Deeper awareness : mountain photography
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Visual Awareness
In our attempts to create the best nature photography, mountains present some of the greatest challenges, and quite often the greatest rewards. For those of us who enjoy nature, there’s a unique attraction toward mountain photography. This attraction transcends the physical aspect, taking us into the realm of a spiritual experience, reinforcing our visual awareness.
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A Spiritual Experience
Our existence in a fast-paced society has altered our views of reality, dragging and pulling us along in a never-ending circle. We become caught in a time trap. Learning to clear the mind is crucial in helping us see things in a different light while also allowing the development of our photography skills. In addition, by removing personal problems and social struggles, we begin to relax. We start to become in tune with nature, with our surroundings.
In addition to the various principles of composition, there are certain aspects of the spiritual world to help enhance our photography skills. The challenge is not in how to make a mountain look big, but in how to make that mountain feel big. We learn to see with more than just our eyes; in order to begin seeing nature, we must first hear, smell, taste, and feel her. We do this by being alone with ourselves and our fears, within the massive scale of the natural world.
Learning to be in awe of nature allows us to become part of that spiritual experience. Gale force winds, violent thunderstorms, waves crashing on the beach, hiking a trail for the first time and coming upon a great cliff, or rounding the corner and seeing the unexpected mountain peak are valuable as well as positive reinforcements in the process of seeing.
By placing ourselves at the mercy of nature, we are presented with special gifts from nature. Our view on life and our perception of life becomes enriched. By leaving the protection of society and facing the natural world on its terms, we fine-tune our senses, our perceptions.
Mountain Country
On a recent trip to Patagonia Chile I had the opportunity, once again, to experience awareness. Alone, feeling quite at home in a foreign country, on a photographer’s schedule, at the end of tourist season, I had the chance to look at nature with fresh eyes. Patagonia is a special place, perhaps some of the last pristine land left on the planet. To watch four seasons unfold before you on a single day, to repeatedly move quietly within 30 feet of wild animals, to stand upon a melting glacier and listen to the drip and pouring of water into the current below it were all intense opportunities to see anew.
Intuition plays a key role in landscape photography. It’s important to listen to the inner voice. By doing so, more likely than not, you will position yourself and your camera in a favorable way. This can result in capturing that shaft of light that appears for an instant, or the dance of shadows upon the land; listening to your inner voice is key to great photography.
This also allows us to accept the surprising and the unexpected. Our innocence and inexperience as children allowed us to see things with a sense of wonder. It’s ironic that with age and the acquisition of knowledge, we’ve robbed ourselves of that sense of wonder. Picasso said that to paint and see as a child once one had become an adult was a major and difficult accomplishment. So it is with beautiful photography. To keep our vision and sense of wonder alive, we must again learn to see like children.
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Spiritual Exercises
Many times, when out in the field, your search is not for photographs, but for impressions. These impressions can be made through such a simple act as closing ones’ eyes and listening. A brief exercise will help in perception enhancement. Find a place to sit and close your eyes. Stay there for five minutes. Within seconds of beginning this exercise, the sense of sound becomes the dominant force of your life: birds singing, wind rustling through the leaves of trees, the sound of water crashing over mountain falls. Soon you become aware of a sense of touch: the wind brushing your face, the warmth of the sun kissing your skin.
This is where your imagination begins forming mental pictures. Allow that imagination the freedom to roam, to develop, and then learn to hold onto that vivid imagination.
More photography suggestions:
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hi mega1, thank you for coming by. "spiritual centers" - that's nice. there are indeed places where the sense of spirit is stronger than at other locations; and although they don't produce a great image on each visit (that's really not their purpose), they are an inspiration for living. check back at your convenience.
thanks, again!
loved this hub, very insightful
your spiritual connection with the landscape as well and your own sense of spirituality shows in your photos
inspiring and breathtaking
thanks for sharing, blue dog
hey elisabeth, welcome back! and thanks for the kind words, again. knowing that i need all the help i can get, the object is to try choosing locales that are exactly what you describe: inspiring and breathtaking. patagonia was that, and so much more.
