Non-Photography Day (Putting down my tools of leisure/enjoyment... for today only)

I very much wanted to wake up early to go out to take the morning sunrise at either Changi Broadwalk or Punggol Beach this morning, but again, I woke up late again. I guess the cough medication is a real knockout.

I really wanted to go out to shoot something today but maybe I was tired out from yesterday outing. I literally feel no mood to shoot, what a contradicting feeling. So as I was thinking should I go out to shoot today and surfing CS at the same time, I stumble upon this thread/article about having 17th July as a Non-Photography day. More details can be found in this website.

Quote: "Why put down your camera on 17th July?

Non-photography day is an effort on my part to revive the moment by putting down the camera. It is a day to think about how life exists, in essence and not appearance and to understand the inadequacy of the photograph in describing this essence, to bring awareness of the perils of living through the view finder or the display screen...

This day was made after trekking through the Jungle on the Thailand/Burma Border with a group of travellers. As you would expect we came across many wonderful views, villages and creatures on our way; however I noticed that the people around me were living in these moments through their camera, and as soon as we stopped and were still, all reached for their camera

I felt my fellow travellers rarely really appreciated the essence of the moment they were in or engaged in any relationship between themselves and the places we stopped. They were more concerned with gaining the pattern the camera made. I felt sad for them, as it seemed they were missing out on so much reality through their obsession, an act of possession- of wanting to own the appearance of the place, as if this was all it had to give and photographs were their way of taking it.

‘The thing is there before our eyes, for it refuses to be ignored; but when we endeavour to grasp it within our own hands in order to examine it more closely or systematically, it eludes us and we lose it’s track’

D.T Suzuki- Essays in Zen Buddhism

This echoed in the streams of images people showed me, the only thing I could grasp from the images was that the person had been present in this location, somehow the stories, the perceived magic of the places never emerged. I concluded that through this use of photography, people's natural creativity with communication was and is being lost. "

After reading the article and thinking to myself. I couldn't help but to agree with it, so I decided to put down my tools of leisure/enjoyment (for today only) and I went to National Library instead and pick up some books to read and was in the library for the whole day (Got no choice as my cousin is coming home from NZ today, I don't want her to come back and see me at home and tell my parents that I am not working today).

That is how I spend the whole of today... Hiding in the library. Gesh...

Anyway, hope to be able to go out to shoot tomorrow or the day after or the day after next or ...