Image © Maja Moritz, connect on majamoritz.com                                                   
 
'Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.' BUDDHA

(About MOTIVATION)


What exactly is YOUR world? Your world is how you perceive the world. Your personal individual perception makes up your world. How does 'your world' differ from the way others see their world? How do you interpret your perceptions? How does that show in your images, your photography? What values and beliefs make you interpret your perceptions in a particular way? How can you make that shine through your photography? How conscious are you about where you are coming from when you interpret your perceptions in general and when taking pictures? The Dalai Lama says 'nothings is as it appears'.....so why do certain things appear to you the way they do? And how much of what you perceive and interpret in a certain way would be relevant to others too? How individually oriented are you interpretations of the world and how much do they match and align with what others would value too?
Deep questions to ask ourselves, if we wish to connect to others with our photography, making a difference with our precious unique perception and becoming a meaningful messenger for the relevant questions we all ask ourselves about life....

You are invited to submit an image you would like to get some feedback on, if you wish to use your photography as a tool for your personal development - send your image by email to majamoritz@aol.com. The image will be published on this blog including my commentary, so be ready to inspire and be inspired by sharing your work!

There is no guarantee that any submitted image will be published here and I retain the exclusive right to decide which images I will publish and comment on. Any submitted images which I decide not to publish and comment on will be deleted immediately. Submitted images will be solely used for the purpose of being an inspiration on this blog.

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After 5 years of silence on this blog I have decided to revive this important sharing about
why we do what we do and enrich it with our images to find out more about their essential
qualities and how they function as a visual messenger for us - ever expanding our evolving thought process and our world of feelings of what it is all about 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊 share, connect, inspire!

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You are what you see. Ernst Haas

(About SEEING)

"You see what you think, you see what you feel, you are what you see… If with the camera you can make others see it – that is photography." Ernst Haas has so nailed it down with tis sentence, this is the essence of what photography is meant to be. At first it makes me think that this is so clear, nothing more is needed to say! On the other hand it is my impression that there are so many people out there who are keen photographers, but are somehow lost with what they are doing? Why is that? Have they simply never heard this before? Or do they somehow not know how to apply this to themselves? How come so many of us are so confused about how to find themselves, how to express themselves - with photography in this case - and how to connect to others in doing so? My guess is that there is a tendency to just try and imitate what we see has been successful for others? This ultimately leads away from true and honest self-discovery, it freezes our creative output at a level of imitation and that could be the reason why it doesn't get us anywhere in the end. The most sophisticated play with equipment and technique, style, models, or props and tools will turn stale and boring after a while, if you don't dare to go beyond the superficial dazzle of effects, colors, contrasts, perspectives, manipulation in postproduction or whatever the ingredients maybe.
Work up the courage to meet yourself. Ask the questions which truly matter. You are unique as one of the 7 billion humans on this planet. Your perception is unique. Meet yourself and find out what is so special about you? What exactly is it that only you can express and convey with your photography, because only you perceive the world in this particular way? This has nothing to do with wanting to be different, you don't need to want that, you simply are! It is your very own strength, your very special gift!
It is about finding this treasure within yourself. Or let it find you? If you strive for it, you might miss the point what this is all about, because this is not a competition, but an honest journey to yourself and discovering the treasure of your own innocent and pure gift to this world. If your ego wants big things then you might have to strip that away first, before you have access to your pure self and treasure place within. You also do not have to invent something new, it is more about discovering and revealing what is already there. Ernst Haas puts it this way "The limitations in your photography are in yourself.". This also suggests to honestly face one's own limitations, because if you face them you already have made the first step to overcome them. Embrace your limitations, dare to change, dare to transform yourself - you can only gain from such courage. Freedom is waiting for you! Freedom is so much fun! It never gets boring.


