Winter Doldrums Defeated By … Walker The Sony RX100M3

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Brrrrrrr, I hate it. Winter keeps me cold not just my physical being but inside also. Even my mind sloooooos down and tries to find comfort by the burning ideas region. It’s all smoke right now, no fire of ideas burning.

I try to live and work by the theory of Eye, Heart and Mind. It works but now, my eye and mind are very close in here but my Heart is down there a ways. The elevator from me head to me heart is out of service because it’s too cold. Usually this time of the year I work my LR catalog and get things ready for the new year. Usually this time of year LR always wants to mess things up with my hard drives and catalog. Well low and behold, the LR mess with shooter’s catalog and hard drive Gremlin is front and present. Oh yeah, everything is a mess. Don’t even think I’m gonna mees with today, hell no.

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Anyway, back to the street. I guess that the doldrums are inside of us more than exterior. Ya get to feeling kind down and then it’s easy to place the blame on other things going on. Yeah, yeah. I’m more guilty of this than anyone I don’t know. I’t not like slump time, it’s more like focus your intent time. Time to recognize the moment with the eye, heart and mind then with many photos and seeking the moment in LR after the moment has passed. Winter doldrums could be the best tool and friend you ever have.

If your slowing down and focusing your Intent, maybe just maybe you can see the photos before you knew they were in the camera.

The Zen of Archery applies to the Zen of photography. If you go out with your camera and shoot a lot of frames thinking you’ll edit later in hopes of finding something, well, good luck. When I was an archer, I used scopes all kinds of things to help me hit the target. Just like a camera, load it up with stuff and go for it and not be from the ryr, heart and mind.

A friend Ray told me, Don, you’re a good archer but maybe you should start to enjoy it instead of making it work. I didn’t have any idea what the hell he was talking about. I was in the high 90’s all the time and that’s out of a possible 100.

I mean I had this stuff down. Then one day Ray took off all my stuff from my bow. I mean just the arrow rest was there. He said lets go find ourselves. Well, first off I was happy because another nut was now on the planet. Any way, Ray showed me how to shoot intuitive. So I started to like the feeling of standing my ground, looking at the target maybee 100 yds away and then set the arrow and breathe and just let everything go without intrusion. I would squint my eyes, draw the bow and feel the arrow come back to my chin. I closed my eyes for a second and could see in my minds eye the arrow hitting the target. I then opened my eyes and looked at the target, no aid to help me see… raise the bow and feel where it was to be, draw the arrow the to release position and let it go.I close my eyes for a brief second and then open and heart Pfttttt! Plumpt! I walked to the target and was amazed that I hit the target, no not a bullseye but I was close. I did this every time I went to the Archery range and the more I did this intuitive style, the better my hits were.

Here’s the relationship to what you do in life and now we are talking photography. A camera has to eliminate intrusions as much as possible. Yes, you can go out and shoot your brains out and maybe get something. If this is your style, you and I will have little to talk about.

When I wen to the target to see my hit, I loved seeing it in there and sometimes a BULLSeye. I mean, I did this with my feelings, I was aware of my intent and my eye, heart and mind all being aware in the here and now and I see the hit on the target and I claim it as mine. I mean really mine. I was there and remember the experience.

Shooting photos is the same. If your connected like this, the reward for you is that YOU are aware that you were there when you release the shutter and when you see it as a finished image, that image represents you in total. It is you. It is the experience as you recorded it totally aware of doing so.

Hey, ya know what. It’s too cold for archery and my back can’t do it anymore. Just go out and make your photos connected this way and you’ll have the rewards of loving what you do.

Stay connected to yourself and you’ll have the ZEN of life with you at all times.

Be blessed my friends, even youse that walked out of the room…………….

12 thoughts on “Winter Doldrums Defeated By … Walker The Sony RX100M3”

  1. Good Morning Don, Another Great read..!! I know exactly what you are saying…I’ve been on somewhat of a down swing the last couple of months…the end of every year and the beginning of of a new year is generally not the best time for me, period…so, everything including my photography seems to take a nose dive…at 69, I’m not really surprised anymore…so, preparing for the hyper-jump into spring I got myself a new camera…a Fuji X-Pro1 with the 14mm, 23mm, 35mm and 56mm lenses…not the newest or possibly the greatest, but is has a personality and character that I like…so, we will see…

    Cheers Don, again Thanks for another great post…
    Fred Windberg
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/96400616@N05/

    1. Fred, you have a great camera there. I absolutely loved mine and made many photos I really love. It was the weight for me. I’ll be writing some more about the Doldrums soon and hopefully you can get something out of it. If not, just print it all all burn it.. That’s what I do……

  2. Thanks for the insights Don. At least you guys in Philly missed that big storm last week. At first they said Philly would get hit hard – I was thinking about you. Take care.

    1. Thanks Dave. I guess your under much more severe weather than we are back here. Actually here in Philly, we are in the Delaware Valley. So we are weatherwise in a dream location for season changes. It’s never that bad but of course that’s weather and that doesn’t coount for photography.

      Be cool and…uh..uh… stay warm Dave…………..

    1. Dan, yes it’s a hard time allover. Hopefully things will pass and the the light will return and fill our souls. (in more ways than one)

  3. the sony rx makes a perfect left eye, beautiful selfie! I like to take this time to shoot indoors, museums, indoor markets, underground subway stations. NY has a ton of interesting indoor spaces, the ride can be a photo treat too. easy does it though, just as your buddy said, keep it simple. thanks for sharing don.

    1. Yeah, yeah, yeah…. I love Philly…. you go to yer high falutin exotic places… I’m good right here…..

  4. Don, great article, and timely as I’ve felt a bit jaded about photography recently, an inspired piece to help me make a re-connection to my passion.

    1. Thanks Pete. I wish I had the magic wand to make things right but I don’t. So, I try to find ways to get the juices flowing again. I’m posting tomorrow about this.
      Stay tuned…
      don

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