Creativity: Today, I shall not judge anything that I see.

 Photography, Spirituality  6 Responses »
Apr 172007
 

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What does one have to do with the other? Creativity and judgment?

I read a number of spiritual based books and, therefore, they cause me to think a bit differently sometimes. One recurring theme throughout those books is that judgment prevent us, as people, from connecting to each other. We are quick to deliver the right/wrong/good/bad verdict before we even know the story. Further, this begs the question as to should we deliver the verdict at all. I now say no.

Each morning, the first thing that I say to myself is that “I shall not judge anything that I see today.” This, indeed, is a tough assignment. I have found out that I am constantly meting out judgment and that when I don’t do it, my mind is calm and I feel no need to control everything.

Well, I’m off to participate in the world and not judge it! Being a judge is hard work and I don’t want any part of it!

So, what does this have to do with photography? Good question! How many times have you judged an image as having no potential before you even depress the shutter button? You walk up to a subject that has attracted you for some reason, looked at it, said to yourself that:

  • Someone’s already done it.
  • Someone’s already done it better than I can
  • I’m not talented enough to pull that type of shot off
  • It wouldn’t make a good shot

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Now, these are my own internal judgments on both the subject and my abilities. You may have your own set. However, they are judgments and we have told ourselves NO before we even get the opportunity to say yes. I’m not saying that we should shoot things willy nilly, but I am saying that if something has called your attention, go ahead and shoot it for a bit. Work it. Who knows, you may come up with a way of seeing that no one else has.

So, how can we even be creative with this constant monologue going on? We have to be open to experiment and we have to find a way to calm the ego and assure it that we know what we are doing and that everything is going to be fine.

Do your photos near the end of the shoot look a lot better than at the beginning? Mine sure do! I think it’s because I have gotten into the zone, or accessed that silent place and allowed myself to become more free. It’s a place where I’ve turned off the judgment and began to operate.

About the shots: Two shots that I almost talked myself out of taking! I’m glad that I didn’t take my advice!

 Posted by at 03:00

Vera meets Charles

 Personal  Comments Off
Apr 172007
 

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I really liked this post and it was lost when I accidentally dropped my database, so I’ll try to recreate it from memory. If you’ve posted before, no need to post again. It was just a nice memory.

A couple of weeks ago when I went to Savannah for The Next Step workshop, Charles was one of my challenges. We were to photograph someone who we normally wouldn’t have approached. Charles was my subject. He’s a street corner preacher. The good thing was that I did approach him and found out what a wonderful human being he was. I had to put down my prejudices and projections and go with the moment.

So, Easter weekend, we had a basketball tournament in Orlando, FL. The tournament ended on Sunday evening, so we drove half way home, which put us in Savannah.

My wife, Vera, had never been to Savannah and had always wanted to go. This was my opportunity to show her the town and perhaps get a chance to introduce her to some people that I met while I was there. As we walked through the various squares in the city, I saw Charles.

We made a beeline towards him. I introduced him to my wife and he smiled, shook her hand, gave her some pamphlets and was quite cordial. He was even quite animated. I told her that I think that he had a crush on her! He wasn’t that animated with me! :-)
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After we left Charles, we went to St. John The Baptist Catholic Church, where I took more pictures and Vera sat and soaked in the ambiance of the church, which is quite awe inspiring.

We only stayed in Savannah for a few hours and then had to head on home, but we sure have some fond memories from those few precious moments.

This last picture is one that I took of her while we were eating lunch at Murphy’s Law, an Irish bar/restaurant that we frequented during the workshop.

 Posted by at 00:01

Shootin’ in the rain … just shootin’ in the rain …

 Photography  7 Responses »
Apr 162007
 

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I love rainy days. Everything seems to have more color. Yesterday it was raining a little bit, so I went to the park and hung out beneath the pine trees and took some pictures.
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Sure, my camera got a little bit wet and I had to keep wiping off the lens, but it was great fun. I spent about an hour out in the elements. Funny, there was no one else around in the park!

 Posted by at 00:00

Labels

 Photography  9 Responses »
Apr 152007
 

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I’m not a big fan of labels. I suppose that they are necessary to give definition, especially when you are trying to find something specific. For example, if you need a doctor because you have some awful foot pain, then probably it would be good to go see a podiatrist, or you are having a pain in your … then a proctologist might be in order! :-)

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More specifically, in photography, you might want to go see a portrait photographer to get a few snaps made of you and your loved ones, and a pet photographer to help with your more furry or feathery friends.

I’ve been reading a couple different blogs and there are various topics dealing with, in a round about way, labels. Should I classify myself as a landscape photographer, nature photographer, post modern, post-post-modern, semi-illiterate-cubist-street-still-life-photographer???

