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Lessons from “The Zen of Creativity”

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I recently finished reading “The Zen of Creativity” by the zen master and photographer John Daido Loori. This mix of skills gave me hope the book would offer a new and fresh perspective.

The book does indeed give valuable insights into applying some of the Zen art principles to photography and other creative areas.

Here are the main takeaways I got from it:

Beginner’s Mind

Embrace a mindset free from preconceived ideas and expectations. In photography, this might mean taking the time to fully observe familiar subjects. Also, visit locations or subjects that you haven’t seen before, with no prior knowledge about them, or exposure to another photographer’s work of them.

No Mind

The goal is to achieve a state of awareness devoid of distractions --achieved through meditation and consistent practice. I believe this is a very important aspect when it comes to photography, and that’s why I often emphasize the importance of practice. The more familiar we become with our equipment, the less it gets in the way, letting us to focus on what’s in front of the camera and on what we want to say.

Seeing with the Whole Body and Mind

Be mindful of what our senses, beyond vision, perceive and how we can communicate that through our photography. Evoking emotional responses in the viewer should be our primary objective. Even not on the book, I’d also like to point out here that those senses can trick us into believing our images are better than they really are. As photographers, we have a context the viewer does not have, and if the photographs are not strong enough to convey what’s necessary, then they’ll only speak to us.

Creative Feedback

Lastly, Loori emphasizes the significance of feedback. Not on technical aspects, but on the emotional impact our work has on the audience. He believes that most artists develop their career without truly knowing what their work means for their audience, if anything. They know what the art critics say, and whether the work is commercially successful or not. But beyond that, they are blind.

I go into much more detail on this book on my Patreon page.

How to make square images

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The vast majority of my photography is in square format, and it's been this way for a few years now. In this video, I share many of things I've learned over time about the square format, as well as plenty of examples for every compositional technique.

I'm also releasing an e-book with all the information in this video, and much more! Additional compositions and many more examples.

My Patreons get the book for free. You can also purchase a copy of "How to make images in square format".

A sense of completion

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I owe photography a new way to see the world. I felt an urge to capture and share what I saw, and that’s what drove me for years. Until I published my book. For the first time, there was a sense of completion, almost as if I had accomplish my mission.

Was that it? Was I done with photography?

I wasn’t. All I needed was a break from the summer, and I finally got the perfect morning.

How to make time for photography

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One of the recurring themes in the messages I get from other photographers is about their struggle to find time for photography on a daily basis.

Today, we are so busy all the time! It's the busyness era. If you aren't doing something, you are falling behind. It's all about the hustle, right?

This is an issue I'm deeply interested in. Recently, I read the book related to this topic, Make Time, and in this video I share some of the key points from the book, along with some of my own, all applied to photography.

We'll see why we are so busy, why we need to make time for photography, the highlight of the day, and several tips to make time for photography.

How I come up with new ideas

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I love the default Notes app on iOS - because it synchronizes across all my devices, it's like having a notebook always with me.

One of the ways I use the Notes app is to capture all my thoughts and ideas, in whatever form they might happen. Every day, I create a new note and I start filling it with everything the day might bring: from a rough schedule of how I expect the day to go, to notes from books and articles I read, or podcasts I listen to, including images of stuff I find interesting, inspiring quotes, audio recordings of ideas that come to mind, and in general, anything that goes through my mind that might be useful or inspiring in the future.

Every once in a while, usually on the weekend, I'll go through my notes and pick the most interesting parts. This is how I come up with ideas for my videos / blog posts, places I want to photograph, and how I learn (some of the things I write down are good starting points to research more about the topic).

Creating space and time for bigger projects

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I've been working on a couple of books that I hope to release very soon. I started working on one of them years ago, but never found the time required to finish it and it's been a side project since then.

I realized I wasn't going to finish it ever unless I created some space and time for it. This means I had to cut down on other parts of my work, my YouTube channel to be specific. I haven't uploaded any videos for over a week now, but don't worry, there will more as soon as I'm done with these two bigger projects.

Best books I've read lately

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  • On Writing, by Stephen King. The guy knows how to write, I couldn't put it down.
  • On the shortness of life, by Seneca. 2,000 years later and the content of these three letters is still relevant. Beautiful written, too.
  • Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius. I read it as part of my study of Stoicism. Incredibly deep and humbling thoughts from the most powerful man of his time.
  • The obstacle is the way, by Ryan Holiday. A good introduction to Stoicism, and an easy read. I'm currently reading his The daily stoic.
  • Atomic Habits, by James Clear. Tips and tricks on how to build good habits and get rid of the bad ones. His is one of the very few newsletters I subscribe to and look forward to reading.
  • Buddha: a story of enlightenment, by Deepak Chopra. A book about spiritualism written by an alternative medicine advocate is probably the last thing I'd expect myself to fall in my hands. The story of Buddha is a beautiful one and this book does a terrific job. One of my favorite reads of the last few years, hands down.
  • Goodbye, things, by Fumio Sasaki. Minimalism is all the rage nowadays and I'm all on board. This was one of the first books I've read on the topic and it's still my favorite.
  • Come comida real, by Carlos Ríos. This one is in Spanish. Nutrition is another topic I've been exploring during the last few months and this book does a great job at explaining why most of the "food" you find in a grocery store isn't real food at all. It also shows the benefits of eating healthy and why you shouldn't be ashamed of it (I struggled with this!).
  • 10% Happier, by Dan Harris. How the author got into meditation and how it's helped improving his day-to-day life. Meditation and mental health is yet another topic I'm interested in, and this book is unique in that shows a person's experience with the practice, instead of a boring manual of things you should and should not do.
  • The art of creative thinking, by Rod Junkins. Stories and lessons from famous and not so famous artists. I think one should carve their own path and not necessarily repeat what others have done in the past, but I found plenty of inspiration in this book.

Building momentum

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As photographers, we often have to deal with resistance. As Steven Pressfield puts it, resistance "is a force that will stop an individual's creative activity through any means necessary", including "rationalizing, inspiring fear and anxiety".

After a long trip through Spain, France and Germany, I took a break for 3 days. It was a short one, but enough to "break the momentum" I had.

In this video, I face that resistance and try build momentum again. From beautiful Innsbruck, Austria.