How To Use Mindfulness to Improve your Portrait Photography

To mark World Mental Health Day, let’s hear from photographer, author and mindfulness coach Kim Fuller. Inspired by meeting the Dalai Lama, Kim started connecting mindfulness and photography. In this article, Kim explains how being in the moment and building a connection with your subject could help you shoot better portraits—while improving your own mental health too. Over to you, Kim.

It wasn’t until I started practising Buddhism and mindfulness in 2006 that I realised looking through the lensesof my camera, prepared me for going deeper into the practice of understanding what I see and what I make it all mean.   Photography is one of the few mediums that captures the truth. That truth, however, is as selective to the photographer as it is to a mindfulness practitioner. That truth is always there, but it’s what we choose to focus on that makes our world what it is. 

I was on a photography assignment at a local university, to take photos of a lecture by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. I had been shooting for this university for many years, so I thought I’d get an all-access pass to the Dalai Lama as he entered the huge lecture tent and during his pre-lecture lunch with the president of the university. My ego was shattered when I realised someone else would get that privilege. I was told to sit in a seat at the edge of the aisle, three rows back from the stage and not to move. I was upset and thought I would never get the shots I had imagined. However, when the Dalai Lama entered the back of the tent, I felt my energy shift.

At that moment, for some reason, I put my camera down. He was right there. My opportunity to get photos of him up close was finally there—but I rested my camera in my lap. 

He then turned to me and looked me right in the eyes and took my hand in his. I felt as if pure love was holding me at that moment and my previously annoyed ego was gone. I burst into tears as he ‘saw’ me at that moment. Nothing else mattered as this compassionate human being showed me what it means to be present for someone else. Me. 

I began my studies in Buddhism and mindful meditation the next day.

The more I meditated and began to understand what it means to be fully present, I started giving more of my attention to my portrait clients in this way.  As they entered my studio, I took time and talked with them, got to know their personality and instead of having a strongly held idea of how the shoot would go, I allowed the session to unfold in a more relaxed way. It gave my clients permission and the freedom to show up with more presence and ease. 

When I was more present and mindful of the person, the surroundings and what could be possible for the outcome, I felt I could get more natural and authentic portraits. 

I then developed something called the P.A.U.S.E. method. When you begin to photograph:

Pause. Slow down, and take some deep breaths.  Be present in the here and now. This could be when you are connecting with a client or when you are looking for something to shoot.

Be aware of how you are feeling and your state of mind. This helps you notice what you bring to your shoot. Anger, joy or high expectations can cloud your experience and take you out of the present moment.

Understand what are you projecting onto the object of your attention. Is it your desires, ideas, conditioning and previous experiences around the subject, and what you deem worthy of photographing? Or can you see with a clear mind and take time to notice the possibility of an interesting shot? For example, when you see a wall on the side of a building, you may walk right by because you find it boring and ordinary. But what is possible? Can you see the colours, lines, shapes, or textures from cracks and of course how the light is hitting that wall? You can start to understand that the wall is only what you make it. It can go from ordinary to extraordinary.

Shift your perspective. When you are photographing an object or person, try different lenses, angles, the height you shoot from and how far or close you are to the subject. Notice what you leave out of the frame and what you include that makes the image more impactful or dynamic. We tend, in life and through our camera, to see things with blinders on. We don’t think outside of our box. This shifting awakens you to greater possibilities for your photos as well as your relationships with people and objects.

Release expectations and explore new ways to see. Go back to pausing and slowing down, letting go of what or how you want to shoot, so you can find the beauty that exists all around you. It may show up in patterns on the street or lines on someone’s face. Practice shooting with a more present and clear mind, which frees you to find ordinary things and make them extraordinary by framing them with this new perspective. This builds gratitude for the ordinary things in your life.

Clicking the shutter button is the act of capturing a very selective moment that only you can choose. The photo becomes a visual memory and what you select to focus on, whether through the lens of the camera or without the camera, shapes your mindset. When you notice ordinary things in life and pause to take them in, you program the mind to see the beauty all around you. 

Imagine finding a beautiful pattern on the street you walk on every day and creating an abstract image through your camera lens. You will never walk by that pattern again and not appreciate the street and the beauty it has offered you. 

When you pause for your portrait subjects, you begin to see the true nature of that human and how, when you strip away your expectations and conditioning, you’re able to connect on a pure and more compassionate level. Like the Dalai Lama did for me.

Thanks, Kim. You can read more about how photography can support your mental health in our interview with Chris Nowell.