Manasas Battlefield Park

"You come to nature with all her theories, and she knocks them all flat" -- Renoir

Bryant Park, New York City

"There's no retirement for an artist,
it's your way of living so there's no end to it" -- Bono

Creating and Collecting Art

"Painting is just another way of keeping a diary” Pablo Picasso

Substitute 'Photography' for 'Painting' and, for me, that is what blogging is all about. It is my visual way of writing – a snap shot of the written word.



Photographers take images so that others can see what we see. We don’t keep them to ourselves, hiding them away so that all they do is gather dust. We want others to see and collect them. That’s why we create.

In honor of this photographic diary, starting on Monday I am going to post an image per day. This will either be an image from my catalogue or one that I shot the day before. It will not be one that I have on my web site, have shown in galleries or to the public in general. All images will be available for purchase (printed images) or for FREE as an email attachment. Email me at keith(at)keithbarraclough.com and I would be happy to give you information regarding print prices or send you an email with an attachment.

If you like, sign up for the RSS feed to this blog (bottom right corner) and you will receive an email every time a new images has been added.

Enjoy!!

The Journey

I recently received an email from a friend I knew in high school, Phaedra Ledbetter, who is now an interior designer in California. Phaedra and I email each other a few times each year to catch up on what each of us are doing. She is VERY talented, and honestly, I would love to work with her one day. During our last email she commented on my web site and how it was "very intense, with beautifully crafted photos and amazing color". Now it is always nice to get compliments on something you have worked so hard to get right. But it did make me think - does this mean I have "Made It". Wow, someone so talented has complimented my work. Yes, she could have just have been being nice, but maybe she wasn't. Does that mean I can rest?
I emailed back and said that "since October I'm really starting to feel like I'm getting everything together. Still have a ways to go, which is a good thing.
I don't ever want to "be there". The journey's way to fun".

What a revelation!

I've taken, what I think, are some very nice photos - but have also taken crap. Which brings me to this - when can we say we have "made it". Is it when we start getting compliments, our first big assignment, taken the best photo "ever"? I hope not. It's the Journey that we all want - the adventure in finding something new. We don't use Photoshop so that we can keep doing the same thing. We use it to challenge ourselves. We use it for the journey to creativity.

Here are three photos that have gotten some recognition. The hound photo will be in the 2008 PDN Photo Annual, the girl in the white dress wearing pink chucks has received many emails from art directors and the Wellington boots has a story all onto itself.
Have I "made it" - No. When I've taken the best picture ever, then it's time to quit.

For me, it's all about the Journey!

Inspiration

This past week I spent some time in New York City visiting a close friend, seeing clients (and potential clients) and presenting at Photo Salon in Soho. The Photo Salon is comprised of a group of New York based photographers who get together once a month to show new work. It was an honor, and somewhat nerve-racking, to show some of my new work (a slide show of 45 images). In attendance were some of the industries top photographers, art directors and consultants. Although I do enjoy showing work, and the feedback that usually accompanies it, having to show either just before or just after some of these photographers was a little daunting. Some of the other photograhers presenting were Jay Maisel and Howard Schatz. Both very talented and inspirational photographers. Howard Schatz is quite an amazing photographer. The new work that he showed really can't be explained in a few short words. Lets just say that I was very happy that I showed my stuff before him!
Luckily I did have a chance to ask him a question that I have always wanted to ask - Where does he get his inspiration? He answered very simplily, "movies, tv, through other photographers' work, just about everywhere". He showed a little note book where he writes down ideas, thoughts and inpirations. Many of us do this, but the difference with him is that he acts upon what he writes down. He sets aside one day per week to experimenting with new ideas. This is something that many photographers do not do. We don't act, yet just sit back and collect a lot of great ideas and then let it go to waste by not acting on it. His new work was inspirational because he acts upon his ideas.

At dinner with friends I was asked where I get my ideas and what I look for when shooting. I think I gave them more of an answer than they bargined for. I can be quite passionate about photography and went into a detailed description of what I had seen during the day of walking throught the city. From their responce, I realized that many living there know that all this exists, but rarily recognize nor appreciate the beaufy in the angles, shapes and curves that the city has in it's buildings and parks. It made me realize that I do have passion in what I do and that I do find inspiration in the things surrounding me.

Feeding the Soul

Since I teach part-time at a private school in Northern Virginia I, at times, have the good fortune of doing something quite unique. The studio art program offers a portfolio class for students who are interested in going to an art school for college. Five students in the program asked me to take their group photo for the poster which would advertise their year-end exhibit. When asked what type of photo, they answered "we are going to dress as ballerinas, just like some of the Degas paintings. We decided to shoot in a forest just off the school's campus. Now, not at all pretending to be as unique as Degas - or as talented - we set out for the forest - five students, one teacher, and me with my camera.

Putting myself in these kind of situations really gets the creative juices flowing.
It's kind of like writing this blog. Not knowing what will come of it, but knowing that the end result will bring about something unique and worth doing. It all feeds the soul - it's my inspiration.

What I really like about these was that it was all done on the spur of the moment.
No real planning, we just picked a spot and went for it. The location was ideal, the light fantastic, the students very cooperative and a lot of laughs - which is key to any photo 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.

Convenient Truths

I was recently reminded of a quote by WC Fields: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it." Two things came to mind when I heard this - the Environment and Photography. Too many times people quit before they've really explored possible outcomes or tried to be successful at something. They are, what I would like to call, believers in the Convenient Truth.
They play it safe, never taking chances - afraid of being the damn fool.
There are times when being "the fool" means that you are the one that will succeed.

Pushing yourself to find new ways of shooting or using PhotoShop or actually believing that we are effecting our planet - and can change our habits in order to survive. These are the ones who will survive.

One of the great things about photography is that we can combine art with what's going on in the world. I recently went through some images in my stock archive on the environmental and noticed that many are about the relationship with our surroundings - how we effect it and play in it. Whether it is how we use and treat our air and water, what we leave behind when hiking and camping or how we travel - we have both a possitive and negative effect on the environment. Once we start truely believing this "Inconvenient Truth" we will begin to convert all the "damn fools" who want to take the Convenient path.

Here are some images from my archive