Vision and Creativity

After posting an image per day for the last week I thought I would be more energized in taking photos. What I’ve discovered is that photography can’t be forced. It has to be something that just happens – at least for me. I like seeing things in a different light; in a fresh way, but it has to come naturally. Many of the photos from the past week have been from my archive. That’s not a bad thing, just something I didn’t expect. I wanted to take some new images, but the opportunity never seemed to present itself. Yes I did take my camera with me, but there was no real goal, no vision. I was looking at everything without really seeing anything. I felt forced to “produce” something.

Now I could have said, “I suck! I’ve lost all feeling for photography”. But this experience has helped me realize how I take photos and how my vision impacts my creativity. Vision should not get in the way of creativity. The two can, and should, go hand in hand. This is not something new for me, but it took a week’s worth of looking but not seeing to have it penetrate my conscience.



So, this past Saturday, I incorporated this new found realism into a photo shoot of two black labs owned my Karen Smith, a photo editor with The Discovery Channel. I had a vision of what I wanted, but didn’t let it get in the way of my creativity. If something didn’t look exactly the way I wanted, I adjusted my vision to compliment my creativity. I just let it happen.

Included here are some images from the shoot.

Creativity and Passion

In the recent edition of Communication Arts magazine there were two pieces that caught my eye - one in the magazine and the other in their on-line version.
In the magazine, Wendy Richmond writes an article called "Design Culture". In this month's edition she talks about "The Creative Loop" and how observing, reflecting and articulating are three key components of the creative process. As I've mentioned in previous posts, "writers block" can come at any time and really stuffles one's creativity. How to overcome that block is one of the toughest things to do. As Wendy says, "It's not the lack of inspiration" that holds us back, but that the "initial spark of an idea is so delicate that it is often prematurely stifled". I agree - we put too much pressure on ourselves to create. Just let it happen - observe, reflect and articulate.

In the on-line version of Communcations Arts Pum Lefebure, of Design Army, talks about Talent, Passion and Creativity. It's an interesting interview and gives some great insight into the thinking of a very talented person.

On my creative front, I've just spent the past week doing what I feel very passionate about - yet rarely get to do -- Ski.
Went to Vail for the first time. What a wonderful, and huge, mountain. Was there for a week and still didn't ski all of the trails - although we tried.
I took my Canon G-9 with me. A wonderful camera with all the bells and whistles - and small enough to carry around on the slopes. The best part was that I could turn my passion for skiing into something creative.

Here's some of the photos.

Creativity: Part II

After a long, and very fun, weekend of shooting Part II of the creative series I have ended up somewhat frustrated. I had grand plans to add two videos from the photos taken of Lindsey, but was unable to make them - yes it is another round of the PC vs Mac conversation. I've come to the conclusion that if you want to have an ounce of creativity do not use a PC. They are great for typing out documents and even using Photoshop, but tring to put together a video is nearly impossible.
So my creativity has been somewhat stiffled.

But it is all still in my head - the images have been processed, arranged and are ready to go. I have added two images from the shoot below. Also all the images are in a web gallery so you can see the entire shoot.

I am not giving up on this - Creativity must, and will, prevail.

So stay tuned for the videos - it will be done!

Creativity: Part I

Do a search for the word "creativity" through either Google or Yahoo and you will get 69,800,000 hits. Quite amazing concidering that we all know what to be creative means - or do we?

So what is Creativity? Is it the act of turning ideas into reality? Or is it the simple act of just being imaginative? In some ways I think that being creative is what we all are striving to be. If it's through art, invention, business or love we all want to have a unique perspective and to be able to share that with others.
Personally, I like to think of creativity as having a passion and commitment to follow through on an idea - and using that to turn ideas into a reality.

How many of us have been trying to sleep, mind racing with thoughts, and a great idea comes into our heads? It happens to me all the time. How often do I write them down? Hardly ever. In my head I have written numerous, and I might add brilliant, movie scripts, great ideas for posts to this blog and unique ways to reach art directors. I always say "Oh, I'll remember that..." The next morning I rarely do.

So this weekend I am gong to take photos inspired from a past photo shoot I did of a white chair - see images below. I thought about it, came up with an idea, wrote it down and now I am going to make it a reality.

So tune in to see what I come up with - I will probably, hopefully, surprise myself.

Mystery

The sense of mystery in photographs has always intrigued me. What's really going on? Why am I so captivated by it?
I took this photograph when I was in NYC last year. Honestly, I never thought anyone would really get it. I'm facinated about peoples reactions to it.
Some think it is a horrible photo; one that evokes fear - something out of a Hitchcock movie. Other's see mystery. Is someone looking through other people's windows? Or are they paranoid about others looking at them?
For other "mystery" photos visit a web gallery I've created.