The Book of Eyespiration

At this moment I am writing the Book of Eyespiration. My story about How to Meditate with Eyes Open will be published as an e-book first, later it will also become available as a printed book. Eyespiration: Let the world inspire you to take better pictures without a fancy camera. 

Looking for some Eyespiration? Look up!

The Book of Eyespiration - An introduction

Chapter 5. Photo Walk
You can find inspiration by solo walking. Go for a photo walk by yourself whenever possible. Lunch Walk. Early-Morning-Dropped-Kids-at-School Walk. Just Walk. I never feel lonely when I do and next to meeting nice people, you’ll find great innerpeace. When walking alone, sooner or later you’ll get to the point that you feel you are Meditating with Eyes Open.

Try to walk without thoughts distracting you. Try not to judge what you see, just walk. Look for nice details and intriguing visuals on your way. When you stop listening to your Monkey Mind you’ll start to use the Fresh, Pure eye. This is called Miksang in Tibetan. Buddhists know the moment you no longer judge or think about what you see, the Beauty of Life will appear. Miksang is also called mind stopping perception.

Eyespiration requires a silent mind. Therefore I prefer the word Mind-Emtpy-Ness to MindFullNess. If you can silence your jabbering Monkey Brain, you will open up the mind, body and soul to receive positive, calming energy just by Seeing the Beauty of Life. The moment you See a beautiful composition, you will Be in the Moment. The Eyespiration Moment or E-moment. When you are in this state, you See. 

You have learned how to create a beautiful composition with your camera in the previous chapters. If you do not want to take photograps, you can also take a mind picture. Now let’s go outside to create an E-moment!

San Francisco Bay Trail, a great track from Golden Gate Bridge to Fort Mason

When walking I passed the white houses and noticed the sky, palm trees and people. But: I also noticed the shadow of the palm tree on the wall. To create the photo on the right I picked the best point of view and cropped all unnecessary elements from the final image. E-Moment!

If I like a place, I like to hang out for a bit, letting it all in. I try not to judge what I see, just let emotions guide me. Like when you are waiting in line, try not to judge what’s happening. [Why isn’t this queue moving] Everywhere you go there’s something worthwile to See. But you have to make sure you silence your brain. Try to Meditate with Eyes Open. Be in the Moment, See.

Remember, you don’t always have to take a photo. If you are at a place and you See something but can’t reach for your camera quick enough, make a mind picture. Just experience the beauty of that Moment. Enjoy Life.


Eyespiration Prompt: Use Shadow

A shadow always adds something mysterious to your photo. Use the light. Not only the sun creates shadows, also an indoor lamp can. Look around you, up and down. Play with shapes.

• Best time of day: early morning or late afternoon

• Isolating a shadow too much can be boring

• Use lamp light

• Often a photo with a shadow tells a story in one image

• Don’t forget to look behind you

The Book of Eyespiration can be pre ordered via Eyespiration.com. First 1000 downloads will be free! Sign up for the newsletter and stay tuned for the release date. Eye See You!

#Eyespiration: How to get blue sky in photos

When you are on holiday you want your photos to show the local beauty of the place you're staying at. But sometimes on a sunny day it seems you can't take a photo of the blue sky, the sky turns out pale, white.

How to take photos with blue sky:

- Position of the sun. The most important advice is to make sure to have the sun behind you when you take a photo. The more you are facing the sun, the paler the sky will be

- Contrast. Put e.g. a white or light colored object like a building in the front of the composition. Your camera will automaticly adjust the sky into a darker blue

- Morning or evening light. All colors are more intense at this time of day

- Polarizing filter. With using a polarization filter on a mirror-less or an dslr camera lens, the blue and other colors deepen

- Instagram. Photo editing apps and other retouching software will make colors come out better

If you turn your camera in the direction of the sun, you'll see a change of the colour of the sky. The more you turn towards the sun, the paler the sky. Buildings turn out sallow and grey. Especially in the middle of the day, when the sun's at her highest point, the light is very bright. Try to take photos early morning or later in the day, when the light is softer.

Blue sky: sun in my back, building in front creating more contrast

Blue sky: turning towards the sun the blue gets paler

Blue Sky: opposite of photo 1, the sky is pale, white and buildings grey and dark

We all want to take photos showing the best of our holiday. What's more beautiful than walking through a town and take photos of little, white houses against a dark blue sky? Blue sky is the ultimate holiday image, like a photo of the sea, feet in the sand or a selfie with a cocktail in our hand.

With your smartphone you can always adjust photos in an easy way. There are a lot of apps and even when posting a photo on Facebook or Twitter you can adjust the photo before posting with just one click. My favorite is Instagram. Ofcourse you can always use professional software afterwards, but wanting to retouch all 500 holiday pics might be a bit much.

Polarizing filter

With using a polarization filter on a mirror-less or an dslr camera lens, the blue and other colors deepen. Disadvantage: when bringing more than one lens, you'll need to buy more filters, as often lenses don't have the same diameter. Advantage: all colors look better, e.g. green is greener and especially a blue sky with white clouds will look dramaticly darker, a special effect coming out great with landscape pictures. Another advantage is the reflection in windows will dissapear when you use it, though I do like using this reflection in my photos. 

Backlight

Though sometimes using the sun in the back can create a beautiful photo. Backlight photos, photos taken towards the sun showing mostly shade of the subject, are fun too!

Clouds will enhance the dramatic appearance of blue sky over a landscape

Published in Dutch on Vakantieboulevard.nl 

How to choose from a 1000 holiday pics

How to choose the perfect photo series from a trip? When you took a 1000 photos or more, how do you choose the right photo story, e.g. to create a photo book?

Being an analog photographer from the 90's, I know how to work without this luxury problem of the digital era. We used film, 36 exp. max and on most occasions, even weddings, we used only 8 to 10 rolls. We just never made it to the 1000.

Now what can you do cut down the number of photos:

1. Try not to shoot that 1000 photos. Really, limit yourself to a certain number of photos per day or occasion, let's say 25 max. This can be done and will make you more aware of which moment you really want to capture.

2. Delete the bad ones immediately.

3. After the holiday or wedding let the photos simmer for a while. When you look at them with a fresh mind a few days later, choosing will be easier and will go much faster.

4. Divide the photos in topics. Start by sorting the best photos of the places you went to, and choose max. 10-20 per topic. Ofcourse this depends on the trip. A beach holiday has less 'places' by number than a six-week jungle trekking.

5. Not more than 80 pages per album. After 25 pages most of your audience will be bored. The best choice is 40 to 60 pages, with 80 to 100 photos in total. If you're really want to challenge less is more, create an album with only 20 pages/40 photos.

6. Or just pick one. Think of the iconic photos you know, often those single photos tell a complete story. Why do you need more pics to tell yours? Your goal: only to take epic photographs.

7. Learn how to tell a story. Invest in a course or workshop to learn about the tips & tricks of picking the right photo.

Don't go for just postcard landscapes, zoom in, take close-ups of details you noticed

When you do take a landschape photo, try to find something different, like these shades of umbrellas without sunbeds

All these pictures were made by our 11 year old son: look fresh, with pure eyes 

Children look at life in a pure way. The greatest gift is to learn how to see fresh.

Invest in storytelling with Artstudio23. If you still cannot choose, we will be more than happy to create your holiday or wedding album for you. With nearly 20 years of experience, Artstudio23 knows which photo works best and which ones to skip. It's all in the eye. Melanie & Hans know how to see life with pure eyes.