EUREKA!!!!!!!!!!

I just had an absolute epiphany, surprisingly enough from something we learned in class. I am working on my machine and doing some research about Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's psychology of FLOW. I find myself constantly yearning for a moment to be alone, to relax to have no pressing obligation, then once that rare day finally arrives I can find no satisfaction. Yet I am still craving something. I finally realized that I crave FLOW! I have experienced FLOW many times, especially when I act or write. And I cannot get enough. I just realized that whenever I get a day off, or go visit my family and lie around and watch TV the feeling of satisfaction and loss of self-consciousness, that zone that I would die to be in, is FLOW. It is crazy that it has taken me so long to realize this. 

I experience FLOW the most when I take photos. I am addicted to photography. I got my camera, a Nikon d50 about 2 years ago and have been teaching myself ever since. Now I am taking my first intro class and I feel like I am exploding with ideas that I just cannot keep in my mind! Every assignment I find unable to stop even after I turn in the project. I just keep on with the subject matter and let it expand. The worst part of all is having to turn in just 3 of each category to my professor. I can NEVER decide what to turn in, I want to use all of them. 

FLOW is absolutely the best feeling in the world. When I set up a shoot, even from the moment I receive an assignment and start brainstorming what I am going to do, I am in a zone. All of my senses join forces and focus only on the photos I am taking, the person or object I am using my thoughts are like fluid running through my mind and to my hands which in turn make everything happen. I even adore the editing process. I can sit in front of my computer hours past the time when it starts burning my legs just absorbed in editing them, seeing how far I can stretch them, what I can change them into. Then posting them on my photography website and sharing with other photographers and seeing where their FLOW process takes them. Hey speaking of my website...here is a link if you would like to take a look!!

Lauren Reilly Photography