, David dives, deep into sort of the mind of the photographer. And one of the concepts he talks about is this daily record. And I'm not sure. Talking about a 365 project where you create a new Instagram. Well, I guess you could, but what I'm digging more into is getting into the habit of recording your day through the lens and going on these daily wanderings, coupling it with the last book, just getting into that photographic state, going where your mind goes and then making a record of it because. If you're not really going out to try and hit a home run and catch that moment where, you know, the birds fly in the sun, you know, you got that Starburst going through the beak of something. I don't know what I'm saying, but you get the point. This is just a exercise for you. And David goes quite deep into the motivation. Of the photographer, but one of those things really stuck out to me was that daily record, good having photography a part of your life, if not in the sense that you have to go out and get great shots that you can send them to all your friends or post them on the Facebook group. So people give you those digital high fives. About just creating a document of your life and having something that you can go back on and reflect upon and see where maybe you can get some ideas from, or even just see where you're progressing, what catches your eye. So I think those are the two books that really sort of. It struck a chord with me and I'm cutting the, the Zen camera a little bit short because my next guests coming next week is none other than Dylan Golby. And he really has a good video, which I'll link below in the show notes, but he explores this idea, but we're going to talk about it probably a lot more in depth next week. So I'm not going to drone on about this because. It will get into the realm of beating on a dead horse. So just, you know, get into your Zen moment once again. And I'm going to sort of share a little bit more about my experiences after reading these two books after reading these books and really sort of pondering the emptiness in my brain and trying to figure out what my next steps are here in Korea, I really was struck. This sense of nothingness, this lack of creativity. As I mentioned before in previous episodes, you know, with the passing of my father and the whole COVID thing and losing jobs and being short of money, I really was struggling because that is not conducive to a good photographic viewpoint. It's not creative. It just sucks the life out of you. Where this all sort of came to mind. Being my brain or whatever it was the fact that I just started walking every day. I would just put in my headphones and just start walking. Some days I would do five to 10 kilometers sometimes more, and I would always walk along the same stretch. Pathway along the Taehwa river here in Ulsan. And I did that because number one, if you live in Korea, then you know, cars and scooters and motorbikes can appear out of nowhere. And if you're just blankly stepping and walking, you're going to get hit by a car at some point. And trust me when I say that this also happens along the foot paths along the table, but. There's much less traffic, maybe one or two cars on the walking paths in the morning. But again, I'm getting off track here, but the thing was is that I decided to. Taking my camera. And originally it was just my cell phone, but then I started bringing my film camera and my DSLR, or just to get that daily record. And as well as to just sort of exercise my brain train a little bit now, as I wandered through the streets and ventured off my usual. Chorus, which is along the table. I started really just wandering aimlessly through the back alleys and different places where I haven't actually been in a long time or ever before. And this really started getting my gears going, like just finding new pathways, seeing the different types of architecture. Or just comparing it to what was there previously, from what I remember and what was built now, and this really had a profound effect on my photography. Not. Commercial sense, but it just kick-started that creativity, the mind opened up a little bit and, uh, photographers. I popped out, you know, again. Woo, woo. But it really helped change things and it really helped spark this sort of creative mindset again, because yeah, when your life is shit, you're not thinking about the woo-hoo. You're not thinking about making the world beautiful because it's not it's. Crap. It's gray, it's dull. And when I started walking along and exploring different places and taking my film camera, I started coming up with all these ideas. I started seeing these wires or these alleyways or. The different characters in the markets. And that was when it really started coming back to me, I guess you could say. So that was the final point I just wanted to bring up was that there's a lot of this woo woo stuff here. But when you start actually applying it to your daily life, you can actually have a positive fact if, if you're going through something or if you're just feeling that you're stuck in a rut, just bring your camp. No one is going to see these photos. Don't give a shit about Instagram and just go where your mind takes you. So I hope that wasn't too much into, uh, the weirdness philosophical side of things. But again, if this has helped you please share it and you can find me on all of the major outlets for podcasts, please like, and subscribe. Thank you and have a great week.