My thoughts about photography

Photography means a great deal to me in terms of what I am able to share and reveal to others, but its more than just this alone. If it was only this then you could presumably say that the whole process of taking pictures and putting them on this blog is just a means to an end in that I am here just to show you what is happening in Ramadi. But for me photography is something far greater than just a tool or method to capture our existence like whats going on in Iraq. It has become something that continually changes and alters me personally as a human being and not only in terms of the way I think and feel about life but also in the way I experience it. When I am out there on the streets patrolling looking threw my camera eye-ing a shot to take, something begins to change inside of me. A sense of calm and peace slow invades my mind, I become relaxed and still. I notice and focus in on the subtle movements and expressions of the marines, people and children around me. My senses increase to an ever higher state of perception. I pick up on sounds that I never would of heard, movements that I would never have otherwise seen. I enter into a place where the minute and finite distinctions of color, shape, light, texture, movement and emotion can be observed and experienced in their true essence. I get lost in this place where time slows down and the senses become overwhelmed, here I simultaneously lose my self and find myself connected to all things. Here I find my true state of being. Every-time I go out and use my camera I am volunteering myself to experience and feel to all that is around me, here I find my own true essence for life.

Jayson's Most Recent Work

A Quote for a Lifetime...

Please, may we all remember this, knowing that the best thing we can give this world, is the happiest self we can be, yet be compassionate to the process of this happiness, in remembering,

"How am I not myself?"