The following is an attempt to point out the significance of allowing goals, large or small, to give way to flight. Light, strong, vibrant, unfettered and informed by clear intention. This photograph, and the one published yesterday, speaks louder than anything I might say, however I’ve given it a go.

Peregrine, by Tony
To pop this image of the Peregrine, wings so perfectly gathered, so light yet so strong, eyes and whole body directed with clear intention might seem a fluke of timing. Would, however, the next moment capture something fundamentally different? Here the bird is caught bright eyed and…oh I don’t have the words for it right now. Beautiful though. One sees that something in infants and athletes, and others where body-mind is clearly communicating and moving with fluidity and grace.

Thinking further, could it not be that we humans are not so different from the birds with respect to intention – clear intention? Or at least the potential for clear intention; the expression being light yet strong. Here’s the thought, and sorry to be banging on about this. The photographer sets out with the intention of taking photographs. As the eyes take in what comes to them in the present, the goal (a photograph) slips into the background of awareness. Another example: you have an intention to drive over to the priory and that’s the direction one is going in, the goal of the trip. Then as one goes, letting the goal slip into the background, more subtle moment to moment information is able to impinge on the mind. And because the goal is less to the fore, and thus less of a distraction, the information coming in can be responded to appropriately, more readily and finely. One is especially able to act on the more subtle stuff. For example one inexplicably find oneself slowing down and then moments later finding that if one hadn’t, in the split second way of things, a lorry going too fast would have wiped you out on a blind corner in a narrow lane. Not to mention those blessed promptings such as remembering as one starts the car that the front door’s not locked! Less driven by goals, more likely to…fill in the blank. Goals are not bad, they just need to slip into the back seat, so to speak.

This is all really obvious and mostly taken for granted and out of immediate awareness. Perhaps this level of sensitivity to information only comes to light when, highly distracted, the front door IS left unlocked and one is prompted, once again, not to get ahead of oneself. This is the stuff of training in daily life a phrase we use presuming we share a common understand of what that involves. Do we though? Just what IS that training. Of course the details are unique unto each of us. However, like the bird, we need to give way to flight. Light, strong, vibrant and with clear intention.

The underlying intention of training in the way of the Buddhas is remaining true to that which the Precepts point towards. Thats a direction worth following I’d say.

Tawny Eagle, by Tony

Dear Rev. Mugo,
I saw your references to John Daido Loori and Minor White on your blog and looked them up. I was astounded by JDL’s talk because he was describing almost exactly what I have tried to do, from time to time, with my own photography. I especially recognised “I try to get out of the way…and let the photograph take itself”. I suppose I do this for two reasons. One is to understand what is going on and to see if it results in acting from a ‘deeper’ level than the everyday and the second is, of course, an attempt to take better photos. I think, after listening to JDL that these are actually the same thing. What puzzles me, though, is what sort of photos result from this. Are they especially significant or are they just a by-product to be discarded and ignored? What do you do with them?

Below is partly my original response to Tony however a lot has been added and changed, as I think on the subject.

Dear Friend,
A belated, yet non the less heart felt, thank you for the photographs and thoughts on photography. I’m wondering where you are with the JDL book. And where you are generally with this question of the photograph ‘taking itself’. Was it Minor White who coined the term ‘the decisive moment’?

Here are some of my thoughts to put in the contemplation pot on this subject: I can see, and it’s my experience, that getting to the point of firing off the shutter and the image producing itself has many subtle steps. Although one rarely unpacks this consciously. Obviously we would be falling into ditches regularly if we did this while on the wing, so to speak!

So, what is it that has us pointing our toes in one direction at a particular time, (moving in the direction of the next thing) and not another direction…?

and then – in terms of photography…
stopping at a particular time
and turning
and seeing – not just with clear vision but with the whole visual cortex
and isolating something – putting a frame around it, (or just seeing as an animal spots its pray)
and lifting up the camera
and tracked and panning for longer or shorter moments
and waiting
and then…pop! the moment!
an image is in the bag…
and then what?

How do we divine/know the next step be it potentially life changing or simply getting the jam out of the cupboard…and not say…making a phone call? Steps we know not where they may eventually lead us.

What, as you pose, what is the life of that picture, what is its significants? Does it have one? The probing of this be it a still image, a photograph, or this in the moment points out, for me, an ever present vitality. A vitality known to be both silent and still in essence. Perhaps photographs have a place to play in showing that. Your photograph speaks loudly.
More tomorrow…