The level one training helped me see we don't need all the baggage to be good photographers.

I think we all inherently respond to art made from a wakeful state and if commercial photography is our calling, there is market value for this type of sight. I somehow trust this.

I have some thoughts on image editing, as it is something I contemplate it a lot. I have tried both Aperture and Lightroom and don't use either. Life is too short for the level of complexity they present. I do not dwell in the realm of image ratings or geo-tagging, and I find the slick interfaces just too much to handle.

I only use iPhoto. It is all quite simple. I have an event for each month that goes all the way back to my days in Halifax, as well as an event for all my scans of 35mm slides. As the month goes by, I take a look at what I have and edit down to the images with presence and juice and happily let go of the ones that do not. After a couple of months I go back to an event and see how it stands and usually take out a few more that did not stand the test of time. Most of my monthly events over the past year have been narrowed down to 50 – 60 images from the original batch. I have no problem with backing up images. My iPhoto Library is backed up each day via Time Machine. Very simple indeed. If I want to print something, I revert to the original and output it to Photoshop. If I want to do a daily photo, I size it for the web (650 pixels) and send it to my desktop.

To me, editing is a joy and journey and complex cataloging programs such as these take the joy out of it. So what interests me the most is how to keep what I really want and rid myself of what is extraneous, and that is what I would really like to discuss as it is such an essential part of the Miksang Journey.

It is always such a relief to boil things down to the very essence (like reduction cooking). Julie and I were cleaning out kitchen cupboards and the garage recently and the same thing came up again ad again. Do we really need this? How many pots or vases or hammers does one really need? Were we holding on to some dish for sentimental reasons that we would probably never use? Now it is wonderful to go to the pots and pans drawer and find the ones that have good quality and that we actually use, rather than having to pull or push the ones we never use out of the way. I went through a drawer of steak knives recently and realized that half of them could not cut through a lemon – I was just mindlessly holding on to them, so they are gone, and now when I go for a knife, I know it will cut through paper, let alone a lemon. Perhaps it is where I am in my life, but this seems to be the basic thrust – keep things refined and keep what I have some connection and passion for.

In terms of my editing process I have a couple of ways of working. I shoot every day, which becomes an event in iPhoto. The next morning before I send out a daily image, I go through the event and with a fresh mind take a hard look. In doing so I ask myself if I can still connect to the moment – does the image truly express my experience of seeing? Did I get caught in some conceptual trap and fall right into an infamous 'cute alert' pit? Was I able to use the camera and lens properly and form the actual equivalent, or was I sloppy with exposure or depth of field? And beyond this I ask myself – 'If I died today and this was the last batch of images I ever took, would I be pleased to leave them behind? I try and do this each morning.

If we are travelling, at the end of the day I do some editing and flush the ones that fell short in terms of discerning the perception or forming the equivalent. The next morning I take another look and refine further. At the end of a trip I combine all the trip events into one new one, e.g. Paris October 2009 and spend a little more time refining again. The last thing I want to do is to come home and have to face thousands of perceptions that I had weeks or months ago. I reflect on them while the experience is still recent and fresh.

As we have often stated, the only way to navigate them is to walk steadily on the two legs of genuineness and confidence. And this applies to cataloging and editing, needless to say.

Best Wishes,
Michael

Right now I'm in a database quandary due to various issues. I found Light Room to be a bit unpredictable and terrible at organization. I tried iPhoto for its simplicity but soon realized that I would run out of hard disk space and I was not able to easily archive my catalog onto external drives.

I have now been using Aperture and find it to be the most intuitive and flexible database so far. I can easily access my catalog using portable external drives on my desktop or laptop wherever I am. However, I am scared to become too entrenched in this software because of its current bugs and delays in new version updates. Right now I am waiting to see when the next version of Aperture will be released. I have so much editing to do that I can't wait much longer! Any thoughts?

I understand exactly what you're saying. I truly agree that "If our minds are open and our awareness is fully present, we can have fresh perceptions anywhere, anytime" no matter what kind of photography one is doing. I would definitely try to discipline and apply myself with all the "awareness and fresh mind" that I have when approaching whatever assignment or work I have do.

Thanks again, Julie!

Hi Julie . . . Just landed from almost a month in New Zealand and Tasmania. Incredible moments . . . incredible perceptions! However, I definitely 'wanted it all' to take back home with me! &;O To further complicate my experience . . . I had a rather impatient, moody man on my hands (who could that have been?!) and almost always felt rushed in the process. It often felt like I had to 'grab 'n go'! We did have at least one discussion regarding 'my process', but still haven't come up with a reasonable solution. From his perspective, I can only guess that it must have been something like traveling with an alcoholic when you're not one! We did move through both countries very fast (1/2 the time my lens was hanging out the car window!). And yes, NOW I do have mountains of images to edit . . . uh oh! I wish we could have had this discussion a month ago! Maybe next trip . . . timing is everything!

Hi Julianne.

Thanks for sending your comment. For many of us this is an issue we have experienced personally. If we think we can photograph to our heart’s content as we travel with our family members or other companions, and they are not passionate about photography, it is inevitable that we make them suffer and they make us suffer.

Even when travelling or just going out shooting with Miksang friends I have found that this can distract and interrupt the continuity of the experience. When Michael and I are travelling or shooting together we have to split up, and one reason is that he moves very quickly and I take my time. Different styles – different levels of experience. We both want to be able to move freely, to expand, to relax, and in my case without constantly having to feel bad for holding up the other person.

In your case you and your partner have different agendas when you travel. You want to understand your destination intimately, visually, you want to sink in, take your time and savor it. You want to explore the streets, the alleyways the underside.

He wants to get there, take it in, and move on. He is a tourist, covering as much ground as possible so as not to miss the important highlights of the place. In Miksang language, we refer to this as going from point ‘a’ to point ‘b’ and seeing little or nothing along the way. This is totally normal and understandable for someone who is not primarily visually- oriented. He’s not going to be happy waiting endlessly for you to explore your perceptions, appreciate your experience deeply and shoot photographs fully and properly. If you really want to be satisfied with travel, you need to go by yourself or with another photographer, or put away your camera.

It’s really great to go travelling everywhere, but it sounds like you’ve really had it with this struggle. It’s like going to a 5-star restaurant with an amazing feast laid before you, but being told you can’t have it, or you can only taste it when it is not an inconvenience to someone else.

Only you are holding yourself back here. You have to do it the way your partner wants or the way you want. In between that you have to deal with the tension and impatience in the atmosphere while you are shooting.

In your case, it is impossible for you not to have perceptions along with the desire to explore and express them. To be hassled about photographing these moments of perception would drive me crazy. I do really believe that all of us in the end have to look, see and photograph by ourselves. This is the best fun and it is the only way to experience the true depth of real perception.

I suggest that a solution is to split up during the day and spend the evenings together. The trick is to have communication devices so that you can stay in touch with your travel companion, to meet up for lunch, to be able to track each other’s whereabouts. I think there are IPhone apps for this now. This may be your best hope for solving this dilemma.