Reasons Why Photography is Good for One's soul
Massachusetts NH photography education
Ever since I was a teen, I loved taking photos, inspired by my film camera toting hippy uncle. The camera was the means to remember silly moments with friends making faces playing mini golf, the highlights of senior year prom and lock-in sleepover, and the feelings of being forever young with my cousins at the Jersey Shore. Photos as memory holders is only one reason to take a photography course, but here are more to consider.
NH Massachusetts Photography Teacher, based in Concord.
"Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more."
Vincent Van Gogh
Disconnect with phones and connect with nature
Teens spend about 50-60 hours a week with screen time including communication, schoolwork, and entertainment. They spend about 33 hours a week on social media alone. Though phones can be a tool to enjoy nature by taking photos, phones have been detrimental to youth and adults, where phones have led to a loss of quality of life.
Over involvement with screen time can lead to low self esteem, depression, FMO (fear of missing out,) being less social, isolation, laziness, eye and neck strain, and aimlessness.
One the contrary, being out in nature has many positive benefits. Benefits include lower levels of stress and anxiety, gratitude, appreciation, attentiveness, creative bursts of energy, and positive cardiovascular health and Vitamin D. Nature improves sleep quality also.
Nature coupled with photography doubles the positive power.
remember the little things and document the big moments
Kayaking on Lake Winnipesaukee with my high school best friend. My skinny cousins posing on a griddle hot iron jungle gym at a playground in Jersey City, New Jersey. Me screaming bloody murder, embraced by my laughing mother, because I was terrified of Santa Claus (who was really my grandfather!) All these images etched in my memory because someone took the moment to capture it.
Invest in your photographs because one day your photos will invest in you.
give god the glory for his masterpieces
"Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter." (Ansel Adams)
He's waiting to reveal His secrets about Who He is in the dark room of this world and for us to be the audience of Him opening the curtain to His marvelous creation show.
May our eyes be a wide angle lens to His workmanship.
Therapy
Photography has often been an escape from difficult home circumstances and when life seemed like a deep, dark cave. Photography has been the opal found in the crevices of a hard place, where light slowly exposes brilliant colors like a hidden rainbow in the cracks of life. "In photography, there are no shadows that cannot be illuminated." (August Sander) This includes the shadows of our heart, life, and spirit.
Photography is a lens to see the suffering of others, be compassionate, appreciate what I have, and the free gifts of beauty in our world.
give a visual voice
"You have the privilege to give a nod to your values today by making a photograph."
(Marie Masse)
Photography gives us a visual voice to share our values, capture what we are passionate about, and share an aperture of hope and joy to our world. Do we care about the elderly? Then photograph your grandmother. Do you care about the homeless? Then capture their story on the streets. Each artistic voice has a chamber to be echoed loud and clear.
We also see ourselves reflected in our images and are imprinted on the negative of our photographic work. Leave your beauty mark on the world...one image at a time.
see the world differently
Photography gives us a different perspective on life and its world because WE ARE LOOKING. We notice the gradient of colors at blue hour and how it evokes a feeling of peace compared to golden hour which makes one feel revived. We look up at plain, confident pine trees and let their simple beauty teach lessons of humility.
Nature is the world's classroom; are we ready to listen?
"Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter." (Ansel Adams)
He's waiting for us to enjoy His artwork.
Leave its mark on you
Once bitten by the photography bug, you are forever changed. You will live your life with more intention and with greater love.
Photography is..
Visual poetry
A universal language
A wordless story
A time capsule
The art of frozen time
Revelation
Reminiscing
Meditation
Shutter bursts of life
Silent, but speaking
Therapy
A story to unfold
A pause button in life
A photo-biography
Time traveling
A voice to the voiceless
An advocate
A journal
Life’s scrapbook
An exposure of daily life
Eye candy for the soul
An aperture of hope
Nostalgia..
A legacy
