Intentional Play

Somewhere between aimless play and carefully crafted planning and execution lies intentional play. This is when there is a potential pre-conceived outcome, but also complete openness to any and all outcomes – all equally enjoyable along the path. And the path is the purpose, so included in the possible outcomes is nothing. More simply put, the purpose of intentional play is the play and the results are surprising gifts when and if they arise. This is how Mason and I have been approaching our photography the last few days…

Pipes and Hoses

Mason is enjoying playing with all of my various photography toys and interesting optics so I pulled out a small copper pipe and little chunk of what looks like a water hose for a camper. For scale, they are about 1-1.5” in diameter.

I picked these up several years ago to use for my own intentional play with photography during a macro photography workshop. When held up to the front of a lens and aimed at some sort of light source (typically the sun) they pick up the light and create all sorts of interesting effects. Christmas lights give their own cool effects.

The copper pipe gives a more sharply defined ring effect, like Mason’ image at the top of this post, whereas the hose creates more striations, depending on the angle it is held at. The threads in the tubing catch the light in all sorts of interesting ways, like this image…

Intentional Play

When I gave these tools to Mason to try, he approached it just like I have – with a whole lot of interest in discovering What If, and no goal to make anything in particular, or even anything at all. With that approach, there’s almost always some cool surprise that comes of it. Bravo, Mason! Your images are spectacular!

Curious to know what would happen with them stacked together, he had me make an image of my own, today’s Project 31 photograph. The copper ring created the brighter, more well-defined ring right around the ornament and the hose created the rest. What an interesting way to view our Christmas tree!

Intentional Play with Recovery

This is a similar approach I’ve adopted to my surgery recoveries, especially this last one where I am n of 1 and there is no precedent or protocol. Free from restrictive expectations or comparison, I have space to play and discover what my body can/cannot do, explore new ways of moving, test this angle, what if this, what if that – every single day. Intentional play with an objective, but no judgment if it does not go a particular way and enjoyment of the discovery process.

Next Up?

For you, go do some intentional play today. For me? I’m going to introduce Mason to freelensing, another style of photography with limitless possibilities, completely guided by the mindset of intentional play.

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