I’m not a very confident writer. In fact, I feel rather self-conscious about it. The more I worry and angst the worse the writing becomes. Madeleine L’Engle wrote about that (I warned you that I really like her!). “A writer may be self-conscious about his work before and after but not during the writing.”
I find the same thing to be equally true about photography. Before and after, I stare at the created image and I am torn. Is it good? Is it awful? Is it something? But during the actual shooting, if all is going well, I am outside of all that thought and angst. I just am. I am lost in the moment, in the creating. I am at play in the most “unself-conscious concentration of a child,” as L’Engle defines it, “art: prayer: love.”
I think there are many of us who have been swept up in the movement. It’s what pulls us back over and over, isn’t it? It’s the stillness that we are trying to recapture with our images: the stillness of being completely in the moment and utterly out of the way — allowing the work to do the work.
That stillness is what I crave as well. Naomi just wrote a post about Stillness as well…think the universe is trying to tell me something 🙂 Love your photo!
Thanks! I’ll have to check Naomi’s post…it’s so funny how the messages we need to hear start to pop up everywhere at times, isn’t it?
You know, Jessica, I read the word “self-conscious” and immediately started searching my mind for the thing I had recently read about self-consciousness, or unself-consciousness, or some such. Then it hit me: it was Madeleine L’Engle, and it was yesterday’s offering in Glimpses of Grace. Funny, that, don’t you think? ; ) Oh, and your tulip image is gorgeous!
I like HAVING written and not so much the writing itself. Isn’t that funny? But it’s not the same for photography for me. I love the process. I even love editing the photos after. I wonder if that means something?
Hi Jessica, I have stumbled upon your photos and this site as I have recently started Kim Klassens’ Be Still Course. Still Life is quite a new concept for me & at the moment I still find it a bit scary trying to put a picture together and I can’t see my final image straight away so I am keen to explore and learn & hopefully relax into it !
I feel exactly as you describe above and it really struck a chord with me as I read it.
I am loving your photos and want to thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.