Why I Take Photos

Ive always loved taking photographs but this blog has acted as a great tool in my ability to share what I see. I have ak to thank for setting up the site and for the continued support, cheers.

Without this outlet it has been difficult for me to see what I truly enjoy about taking photographs. Of course, like most people I enjoy the many settings that I can play with and I like using my zoom (thats an understatement) and the random basic features on my camera. It seems however, that even though at the time I find it interesting to play with these settings my main goal is to produce something that I enjoy and that more importantly I feel I want to share.

I realized that regardless of how many visitors I have on the site I feel like I can express my views. I can share my perspectives and my feelings through photography. The mere fact that I can share something that I appreciate makes taking photographs that much sweeter.

A camera is like a thought and its image the actualization of this thought and without a reaction to this image the thought is but a useless thought.

Thx to Ami for catching me in my moment of inspiration :)

Escapism ?

Are we an escapist type of society ? escapist type of individuals ?

In hard times most of us don't want to face reality because we don't know how to handle ourselves, most of all our own thoughts. I realized that many outlets are provided to us to "escape" our troubles. Whether its going to a movie, shopping, taking a vacation, listening to music, keeping busy, drinking, or even meditating. Then I asked myself do we actually ever succeed in escaping our problems ?

We may temporarily succeed but in actuality our troubles will always be there until we learn to accept the problem and choose to devote some time to reflect on what triggers us. These outlets can definitely be vehicles to ease the pain however when done excessively it can take us so far away from our own reality that we no longer know how to come back. I think Ive come to realize that using all these other outlets except for meditation can be good only for a short period of time. I believe that meditation is different from all other outlets as it forces one to reflect on ones life purpose and issues instead of temporarily masking our truth. Meditation allows one to come face to face with truth, It enables an individual to open ones heart and actually feel what it is that awakens us.

Reasoning & Happiness, Gibran's Painting

Contemplating on my essay question.

Q: The philosophes of the French Enlightenment claimed that through reason and science individuals are more happy and humane.

I havent examined the humane and scientific aspect of it as yet but I have thought about whether reason makes us more happy as individuals. After several chats with my friends I came to realize that we firstly need to define what we mean by reason. In most cases reasoning can be understood as something that justifies an act. When we contemplated on how much an act could be justifiable my friends and I had opposing views. For some, reasoning can be understood as the suppression of emotions and simply deducing what "logically" makes sense. Thus, understanding that anything that makes sense is the "correct" act. Through some reflection I realized that just because something might seem logical it does not mean that it is correct, it doesnt always justify the act. My friend then brought up the concept of emotional rationalization, which at first I thought was a joke and an oxymoron. It turns out that there is such a concept. Emotional rationalization seeks to make decisions based on what one feels. Allowing those feelings to engage in the decision process and enabling an individual to use both the mind and the emotions to justify the act. Im sure there is more to this concept and it should be explored further. For the time being ill get back to my question, does reasoning make people more happy? I believe that when emotions are taken out of the equation it automatically reduces the possibility for an individual to be happy on the other hand I believe that if one is to solemnly make decisions on emotions this could also lead to the extreme opposite. I dont know if reasoning has made people more happy than they were previously (this is assuming that people back in the day didn't use reasoning which is another discussion on its own) but to some extent one can state that perhaps it wont make you happier because if we understood reasoning by the first definition given then by default removing oneself from the emotion that brings about happiness can lead one to be less happy. This then brings us to ask what is happiness ...oh man, this is gonna be a long essay. More thoughts on this later.