Contemplative Photography...Assignment: Color

I went to the library and came home with a stack of books on photography. One in particular caught my eye..."The Practice of Contemplative Photography" by Andy Karr and Michael Wood. I had never heard the term 'contemplative photography' before, but I knew intuitively that such an art existed. Contemplative photography has been described as pure perception...seeing the world with fresh eyes...seeing combined with mindfulness...and so on. It's easy to recognize but hard to describe. There's an honesty and freshness to it...uncontrived. It's the antithesis of the department store portrait.

Anyhoo, this book has some fun exercises, the first of which is to shoot color. Not form, not items, not things...just run around and look for color and then photograph it. No blacks, greys, whites or beiges. No text or graphics. 

Now I admit to being a rank amateur at this, but even I could appreciate what happens when you get your mind off of composing a shot. Other things show up. Like letters reflected in water bottles.

Unimportant things find meaning.

Try it, it's kind of fun!