2020: the rough draft for 2021

Dear 2021…

It’s going to be a tough year to be a photographer. But not impossible. Thanks to one big lesson the chaos of 2020 illuminated, the lost art of preparation and vision setting. What used to feel like the only thing to take photos of were spontaneous moments of beautiful landscapes, dressed up portraits, or highly stylized food is now a distant memory in a digital album. I’ve learned that it’s not about the object in front of the camera as it is about what you use to shape the light that hits the narrow frame of space in front of the lens. While complying to social distancing I spent hours at home experimenting with lighting and later thinking about how the colors, angle, and composition affect not only the image but the viewer. Before 2020 this is something I sort of took for granted and didn’t spend much time learning to be intentional with. The more I photographed the less I wanted to review on the computer afterward because while the results always had certain areas I loved I could hardly put my finger on what was working or what was missing… But when I started to experiment with short video scenes and sketching out a storyboard beforehand I recognized that it helped improve my still photography and efficiency sorting and editing through them on the computer. This is one of, if not the biggest lesson I learned and always a win worth dancing to because who wants to spend all day hunched over a screen?

Thanks to 2020 and the guide of a few close friends that inspired me to not just think about making but actually make a vision board!

But seriously though...

I started by tracing my hands because one thing I’m afraid of losing is not just sensitivity in the hands but the integration of the whole body to the mind. The mind is not just a brain inside the head. What I experienced since my first practice in Iyengar Yoga helped me reconnect to what gets lost in translation over hours of desk-computer work that easily becomes mindless. It’s not about doing one pose or another as it is about learning to live in your body, manage it more fluidly and with control vs pounding on a joint or slumping. Yoga helped me reconnect to the ground whether standing on the feet or hands which in turn helped me rediscover life within that used to sleep in while I moved through a conventional life.

Next I wrote the pillars, counted on each finger that I want to cultivate in 2021.

1. Honoring The Divine Within because if we’re not careful today’s media-computer heavy society will cause a disconnect from the divine gift of courage and patience that will help us through hard times.

2. Gratitude for what I already have and how what is within.

3. Practicing Mind+Body Integration on and off the mat.

4. Balancing computer work with good ole handiwork.

5. Being intentional, pre-visualizing, and even sketching my efforts before anything becomes physical.

6. Listening carefully to the quiet inner voice that is never as boastful as any outside voice.

7. Reading words not only on a page but internally for decoding the messages crying out from within.

8. Mistakes are the imperfectly perfect stepping stones to success. Celebrate them!

9. Cultivate self-less-ness because what good is anything if it only brings illumination to the self?

10. Last but not least, build quality, write, and publish weekly on Vocal!

Surrounding the hands are photos that inspire specific goals that may look quite strange to most people but to me they remind me, especially the top photo of Geeta Iyengar that you don’t have to be born with a special talent for flexibility but through a specific intense practice of yoga asana (pose, or seat) and observation can open the mind up to a human potential you hardly imagined. In 2021 nothing is ever certain but the moments where you either slump back into old habits or decide to live uplifted with less effort than if you continued to let parts of the inner body numb.

An interesting event happened during this climb where another hiker asked me what I was training for. After a moment to collect my thoughts since it had been a little over three years since I'd trained for a marathon I answered...

To undo what over twenty years of a primary sedentary desk working lifestyle had done to me physically and mentally.

Sure climbing by holding tension in a strap to help engage upper body muscles that tend to get overlooked during these activities might look strange to most people but to me it felt more connected, grounded, and whole.

Last but not least I cut two strips of old film as bracelets on the hands to remind me to photograph as if it were my last exposure on the roll.

Whether it’s photography or moving your body, without a clear intention as your guide, distractions will come and before you know it the energy you started with is zapped by content consumed over a screen. Out of everything I learned in 2020, the power of intentionality taught me to value and manage my time more efficiently. Less binging, or rushing into things head on, and more thought out, mindful actions.

Alright, it's time to see what a little movement will do to your mind and body as a unit now. Stand up for a few minutes, stretch, dance, and get the blood circulating properly again to that one most played song on your playlist! It might just uplift a tired heart.