The big picture

At my daughter’s school, they told a story about how when we like something, there are usually some aspects of that “thing” that, while not pleasant by themselves, can be tolerated or even enjoyed when taken as part of the entire experience. For example, we may love our puppy, and because of that we learn to like waking up early to take him for a walk, which is a part of the experience of having a puppy.

I recently came across a similar concept in Charles Duhigg’s “Smarter Faster Better” in the context of psychology of motivation. During basic training, when faced with particularly gruelling exercises or harsh conditions, the US Marines are taught to ask each other questions containing the word “why?” This is done to focus the attention on the underlying motivation for doing the big job and to add meaning to the seemingly meaningless, tedious task at hand.

This techniques is effective in many settings, but it is particularly useful in creative endeavours. In photography, for example, the most fun part of the project might be to shoot beautiful subjects or to receive the compliments on our work. Getting to these fun stages, however, requires significant background work in terms of planning, production and post-processing. Doing many of these tedious tasks can easily snuff out the initial motivation for the project, unless we remind ourselves in the process, that it is all part of the big picture and a necessary component of getting to the really enjoyable part.

I experienced a perfect case of this during my trip to Japan a few years ago, where I had an unplanned opportunity to photograph ukai in a small historic town of Inuyama, close to Nagoya. Ukai is a fascinating traditional way of fishing that uses trained cormorants, who chase the fish underwater, catch it and then release it to their human handlers. I really wanted to see the process, take pictures, and show them to people, but in order to do this, I had to wait for several hours for the ukai tour to start. The waiting itself, in the humid heat of the Japanese summer, with heavy photo gear on my back, in the town where all tourist attractions were located within a couple of blocks (and most of which I had visited by that time) could have been quite miserable. However, I knew that it was a part of the entire experience, and in retrospect, I enjoyed it almost as much as watching the fishing itself and capturing one of my most popular photographs to date.

Another example, where the tedious part is integral to the entire experience, is travel. Dealing with pre-trip planning and arranging the logistics can be stressful. On the positive side, this preliminary stage not only makes the destination more enjoyable when we get there, but it also becomes a significant part of the travel experience itself by priming us (through anticipation) to what we are going to see, eat, and photograph. In order to appreciate this stage, we need to remind ourselves why are going on the trip as we are booking tickets, packing the bags and standing in line at the airport. Not all parts of travelling are equally fun, but all can be enjoyed if we remain conscious of the big picture.