The reason I try to shake labels from myself is that when I start to label myself, I start to constrain myself. For example, if I’m walking through the house and see some interesting shadows on the wall, or on a piece a fruit, or whatever, then I start this stupid internal dialog about whether or not I should get my camera and take the picture because _______ photographers don’t do those types of pictures! Interestingly enough, about 90-95 % of the time, I do take the picture! :-)

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In going through my images I don’t see a recurring theme other than: Dang! I take a lot of pictures!!! :-) I guess that I would have to get a label for myself if I decide to start selling my prints, at least an ‘external’ label; it would help narrow the field for those looking for specifics.

Lastly, labels only seem to last for a very short time with me as I’m always trying to reinvent my life to make it more satisfying.

As for these images, they all came off of the same memory card! They were all taken within 24 hours of each other. So, how should I label myself? :-)

 Posted by at 00:00

Derivative work?! Cram it!!!

 Photography  6 Responses »
Apr 142007
 

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Don’t you just hate this little phrase: His/her work is derivative of _____. Well, as many photos as there are and as many different ways as they’ve been taken, it would seem that mostly everyone has a little bit of derivation in them, wouldn’t you think?

I like to look at other photographer’s works, to see what they are doing and how. If I like it, I might try it a time or two and then integrate it into my own work, or more than likely, add my own spin to it. So that makes my work derivative.

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Let’s take the ‘cram it’ method and it’s inventor, Michael Brown! No kidding, you can find out that he ‘invented’ it all over the internet. The same internet that Al Gore invented! :-) BTW, he has a funny post about that very topic. I hear that he even has software and a book and maybe even a movie coming out! :-)

So, as I was saying, I like to ‘cram it’ every now and again and I get some interesting pictures from doing so. I’m all for doing whatever elevates my playing field and makes me a better photographer. Should I not use a macro lens because someone has done it before me? Should I not take pictures of the beach, or sunsets, or animals at the zoo because people have done it before me?

Heck, if I avoid all of the cliches and techniques that I’ve learned, I might as well put the camera in the closet and concede that there is nothing new under the sun and that I might as well not even try lest I be branded derivative! Yikes!

 Posted by at 00:00

Thanks for your return visits!

 Personal  10 Responses »
Apr 122007
 

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I had written this before, but since I killed my database, I’ll write it again. This time much shorter:

I was over on Cool Daddio’s site reading the results of his survey about blogging. It struck me that the reason, probably, that we blog is to get comments. When I first started blogging last May, I think, I was overly concerned with generating traffic to my blog. I found that in order to get a lot of traffic, especially for photo only blogs, you have to go out and post on other’s blogs. As Chantal said in one of her previous posts, it’s so ‘Junior High School’. I’ll post on yours if you post on mine!!!

In looking around, I found a few that I really liked and continued to read and look at the pictures. I still do that. I visit only a few blogs per day and comment, if I have something to say. If not, I just don’t comment. It doesn’t mean that I don’t like the image/topic, it’s just that I have nothing to say.

I’m not a big fan of drive-by commenting. These people drop by and give a one or two word comment and then they are on their way. The object, I suppose, is to get you to come to their blog and post a meaningful comment. I might drop by to see what’s going on, but will rarely make a comment.

Looking at Google Analytics, I see that I have about 20 or so people visit every day. Some people from my job, some from my wife’s, and of course, you good people.

I rarely concentrate on the numbers, except for one. Visitor loyalty. I can see from the stats that my return visitor count is about 71%. Now that, is wonderful news. It means that you guys and gals keep visiting over and over. That means so much more than the 30% new visitors.

So, thanks ever so much for stopping by every day! I sincerely appreciate it.

Now, I just have to figure out how to get some traffic from Africa! No hits there!!! ;-)

 Posted by at 18:19

A new beginning

 Personal, Spirituality  10 Responses »
Apr 122007
 


Well, it wasn’t intentional, but it happened. I was attempting to back up my database and accidentally hit the wrong button and it got dropped. I lost all comments, etc. Hopefully they can restore it from the last backup, but if they cannot, I guess it just means that I can repeat myself and no one will be the wiser! :-)

I’ve gotta take it in stride! At any rate, I’ve upgraded to version 2.1.x of WordPress, so that’s a good thing!

So, I’ve learned that I need to take more frequent backups and watch where I’m a clickin’!

Even though I hate to loose those other comments, I’ll probably just let them go. It seems that the new database structure is different than the old and creates a problem. I’ll just march forth!

 Posted by at 16:21
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