This is a review for the photograph coffee table book The Mindful Photographer: Awake in the World with a Camera written by David Ulrich in exchange for this review.
Charlie has been wanting to learn to take photographs using the Camera I purchased for David. Only I didn’t know where to find a Teens Photography class. I though of having David’s Uncle Don teach Charlie but he is a hour away from our home and his health isn’t the best.
I finally came to the conclusion that Charlie and I can teach ourselves through books we purchase which can be using in a Homeschool Class for Charlie. The first book we plan on reading is The Mindful Photographer. Which was sitting on my desk.
David picked up the book and began to thumb through the book he began to ask questions about what he was seeing. Which has led from a school project to a family project bringing Charlie and David closer together which is a Godsend.
I love how there is step by steps instructions and photos showing what they do and use. I thought the book might be hard for Charlie or David to understand but it wasn’t. Charlie was able to learn about photographers he hadn’t heard of which we can study in school.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to check out The Mindful Photographer I hope you do soon. With the Holidays upon us The Mindful Photographer is going to make a perfect Christmas Gift for any Teen or adult who enjoys
Photography.
About:
Discover your voice, cultivate mindful awareness, and inspire creative growth with photography
In The Mindful Photographer, teacher, author, and photographer David Ulrich follows up on the success of his previous book, Zen Camera, by offering photographers, smartphone camera users, and other cultural creatives 55 short (1-5 pages) essays on topics related to photography, mindfulness, personal growth, creativity, and cultivating personal and social awareness. Whether you’re seeking to become a better photographer, find your voice, enhance your ability to “see” the world around you, realize your full potential, or refine your personal expression, The Mindful Photographer can help you. You will learn to:
Awaken your creative spirit
Find joy and fulfillment with a camera
Improve your photography
Express your deepest vision of the world
Learn to be more present in the moment
Deepen your capacity for observation
Gain insight into your self and others
Cultivate mindful seeing
Use your camera as a tool for change
Enhance your visual literacy And much more
You can read this beautiful, richly illustrated book in order, following its inherent structure, or you can dive into the book anywhere that appeals to you, following your own stream of interest. No matter how you read and work through the book―many of the essays contain exercises, working practices, and quotes from well-known photographers―you will learn to deepen your engagement with the world and discover a rich source of creativity within you through the act of taking pictures.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Seek Resonance
Camera Practice
Avoid the Merely Pictorial
Pictures are Not About Pictures
Visual Learning
First Sight; Beginner’s Eye
The Camera in Your Hand
Seeing from the Body
It’s All About Hormones
Attention and Distraction
Keep the French Fries
Becoming Good
Audience
Fitting into the Flow of Time
Catch the Wave, Not the Ripple
Of Time and Light
In Space
Finding Your Mojo
River of Consciousness
Why Selfies?
When to Put the Camera Down
Mindful Sight
Creative Time
Minding the Darkness
Potency of Metaphor
Mapping the Internal Terrain
What Helps?
Analyzing Your Images
Sift, Edit, and Refine
Sequencing
Experiment
Become the Camera
Music of the Spheres
InSeeing
Fifty/Fifty
Creative Mind and Not Knowing
Trust Your Process
Digital Life
Steal Like an Artist
Art is a Lie that Tells the Truth
Use Irony Sparingly
Embrace Paradox
When to be Tender, When to Snarl, When to Shout, and When to Whisper
Sharpness is a Bourgeois Concept
Learn to Love the Questions
The Wisdom of Chance
Awake in the World
The Cruel Radiance of What Is
Hope and Despair
Companions on the Way
Coherence and Presence
Wholeness and Order
Creative Intensity
Sea of Images
The Power of Art
About David Ulrich
DAVID ULRICH is a professor and co-director of Pacific New Media Foundation in Honolulu. He teaches frequent classes and workshops, and is an active photographer and writer whose work has been published in numerous books and journals including Aperture, Mānoa, and Sierra Club publications. Ulrich’s photographs have been exhibited internationally in more than 75 one-person and group exhibitions. He is the author of The Widening Stream: the Seven Stages of Creativity and Zen Camera: Creative Awakening with a Daily Practice in Photography (February 2018).
He blogs about creativity and consciousness at theslenderthread.org, and is a consulting editor for Parabola magazine. www.creativeguide.com
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
