Seek to See
Sometimes, all you have to do is See.
I originally had the first line being, “Sometimes, all you have to do is look.” It turns out though, we’re looking all the time. I mean, that’s what our eyes do, right? Looking is just pointing your eyes in a particular direction. That’s effortless. Seeing. Now, seeing is a bit different. Seeing is looking, but to the next level. Seeing adds what I think to be an incredibly important aspect of life: Awareness.
When you truly see, you become aware of things and people and their many properties and characteristics that you otherwise may not have noticed before through simply ‘looking.’ This applies to different aspects of life in my opinion. For example, hoopers. A hooper watching film can easily just look at the clips, but to actually see the game is different. To be able to break down the game, its details, and all of the idiosyncrasies within it, that hooper would be able to take things to the next level.
As a photographer, one exercise that I like to do is using my peripherals to make out as much details in an object while I’m walking, sitting, etc. With this exercise, I try to pay attention to color, shapes, engravings, textures, and any other defining features that could help me identify what the object is. To be honest, I’m wrong about what the object is 70% of the time, but the exercise actually helps me a lot. For all of the photographers that ask me how to get better, here’s one exercise for you. You don’t even need your camera with you.
I think one of my jobs as a photographer is to pass on the visual beauties of life. That has actually been one of may goals since picking up a camera. Long story short for the people that don’t know the story by now, I picked up a camera while my mind was in a dark place. With that being said, one of my goals became to spread positivity and beauty through my craft. As I’m just getting back from the Philippines, I feel like I saw a lot, literally and metaphorically. I’ll show you guys some of what I literally saw through my visuals, but it turned out to be way less than I expected in terms of quantity. To me, photography is one of those thing where you have to know when to shoot and when to put the camera down and be present. The same applies for having our phones with us all the time. One example that always comes to mind is concerts and events. So many people watch the events through their phones these days. It’s actually pretty silly to me because people pay money to see these events in person and just end up pulling out their phones. A clip or two never hurt anybody, but it’s silly to me to see people holding their phones the whole time with their eyes glued on it, recording the show rather than being present just so that they can put it on their stories. The point I’m trying to make is, don’t miss out on these beautiful moments when you’re in them. That’s why I didn’t feel the urge to take so many photos. I wanted to spend time with my family since it was the first time that I have been away from them for a few months since moving out to SoCal.
Metaphorically, there’s the typical eye opening that most people would have when visiting the part of the Philippines that my family stays in. My family stays in the less luxurious side of the Philippines, so anyone that stays there for a couple days would realize just how poor some parts of the world are and realize they should not take things for granted. That was bound to happen to me and anyone else who thinks about it. I saw a lot more than that though. One of the good things about going somewhere that doesn’t have signal and going with most of the people that I use my phone to talk to is the unintentional digital detox.
Do you guys ever notice that some of your best ideas come while you’re taking a shower? That’s because you are actually giving yourself some time to be with your thoughts instead of always being distracted by everything else that is going on. There are no distractions, just your thoughts. That’s a huge reason I still use pen and paper before taking things digitally. For me, I had plenty of time to think in long car rides. My family stays at least two hours away from anything fun in the Philippines, so for two weeks, we were in the car for at least two to four hours a day. That’s a lot of time to think. Additionally, the internet wasn’t incredibly fast, so my usage was very minimal when I did have access to it. With all this being said, my mind cleared up a lot of things while having so much time to think and reflect. I won’t reveal what my thoughts were now, but I’ll eventually let my progress and results speak for this. Let’s just say though, a lot can happen when you seek to see rather than mindlessly looking.
To Live and Prosper.
- JSquared
