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Q&A With the Authors

We would love to hear from you. Please post your questions about contemplative photography, comments about the book, or other observations about contemplative mind and life. We will do our best to respond to whatever you post. (Please keep in mind that we are running as fast as we can, and may not get to this as soon we would like.)

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Recent Questions and Answers:

Sharing Photos, Technical Question

Submitted by Diane Metzger
Question: 

Dear Andy and Michael, Thank you so much for your photographs, for the book and for passing these teachings on to all of us. It's been very inspiring. Using my first digital camera (Canon SX220, a compact), I've been doing the exercises in the book. Not being technically inclined, I've used only the auto setting, which until yesterday seemed great. Following the instructions in your book, I made a few small adjustments to the colour balance of some of the best photos, using my computer's iPhoto software (no PhotoShop), and took those images to the camera store that sold me the camera, to see how they would look as prints. Maybe I got a little ahead of myself, because they didn't come out well at all. They look very little like those very clear images when viewed on my computer. The camera sales people said the camera needs to be set up a certain way (at least for size) before taking any photos, that it needs to be manually adjusted for each photo outside a limited range of light, and then each photo usually needs to be adjusted in PhotoShop to balance the colours, darks and lights, etc. So my question is this: How far can one go with Miksang as an arts practice, using a non-DSLR camera and without mastering the technicalities of using a camera and purchasing and learning PhotoShop? I realize this is beyond the basic view of Miksang as a practice of seeing. But you seem to be encouraging readers to share our vision and delightful discoveries with others. So that's what this question is about, both sharing online and as prints on paper.

Answer: 

Thanks for this interesting question. There are a lot of variables involved in printing photographs, so it will be hard to give a comprehensive answer, but it sounds like the people at the camera store exagerated the difficulties.
You do need to make sure the file size is sufficently for the size of print you want to make. You should be able to find out how to set the size in the camera's manual. You should also read the second appendix in the The Practice of Contemplative Photography, to learn how to adjust the levels of your images. That should help a lot.
There is no problem using iPhoto for preparing images for printing, in fact, Photoshop is probably overkill for most of us.
Fianally, you might need to adjust your expectations. The inherent differences between the way images appear on computor monitors and on paper make the computer images seem more luminous.

Before I start

Submitted by Zsolo
Question: 

Dear Andy and Michael, I'm so greatful for this book. Thank you so much! For me in Hungary (as André Kertész :) ) is a little bit difficult to get to a miksang workshop. So far I've been learning from the site and from the net. But now I can start working on this on a much deeper level. Really greatful for publishing! I think with this you gave the opportunity to a much wider public!!! But before I really start the assignments, I have a couple questions (this is so great opportunity also!) - I noticed that you didn't give titles to the pictures in the book, and here you have to. Why is that so? - When I read the colour assignment first I thought that I should declare at the beginning which colour I'm looking after. But I think I misunderstood. Or is that an idea also? - Is it important to take the assignments in order along with book? And my most important question is: - As I undersand the goal is to notice the flash of perceptions and to be with it. The assignments focus on one or the other quality of these flashes. But what if I for instance go out and take on the colour assignment and during that time a flash comes that is rather belong to another assignment: space. I notice something clear space. Should I ignore this and move on as I'm out to shoot colour right now, or should I take a break and focus on that aspect of flashes also? Maybe at the beginning I should rather stick with the given assignment? Thank you dearly your answers! Zsoló

Answer: 

Hi Zsoló,
Thanks for your generous message. We're delight that the Practice of Contemplative Photography is hitting its mark!
For techinical reasons, we needed to have people put titles on their pictures on the site, so that they could be identified. We sometimes need to put discriptive titles on our own work, for the same reason, but titles often seem to give an unnecessary conceptual twist to images, and we prefer to let the images do the communicating on their own.
When you are doing the color assignment, you don't need to look for particular colors. Whatever color provokes the flash is just fine. Likewise, when you are doing an assignment, and you have a strong flash of perception that is not related to the assignment, go with the flash; do the visual discernment; then form the equivalent. The purpose of the assignments is to give people reference points to provoke flashes of perception.
Having said that, try to be faithful to the assignments when you are setting out. If your intention is vague when you are training, your seeing will probably also be vague.
—Andy

The Book

“This is not your usual ‘how to be a better photographer’ book. It takes you into deeper water. It requires investigation and commitment to areas new to you. Among other things, you will think about perception in new ways. If you read this book with care, and without skepticism, it will radically expand your thinking, seeing, and photography.”

—Jay Maisel, photographer
and author of Light on America