This four-week contemplative photography course invites participants to slow down, rediscover everyday beauty, and recover a sense of childlike wonder, curiosity, and awe. Using Glen Schneider’s Ten Breaths to Happiness as a gentle guiding framework, the class explores how attention, gratitude, and presence can be cultivated through the simple act of seeing. Photography in this course is not about technique or “getting the shot.” It is about learning to receive images—about noticing what is already here and allowing ordinary moments to become quietly luminous. Any camera, including a smartphone, is welcome. No prior experience is needed.

Course Intentions - This course is designed to help participants:

· Slow down and become more present to their everyday lives

· Reawaken curiosity, wonder, and a sense of awe

· Cultivate gratitude and appreciation for ordinary moments

· Develop a kinder, less judgmental relationship with creativity

· Use photography as a tool for mindfulness, reflection, and well-being

· Begin to carry this way of seeing into daily life beyond the class

Guiding Philosophy

This course is rooted in a simple conviction: the way we pay attention shapes the way we experience our lives. Much of our suffering comes not from what is present, but from what we rush past, overlook, or stop noticing. Contemplative photography offers a gentle antidote to this habit of hurry. Instead of using the camera to capture or control, we learn to use it as a tool for presence, listening, and appreciation. Images are not taken—they are received. By slowing down and learning to see more kindly and more clearly, participants begin to rediscover a sense of wonder, gratitude, and quiet belonging in the ordinary moments of their own lives.