Read more about
Ernst Haas

View my images
www.majamoritz.com


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Photography is a means of communicating what you feel when you look at things. Ansel Adams

(About VISUAL COMMUNICATION)

This probably is one of the most important sentences ever said about photography. We get all hyped up about equipment, fascinated by photographs others have taken, confused or carried away by all the technical options during production or post production, and might forget amongst all this distraction about the core of what it all is about. What do you feel when you look at things?
Photography is such a great medium of visual expression, accessible to all of us, and especially of service to those who are visual people. How do you know whether you are a visual (seeing) type of person or more audio (hearing) orientated, or a kinesthetic (feeling/touching) type? We all have a bit of everything, but most of us have a main orientation. As photographers we probably are mainly visual types, although I once met a photographer who actual pushed the shutter button as a reaction to sounds. It is nothing wrong with that as long as it works for you and you are conscious of what you are doing and why you are doing it.
Becoming conscious of what moves us is a very important step towards successful photography. What is successful photography? If your images matter to others, and make them see, feel, realize, understand things in a different way, that is probably the ultimate success, when your photography is making a difference to the way others see the world! This difference can be very subtle and a wee moment of realization and as short as the split second, in which you took your picture, but it might create precious memories for a lifetime.
This great chance to express yourself visually with your photography, conveying what you perceive, feel and see, reaching others by doing so, is this exciting process of communicating in a visual way. What do you feel when you look at things?

We often seem to have this interesting tendency to rather look to others for inspiration instead of getting conscious and clear about our own perceptions and feelings.
There is not much to gain by imitating others, but there is everything to gain and true fulfillment waiting, if we embark on the most exciting journey to find out who we ourselves truly are and then find out how to express our feelings as strongly as possible.

What do YOU feel when you look at things, people, situations?


Read more about
Audio-Visual-Kinesthetic Personality Types

View my images
www.majamoritz.com


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A photographer must always work with the greatest respect for his subject and in terms of his own point of view. Henri Cartier-Bresson

(About PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY)

Respect - one of the best ways to show your interest in the people you work with. Respect will truly connect you with one another. Respect paves the way for understanding. Next minute universal love honors you with it's presence. All the tricks we have acquired to put up a show, to impress, convince, or win over someone will never work as good as true honest and openly shown respect for the uniqueness of another. As always, if we want to apply anything in connection with others, we must have learned to do the same towards ourselves first. So it is a good idea to do an inventory with ourselves, how consciously do we actually value our own wants and needs, our desires and dreams, our commitments and pledges? In portrait photography, when someone opens up and shows some glimpses of their true selves, these moments are extremely precious. We need to prepare for these moments in order to be ready for them when they occur. How can you show great respect towards yourself and others? The more you can openly value, appreciate and acknowledge yourself and what you are doing, the more you can do the same towards others. This will build a beautiful basis for a true and meaningful connection between you. It will open a door to trust, then trust will invite truth to emerge. Choose to respect, and real fulfillment will arise and grow. It needs some true listening, observation, empathy, some standing back. Sometimes it might need boldness to respect yourself first, and not compromise your own view for the sake of money, attention, or approval. True respect will create true connection almost automatically. The moments gifted from a connection based on respect are just simply the best! You will just know - everyone knows - somewhere deep within your heart…


Find out more about
Henri Cartier-Bresson

View my images
Maja Moritz Photography / Portrait Portfolio


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If you want to see something, you have to hurry. Everything disappears. Paul Cézanne

(About VIGILANCE)

This is a call for conscious looking. This time the quote is not from a photographer. Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter (1839 - 1906). One of his main themes was painting still lifes, another was painting landscapes. A main feature of his work is his intense observation of simplicity - apples, pears, lemons in his still lifes, or trees, hills, plains in his landscapes - all coming to life through colour and light. All these objects in his paintings are pretty static and we don't have to be quick, because they do not disappear. It is all about the light in which the objects or the scenery appear. The light casts a certain mood or magic over a scene, caught in Cézanne's paintings and with it a fleeting moment of beauty turned eternal being captured by the artist in his paintings, just like with photography. These moments of unique and fleeting beauty must have been fascinating for Cézanne. Not one of his still life paintings looks like another, they all depict basically similar type of fruit, but appear at the same time so diverse. I have learnt to be vigilant for the magic of the fleeting moments of beauty, but still find that the most frustrating aspect of being a photographer is the fact that I SEE so many more beautiful moments than I ever can turn into photographs! The abundance of beautiful moments is overwhelming at times, and in appreciating this I can relate to Cézanne's saying and also his concentration on similar subjects again and again, chasing the magic of the moment. I feel drawn into such attempts as well, when I find myself photographing a similar situation over and over again in search of some special magic which I have perceived or sensed in it, but so far haven't been able to capture it adequately with a photograph.
It is magic in itself to follow these calls of vigilance and exploration, because there always seems to be another possibility for a new revelation of fleeting beauty, unseen this way before, something beyond of what was possible so far. As hunters and gatherers of fleeting moments, photographers enjoy this thrilling chance to catch that very special one, the chance to show it to the world in a photograph, and the chance to offer some exciting new visual discovery and memory to other people by the way of their view of this particular moment of life.
Just imagine for a moment, if you have to be quick to see the magic something in static things or situations, how quick you need to be to catch it in movement…. There is no "one way" of achieving this, which works for all, but there is your "own way" of getting there. Find your own way and you will not need to know anymore how others did it. Start to be vigilant and discovery will follow.


