How to photograph your ashtanga yoga practice
Does the yoga influence our lives or does our life influence our yoga practice? It’s the chicken and egg theory. And the answer doesn’t matter because the result is unbelievable.
At some point the two, our life and the practice of yoga, become interlocked and everything we do is a practice of improving our lives. Yoga is happening while running, swimming, riding a bike, reading a book, sitting in traffic.
It is really beautiful seeing this, and seeing students recognize it too.
The yoga is working.
People all over the world are practicing yoga. Yoga isn’t limited to an ashram, or cave in the Himalayas anymore. If you are like me, it’s all over your social media IG account and FB of people pushing the limits of their physical capabilities.
While photography can showcase the raw physical talent of an individual on social media, it does little in the way of showcasing the dedication and work that went into capturing the light in that 1/125th of a second when the shutter clicked.
In 2011 I recorded a home practice when I was learning Kapotasana. Back then I was proud of what Kapo looked like especially since this was a year after dislocating and fracturing the distal end of the clavicle and I was able to catch my heels. Beyond the ridiculous fact that I could ’catch’ I was interested in studying the transitions between the asana. What Catvari position looked like. How I rolled over my toes, where my hands were on my back for support. Where I collapsed in my low back. My head was down, shoulders rounded forward disengaged abdomen, it’s a wonder I was able to do that asana in the first place!
Compare that to my practice now and it is easy to see that over the years my practice has been refined. It’s been torn apart, left in the dirt, stomped on, and ignored. At the same time it’s been built up, and cleaned. It is not the same practice of 2009, 11, or 16. The transformation was slow. On the inside, it is hard to notice, but watching it from the outside, I can recognize all of the work that I have done.
Looking at yogi’s on social media it is easy to believe that yoga is gymnastics on the beach at sunset. Sean Phelps, an Instagram Yogi with over 220 thousand followers, reflects, ‘Sure I’m an ‘Instagram yogi’, however much more deeply I am a dedicated & devoted practitioner towards transformation. What many don’t see is continuous acts of shedding/ peeling back of layers of darkness, scars & mental noise.’ Sean has a tremendous responsibility, representing yoga, or the face of yoga that people see upon first introduction.
Not everyone agrees on the subject of sharing the asana practice online, or taking pictures of your yoga practice. Most people wouldn’t photograph at a funeral or in a hospital as those are private personal moments. Why would photographing your yoga practice a very intimate and personal moment be any different?
The second a camera, or these days a phone, comes out the yoga practice becomes a stage, and the practice is a performance, instead of what it is intended to be . . . A PRACTICE. The space where students practice should be a safe one, and this means that they can be messy and come in falling apart, not worrying what they look like or what will be recorded, or promoted on social media. After all the asana is a fixed idea but the process of getting into it is fluid and forever transforming. It transforms us and 1/125 of a second is never really the state of an asana since our breathing is not fixed until we cease to breathe.
Sean, Kino, Mark, Tim, and Day have a great responsibility posting photos of their asana practice and being the face of yoga. And if their posting all of these photos and sharing their story, one person is convinced to try yoga, one person is spared from the troubles they have endured in their practice, then they have succeeded. Our collective lives are better for it and them because that one person will make a ripple effecting others as their life is changed.
Students SHOULD document their progress. Students should have their photos taken in different asana and transitions to study and learn from the photos. Michael Joel Hall, a celebrity in his own right, and amazing yogi, wrote, ‘it’s difficult to read the label from inside the jar.’ And as a student it is difficult to see what the asana looks like while inside the asana. If you are practicing alone every morning it can be a painful eye opening moment when you see a photo of what you look like, vs what you feel you look like.
For some of us, cues from a teacher are enough to learn the lesson, for some the physical touch is what clicks for us. If you practice with a teacher every morning, the teacher knows what you look like and can help give you cues to work deeper into a physical practice. Those are fine if you are an auditory or tactile learner, but anyone who has endured a formal training in the school system can attest that involving three of the senses, auditory, tactile, and visual solidify the deeper learning. Sometimes we need to actually see it for ourselves.
Do a practice at home and record it, your phone will do for recording. Examine it. Have someone photograph you if you are comfortable. It doesn’t need to go on social media. Use it as another tool in your tool box to learn from.
When you are in the asana room, respect it like you would a hospital or other intimate setting where people are sensitive to their private lives. Use that as a time to develop your connection with yourself and those in your actual proximity, not ‘socialites’ 5,000km away with their face in a screen.
