The Art of Focus: How Photography Techniques Can Enhance Your Life

Every weekend, I do the same thing. It starts on Friday, with me mistakenly viewing the upcoming weekend as two days where I can work on all the things I can't get done during the week. I make a list of what I want to do between Saturday morning and Sunday night, and I invariably get a little carried away, as in I include more things than any one individual could possibly do in a 48-hour time period. And then I feel stressed about everything on my list, and by Sunday night I am annoyed at myself because of everything I didn't do. And at the same time, I dismiss everything I did get done. My focus is all out of whack.

Two of the most important things to learn when you get into photography are how to compose your photo, and getting your focus right. If either one of these aspects is off, it throws off your entire image. Every photo tells a story, but if your viewer doesn't know what to pay attention to, your story gets lost. A scattered image means that nothing stands out, or the wrong thing becomes the focus and the actual point disappears. But when you nail composition and focus, then the story of your image leaps out at you.

Focus in photography literally tells the viewer what to pay attention to, and it is essential not just for the sake of the viewer, but because it is an intimate tie between the viewer and the photographer. The focus of the photo is an insight into how the photographer views the world, and/or the people in it. Using focus, I can show you how I see flowers, or how a sunset makes me feel. I can show you what I treasure in my relationship with my husband or my kids, or what I see when I look at someone else. Through focus, you can look through my eyes and see what I see.

When I'm taking a photo, knowing what to focus on seems so simple. I know what I was drawn to, and it's just a matter of figuring out the best way to showcase that. I have a clear vision of what I want, and I can single-mindedly drown out everything else. But when it comes to focusing on what's important in my life, all that clarity goes away. Suddenly, I am feeling scattered, with none of the elements in proper focus. I don't know where to look, and I feel frustrated and confused.

With photography, I start with a goal, a basic idea of what I want, and then I go from there. I remove anything that doesn't contribute to the image in my head, while making sure to include everything that's important. This ensures that the viewer knows exactly what to pay attention to, and it is part of the creative fun for me. It's so satisfying when I get it right! I feel a literal adrenaline rush every time.

But when I don't know what to focus on in my life, inevitably everything goes sideways. The things that I want to highlight get overshadowed, and the things that don't really contribute to what I'm wanting to create get much too much focus. Not only am I not clear on what to pay attention to, but no one else really knows what's important to me, either. I say that my family and spending time in nature are my priorities, but if you looked at how I spend my time, or what is on my weekend to-do list, family time and exploring the outdoors don't even make the top ten. My words and my actions don't match, and it creates dissonance in both my internal and external worlds.

I don't want this to be the case anymore. I want to put my attention on the things that matter most to me, and remove the things that are actually extra. I need to bring more alignment to my life, and this means creating space for what my heart wants to prioritize. I'm starting with my to-do list, that monster that takes over my energy every weekend. I'm going to practice doing what I do every time I pick up my camera--take in everything around me, and then filter down to what I actually want to focus on. In this way, maybe I can get back to what it is I want to create in my life. More time to daydream. More reading. More writing and photography. More adventure and exploration. More time in nature. And many more family memories.