"concentrate yourself upon details" - Baker Street Tube Station / London (Wed 16 Aug 2013)

"concentrate yourself upon details" - Baker Street Tube Station (*) / London (Wed 16 Aug 2013)
Sherlock Holmes (*) from A Case of Identity (*):

Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. [..]

Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details.

On Training and Discipline - Siegfried Hansen / Eric Kim Street Photography (Wed 18 Dec 2013)

Untitled - Pitt Street / Sydney (Wed 18 Dec 2013)
Siegfried Hansen (*) writes On Traininng (*) and Discipline (*):

There are many things you learn by training (*) and discipline (*), but overall you should internalize both theory (*) and technique (*) to a point that you can fully concentrate (*) on the moment when taking pictures. I navigate through [..] my hometown, almost blindly (*) on certain routes, focusing on things that are happening around me. It’s all coincidental, nothing is preset.

via Capturing Harmony on the Streets through Graphical Images: Interview with Siegfried Hansen (*) by Eric Kim (*).


Untitled (Detail) - Pitt Street / Sydney (Wed 18 Dec 2013)

On Photography #2 - Chris Leskovsek / Michael Ernest Sweet (Sat 20 Sep 2014)

Bart Simpson with Blue Car - St Julians / Malta (Sat 20 Sep 2014)
Chris Leskovsek (*) writes Photography (*):

When I shoot (*), I focus (*) on what is in front of me. But when I edit (*), I concentrate on what I want to say or tell, and most of the time it ends up being different from what I thought it would be. I think I can say that shooting for me is an intuitive (*) process, but editing is a very conscious (*) one.

via Talking Photographs with Chris Leskovsek (*) by Michael Ernest Sweet (*).

A few ways to increase your connection to your photography - Kirk Tuck (Thu 23 Feb 2012)

A3 Prints - New York - Aug 2011
Kirk Tuck (*) writes:

To do what you like in your work, separate from the buzz. [..]

• slow down [..] If you slow down and concentrate on the kinds of images that bring you real joy you'll find a tighter bond with your own work.


• Stop looking at all the sharing sites - When you turn off the outside influences and sit quietly with your own thoughts about art and photography you begin to understand the way you like to see and share art. That's valuable. Everything else is unconscious imitation.


• Do a project - Consistency of vision and subject are worthwhile goals for all artists. Set yourself to the task of creating a body of consistent work. Choose a subject that you love and explore it in depth. Ignore everything else.


• When you choose to do a project have a a goal - Wouldn't it be great if it changed some lives? But no matter where it ends up I will have met interesting people who've taken charge of their own lives and excelled. What fun role models. And the art will be my souvenir of my time spent with them. The prints will be part of the sharing.


• Start thinking beyond the screen - [..] When you slow down and do your art try to go through the whole process of bringing an image to life before you rush out the door to fill up more memory cards and hard drives.


• Really explore the images in front of you. Edit them down. Make them perfect and then print them large [..] Print them till you love them. And learn from the process of presentation. Learn what you like to see, big. The art becomes both portable and present when you pull it off the screen and onto paper. Be sure to go through the whole process so you understand in your gut what you've really created. It will slow you down [..] and focus it on doing work that makes you smile. You are the first audience.


• Finally, forget the online critiques - Find people in your own town, city, region whose work you admire and approach them about forming a sharing circle. Just like a writer's group.

Having a project will move you to take chances. [..] You'll need to discipline yourself to do the [..] And you'll need to learn how to finish.

Having a goal for your work gives it extra meaning.

Sharing the work with live people standing in front of you builds real confidence in the work. Having real critiques is painful but helps engender real growth. Helping real, human, non-virtual friends succeed with their own art is part of a rewarding virtuous circle. Embrace it.

From A few ways to increase your connection to your photography (*) by Kirk Tuck (*) - Thu 23 Feb 2012.

The Target - The Way of the Bow / Paulo Coelho

Mod Gnome - King Street / Newtown (Fri 19 Feb 2010)
From Paulo Coelho's (*) short story, The Way of the Bow (*)..

The Target

The target is the objective to be reached.

It was chosen by the archer and though it is a long way off, we cannot blame it when we fail to hit it.

In this lies the beauty of the way of the bow: you can never excuse yourself by saying that your opponent was stronger than you.

You were the one who chose the target and you are responsible for it.

The target can be larger, smaller, to the right or the left, but you always have to stand before it, respect it and bring it closer mentally.

Only when it is at the very end of your arrow should you release the bow-string.

If you view the target as the enemy, you might well hit the target, but you will not improve anything inside yourself.

You will go through life trying only to place an arrow in the centre of a piece of paper or wood, which is absolutely pointless. And when you are with other people, you will spend your time complaining that you never do anything interesting.

That is why you must choose your target, do your best to hit it, and always regard it with respect and dignity; you need to know what it means and how much effort, training and intuition was required on your part.

When you look at the target, do not concentrate on that alone, but on everything going on around it, because the arrow, when it is shot, will encounter factors you failed to take into account, like wind, weight, distance.

You must understand the target. You need to be constantly asking yourself:

'If I am the target, where am I? How would it like to be hit, so as to give the archer the honour he deserves?'

The target only exists if the archer exists. What justifies its existence is the desire of the archer to hit it, otherwise it would be a mere inanimate object, an insignificant piece of paper or wood.

Just as the arrow seeks the target, so the target also seeks the arrow, because it is the arrow that gives meaning to its existence; it is no longer just a piece of paper; for an archer, it is the centre of the world

The Warrior of Light has dreams

The Warrior of Light has dreams.

His dreams carry him forward. But he never commits the mistake of thinking that the road is easy and the door wide.

He knows that the Universe works like alchemy: solve et coagula, say the masters. "Concentrate and disperse your energy according to the situation."

There are moments to act and moments to accept.

From the Manual of the Warrior of Light by Paulo Coelho (see here)

Turimetta Beach Sunrise - Northern Beaches / Sydney (Apr 2005)

Discipline - Fawzan Husain / Anahita Panicker (Thu 14 Jul 2016)

waterfall - black and white - Wentworth Falls / Blue Mountains (Tue 12 Jul 2016(

Fawzan Husain on Discipline:

I want to bring in the discipline of the art and essentially want them to include the five Ws (what, why, where, when, who) in their pictures. So many narratives are often overlooked in this frenzy of shooting unnecessary, mundane things. And many times we don’t concentrate on the things we should actually be looking at.

via Street-savvy photography by Anahita Panicker.

On Photography - Leonard Nimoy - Photographs on the Brain | LENSCRATCH (Tue 20 Nov 2013)

Signs - Madrid (Sat 10 Aug 2013)
Leonard Nimoy (*) writes On Photography (*):

You must master (*) your craft and then put it aside and concentrate (*) on the more difficult aspect of the work.

• What is it that you want to do (*) with that craft?
• What do you want to express (*)?
• What do you want to explore (*)?
• What do you want to find out (*)?
• What do you want to present (*) to people?

Those are the issues that you have to search (*) for.

via Instant Connections: Essays and Interviews on Photography (*) by LENSCRATCH (*) from selected a quote (*) by Photographs on the Brain (*).