Amazing hub. I love your 'philosophical' approach to photography. I have to admit that until recently I was much more a documenter than a photographer when photographying (in) mountains. I guess it will be a worthwile experiment to try learning to see the mountains as a photographer. I think your hub will help me on this way.
hello euro-pen, thanks so much for stopping back by and for the compliment. i'm glad you enjoyed the hub. i'm not sure where you're located, but from your hubs it sounds like you have mountain access. you're very fortunate. best wishes on the experiment!
Congrats, Blue Dog! This hub has been nominated as a HubNugget Wannabe this week. We tried to email you but you have that feature turned off.
You can read about it at http://HubNuggets.Info
Good luck in the contest and don't forget to promote the hub to drum up votes.
hi shirley, many thanks to you and the team for this consideration. i'm honored and flattered and speechless (but not wordless - more hubs to come)!! will do my best to promote it in a shamelessly honorable fashion!! again, thanks!!
Blue dog: In my excitement to cheer and congratulate all the Hubnugget Wannabes, I found myself pausing for awhile to bask in the wondrous photos you have posted. Nature can indeed be a spiritual experience and it is simply awesome and breathtaking--esp. these mountains. Maria singing in the movie "The Sound of Music" is in my head right now as she sings, "The hills are alive with the sound of music..."
Hahahaha
I enjoyed this stop and congratulate you warmly for this nomination. Go, go and go! Enjoy the Hubnugget fun! :D
Such a beautiful hub! I so enjoyed this experience. I feel very peaceful now thanks. :) The photo's are beautiful. I used to live in Colorado and have to say the high country is so inspiring.
hi ripplemaker,
thanks for checking in, and thanks for the words of encouragement!!! it's good that you sense the message trying to be conveyed in the photos. thanks so much!
hi jodi,
thank you so much! yes, colorado's special - i too lived there for six years, the best six years of my life, so far! thanks for checking in.
Beautiful hub. You are a great photographer.
thank you, uninvited. i'm working my way down the fan list. check your email shortly!!
Congratulations to the nomination of this hub to the hubnugget wannabe contest. Good luck for the contest. This hub clearly deserves the nomination.
thank you, euro-pen, for the high praise!
Another nice hub! you know I love your pictures :-))) They really bring back memories from my own trip to S.A. Believe it or not, I was there for three months and hardly took any pictures...SO, I really appreciate yours!
hey aqua, thanks for coming back around - just sent you a note about this hub making the hubnugget wannabe list. cast your vote!
now i am really envious - 3 months in s.a.! what a special trip that must have been. i can only imagine.
Oh blue dog those picturs are the most beautiful I have seen. I wish I could take pictures like that. they are so inspirational and AMAZING!
This is a wonderful hub and certainly deserves its nomination. I had a look at your website and if I didn't live so far away and have a family to look after I would be very tempted to join you on a workshop! Absolutely beautiful pictures - you can see that you have a connection for sure.
I shall join the group and say, well done. Your approach is great and the results are breathtaking.
Congratulations on the Wannabe nomination
hey crazd, thanks for visiting! it's easy for me to say that it's easy to come up with this type of work, but i guess the true word would be natural, it's a natural thing. timing and luck are important factors as well, although i've known a couple of photographers who adamantly deny luck having anything at all to do with it
catherine, thanks for the kind words. so too does your hub deserve its nomination. anything involving the music of mali is thumbs up, throw in ry cooder for good measure... great job! re: workshops, who knows, maybe someday it will happen. life gives us unique opportunities.
hello, duchess, thank you for visiting and for the encouraging words. the truly amazing thing is that i never know what i will see when i head into the woods. for me, that is the greatest reward, just being there. the images are a reflection of that. there's a hub going on here, so i'll slow down and say thanks one more time!
Wow! All I can really say now is, shades of Ansel Adams. peace, CC I think you must know what I mean.
hi ralwus,
thank you for taking the time to check this out, and the comparison -i've still got a long way to go there, he set the bar so high for us mere mortals.
the caffeine hasn't kicked in yet. cc?
Thanks for lovely pictures that you have taken by your comera. I initialy thought that you modified these pictures.