Find out more about
Paul Cézanne

Read more about
Photography Challenges

View my images
Maja Moritz Photography


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Pressing the shutter release at the right moment becomes a matter of instinct. Beaumont Newhall

 (About "The Decisive Moment")

Often you hear people saying that photography is all about light. In my opinion photography is more about the moment. Especially in photojournalism the right moment probably beats the right light in 9 out of 10 cases. Henri Cartier-Bresson (one of my heroes in photography :) was the one who celebrated the moment like no one else. "The Decisive Moment" is his legacy.
In sports photography the decisive moment is naturally paramount, but also in portrait photography, for example, the more subtle version of a decisive moment makes all the difference. You can set up your light, location and situation as perfect as possible, but the moment a true smile emerges or a smile turns sour, that is when you will win or loose the essence of your image. The smile is just an example for any expression we might try to bring out. Whatever mood we seek, the main thing is to be aware about its elusiveness and that it is actually a gift when it happens, and nothing we can make happen with a guarantee of achievement. These gifts can be received when we are in tune. In tune with what? In tune with the NOW of what is happening, in tune with the bigger picture beyond our efforts in the foreground, and in tune with your shutter release. To be in tune means to be responsive to the events in the NOW while at the same time knowing what we are doing and WHY we are doing it. If earning money is your number one reason or priority, this might not be easily accessible to you, but if the answer to the WHY is soaked with meaning, it will get you there almost automatically! Knowing, why you are doing what you are doing, is the key. Then allow your intuition to take the lead!
Hunting for the photographic expression of a meaningful message will lead you to decisive moments. You will know when you've got it, because you won't be in doubt anymore. The decisive moment is extremely satisfying. It has it all, it says everything (about the specific scene). The decisive moment is so rich that it makes you feel that nothing is missing to tell the story.
Light can have it's decisive moments as well, so does focus, and other aspects of photography. The more you explore it's magic, more dimensions of the decisive moments will reveal to you. If decisive moments keep being elusive on you, maybe it is time to redefine the Why and purpose of your photography, and how you are doing it. Once you know what you want, combined with alert patience, decisive moments will become more frequent.
Hunting for decisive moments driven by intuition, our senses or our instinct, as Beaumont Newhall puts it, will get you there.


Find out more about
Beaumont Newhall
Henri Cartier-Bresson

Read more about "The Decisive Moment"
Photography Challenges

View my images
Maja Moritz Photography / Sports Portfolio


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In my opinion, you cannot say you have thoroughly seen anything until you have got a photograph of it, revealing a lot of points which otherwise would be unnoticed, and which in most cases could not be distinguished. Emile Zola, 1900

(About DETAIL and MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY)

I just started a summer series of marco shots, and my friend, in whose garden we were taking the pictures, expressed his surprise about the results later by email "You don't realize how beautiful the flowers are until you see this detail". That is exactly what Emile Zola conveyed more than hundred years ago. Photography, and macro photography in particular, offer this privilege of the exceptional close look. A whole new world unfolds before your eyes, normally invisible because of the fleeting transient ephemeral nature of life's moments or simply because we are unable to look close enough. Photography has the power to bring eternity to a moment of life. The ability to freeze a split second, and make it last, allows us to escape the rush of time, stop and review. The frozen moment can make a variety of meaningful layers visible, which have the potential to take you into another dimension of understanding. Significant moments, filtered from life's flow by photography, have made history or are just gifting us daily delight, making it possible to enjoy the very special smile on the face of a loved one over and over again. A photograph may suddenly make us realize something about others or about ourselves which we hadn't noticed before. We could judge the quality of a photograph by how much it is able to tell us. Macro photography opens the eyes for detail and beauty which normally eludes our perception. By emphasizing what we normally don't see, it fascinates. Either way, the fascination is sparked by surprise about seeing things in a new and different way.


Find out more about
Emile Zola

Read more about Macro Photography
Photography Challenges

View my images
Maja Moritz Photography / Macro Portfolio


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