Love like a Photographer
Balance. Focus. Develop from the Negative. Breathe. Hold it. Patience. Learn to let go of the shutter. Use the contrasts for harmony. Tell the story without the words. Love like it’s the last chance to take that shot.
Love like a photographer.
Compose wisely. Achieve that balance of making sense. Enclose, in one shot, in one frame, all the necessary details and remove the factors that are unnecessary. Take Control enough to eliminate what is not important but be subtle with your decision that you may not completely change the beauty of what was natural.
Focus on what is important. Every single thing can be important at its own context but, just like anywhere in life, choose which context to highlight. Life is full of compromises. Always seek what you value more. Sometimes the leaf can tell a story more than the bug in it. Sometimes it’s that transparent web that coveys the message but if you can’t push it with your gear, you boil down the next options. There are things that just can’t happen just yet. Frustration is what you’ll call them. Right now is just not the moment for you and it to share. Not now, not yet, or never.
When frustrations pile up, look back. Are you still on the right track of things? Is this really the path you want to be? Why does it seem like you are going far from it? Why did your frustrations piled up if this wasn’t the case? On situations like this, as The Jason Magbanua once mentioned, “Get over it!” There are more important things you considered which placed you on that situation. It may have not been helpful to that situation but you compromised that over something you considered more relevant back then. We cannot avoid compromise, we just need to make better choices every time we have to.
Develop from the Negative. Negatives capture everything we chose. Negatives are very delicate to handle. Once you fail to mix the right chemical, you could lose everything it had and all that’s left is the damaged negative. In every situation, handle it with so much care that you know you’ll lose everything if you’re tactless. Sometimes our timing is bad that’s why the negatives are not at its finest but every process is a learning stage. If it wasn’t teaching you anything, unwind, take a break, empty your mind and ask, “Where would you rather be?”
Breathe. Hold it. Patience. Photography is a harmony of choices, timing, and passion — a Choice of what to capture, timing when to click the shutter, and the passion to spend time on the choices and timing. If there is no harmony, there is no photograph. A picture is a bare representation of an output from a camera. A photograph tells a story, embodies a soul, and is eternal. whether the physical photograph decays, the image captured stays in the hearts and minds of the lives it has moved. Its story will traverse generations. It will spark inspiration that is unchangeable.
Learn to let go of the shutter. If you hold it too long, you’ll be blinded with nothing captured. If you’re not going to let go, you won’t capture anything. This is one of those rare moments when letting go meant having more for yourself.
Contrasts immediately causes friction. When not handled wisely, it could turn out bad which usually happens. Use the contrasts for harmony. Just like strong colors that collide on a horizon, use contrasts to benefit and compliment differences rather than upstaging each. Amateurs can never get that harmony on their first shot just the same as learning the same skill on life decisions. It takes a lot of trial and error, a lot of patience, and a lot of learning before we get to that polished harmony.
Convey your message without the words. Tell the world what you feel without the use of words. Do it. Shoot it. Show it. Stop the talking and let the passion overflow from your works instead.
Shoot like it’s your one and only chance to do it. Don’t hold back just because you’re unsure. Always arrive prepared. Always anticipate and never let any chance slip. Go on with no fear but that missed photograph if you hesitate. Take risks and don’t be afraid of mistakes. Committing a mistake is okay but do it the second time and it becomes a choice.