I am myself an ameteur photographer.
hi vizey,
thanks for reading the hub. actually, the lead image into the hub was shot with a 4x5 camera as was the image of eagle cap peak, the others were shot with a digital camera. i guess one would label me one of those old-fashioned photographers who tries to capture the moment presented to him, without a reliance upon extreme alterations or modifications to the image. my mac's aperture program allows me to control highlights, shadows, saturation and definition, not much difference than going into the darkroom and pulling a black and white print through those same channels. getting a bit long in reply here, but glad you enjoyed the images. feel free to check out more in my other hubs. good luck in your photographic adventures, and feel free to contact me with questions or suggestions.
Blue Dog,
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and yet, your description of the mental, emotional and spiritual preparation for photography is worth a thousand pictures. I'm in awe of your multi-talents. Super photog and super writer. So glad to have you here on HP. Thumbs up, my friend! MM
hey mighty mom,
thank you very much! it's a great reward when someone is able to see the conveyed feeling within those images. they're only moments in time, but special nevertheless. thanks for the ongoing words of encouragement!!
mountain is the best object for photography. I think there are differences between another mountain. it looks interesting. sometimes it looks green, sometime is covering snows. nice picture. this hub inspiring me taking great mountain picture.
hi prasetio,
thanks for your comments! yes, it's amazing how the mountain scenes change over time. regarding the intro photo, i went back to the same spot three months later to check it out. the lake was dry, and grass reeds had completely concealed the foreground boulder. best wishes to you with those mountain images!!
Wonderful and inspiring. Your photographs are the witness of our Mother Earth's glorious being on the grandest scale.
hello janna,
thank you for the kind words. i am humbled by the gifts from mother nature.
Those are some gorgeous photos. I love mountains. Unfortunately, I don't have any large ones near me -- but we do have some smaller ranges. I think gardening speaks to me the way photographing mountains speaks to you.
I love your hub! It's so beautiful and inspiring! Awesome photos! Nature photography is really so uplifting. There is so much beauty around us. I love taking photos of nature too.
Congratulations on being a hubnugget! Well deserved!
hi wannab,
thank you for your kind words. i too must travel to the mountains, fortunate to have lived in colorado for a number of years, heavenly. gardening is great too, therapeutic, but we're still in a nasty drought down here, nothing grows.
hello jill,
thanks for the congrats! i'm glad the images inspire you. it's such a reward to actually experience those moments, and then to hear such words after the fact is equally rewarding. thanks!
Your words are as beautiful as your pictures. Thank you for sharing them. Very inspiring. I love nature photography too and this hub has resurrected my longing to upgrade to a DSLR! Unfortunately the bank account is not ready for that leap yet! Looking forward to more of your magnificent photography.
hi rose,
thank you so much! i know the feeling about the dslr, waiting until last year to finally get one. what a treat, and learning experience, it's been! thanks for checking in.
Pretty pictures.
hey sweetiepie,
thank you!
and thanks for stopping in. it's good to see you standing tall in the forums.
Great pictures, great philosophy. Great advice. I've been doing a project, 5 months into this week, of at least one photo a day from my little piece of property on the edge of the forest in Michigan. The best days are when I slow down, get lost 400 feet from the house, and don't realize until I look at a watch, that 90 minutes have passed by. The photos are a bonus.
hi steve,
thanks for stopping by. that's a challenging project you are on. i attended a workshop once where jim brandenburg had a display of a similar project: ONE image per day, for 90 consecutive days, in the woods behind his home. most people can't comprehend the discipline. i applaud your effort. will keep an eye on your results.
Well done. Inspiring. Interesting how photography can bring one closer to nature if it is done properly.
hi barranca,
yes, the natural scene is my foundation. thanks for checking in. am enjoying your forum posts!
Those pictures look incredible. I´m not really into landscape photography, but this hub has awakened something inside of me that is craving for more. Bravo!
mega1 Level 3 Commenter 2 years ago
I know I'll never get to these places so its very important for me to see the gorgeous photos and know there are such spiritual centers on this earth. Thanks for posting them.