Take another shot

From capturing a special moment, to taking screenshots or even just checking our teeth for food 😅, cameras play a huge role in our everyday lives. So much so, that it’s easy to treat these devices as an extension of ourselves, and completely take the magic of photography for granted.

The cameras of today represent an incredible history of change, creativity, and innovation. And if we cast our minds back to the days of analog cameras, family photo albums, polaroids, and ‘Kodak moments,’ we might just discover some powerful life lessons within the simple act of taking a photo:

Focus

The art of photography invites us to be curious and playful with composition:

What elements will I choose to include (or exclude) from the frame?
What do I want to draw attention to?
What will become the background vs the foreground?

These questions help us make active, creative choices, and that’s exactly what we need to do when it comes to our mindset.

Now, with the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it’s easy for our brain’s negativity bias to take over. Before we know it, we’re distracted, seeing problems instead of possibilities, or leaning into judgement instead of curiosity.

But just like adjusting the focus on a camera lens, we have a choice in the ‘composition’ of our perspective. We can decide to find the good, practicing play and gratitude towards the simple things, be it the smell of our morning coffee, or the joy of spotting dogs that look like their owners.

Develop

Life presents us with its fair share of struggles and setbacks. But just like a darkroom, where negatives are transformed into beautiful images with the right tools and techniques, we too have the power to turn our crucible moments into opportunities for learning and growth.

Our greatest growth comes from our darkest times, and by flexing our mindset muscles, we can start to see life’s challenges as a chance to really get to know ourselves.

Go again

Once upon a time, film was expensive, which put an element of pressure or consequence behind each shot. It’s said that Buster Keaton had 6 individual cameramen capturing the infamous train wreck scene in the 1926 silent classic The General, making it the most expensive stunt in silent film history. With the real bridge and locomotive destroyed in the process, there was exactly one chance to get it right. Not a shot they were going to risk missing!

Today, digital technology allows us to take hundreds of photos in a matter of seconds - with much lower stakes. If a shot doesn’t work out, we simply try again, often having a laugh at ourselves along the way…

Well, the same applies when we’re going after our goals and dreams!

Don’t be disheartened if you take a leap, and don’t quite land where you expect. As we see in just about every hero’s journey on the silver screen, the real adventure is in learning to pick yourself up, dusting yourself off and giving it another crack.