A milestone

52 entries! (well, 51 – I took a week off over vacation) Last year at this time I started this blog to explore creativity with you and offer some of my thoughts and projects. I’ve stuck with it for a year and I hope it’s been helpful to you – it has for me!

Now I’d like to change things up a bit and incorporate some practical information on photography, music composition, working with Photoshop, etc. I’ll still weave thoughts and ideas about creativity into the mix but I want to share more of the actual process I go through as I create.  I hope that you are even more inspired and motivated to develop your unique creative gifts.

Here is a Photoshop tutorial that I hope will make sense as you look at it. Each layer and its corresponding settings are listed. If you have any thoughts or questions, please post and I’ll respond to you.

PIC-OF-THE-WEEK

Here's a better resolution of the tutorial photo. We spent a night in Sugarcreek, Ohio and I found this bus out in the middle of a field. Seems to go with the old windmill, doesn't it?

 

Embrace the rhythms

This post is a little more personal than most because I am in a very unusual season right now. I am producing a theatrical show that premieres in one week. It’s an incredible show with terrific actors and a great message (disclaimer – my wife, another lady and I wrote it, but it really is good!). It’s with a new non-profit theater group which means much of the work is done by a few people. So in the past couple months I’ve created music cues, recorded and edited video clips, worked on the set assembly, coordinated rehearsals and I’m one of the actors. I know, no one held a gun to my head and forced me to do all this. It’s all stuff I love to do and so far it hasn’t totally consumed me even though I do have another paid job and have felt somewhat squeezed at times.

All this to say, I know there will eventually be a time to slow down, a time to relax more. And that’s one of the things I love about life and try very hard to maintain: the rhythms. I do my best to regulate them properly and then live life in their yoke.

PIC-OF-THE-WEEK

This is one of my favorite angles to photograph when I visit my father-in-law's farm up north.

Doing is the key

The medium must always be in service to the content.       Blaine Hogan

If you don't have the best camera; if you don't have Photoshop; if you don't have script writing software; if you don't have a fancy keyboard; if you don't have the latest edition of Word; if you don't have a secretary.....  create anyway.

Rarely does the lack of tools restrict what we can do creatively. An entire photography book was written using only iPhone photos. Successful movies have been shot with home video recorders. One man launched his directing career by shooting a short film entirely on a DSLR camera that happened to have video capabilities.

Equipment is good. Vision is vital. Doing is the key.

PIC-OF-THE-WEEK

Around here (Columbiana, OH) the end of summer is signaled by fields of corn that rise up and stand guard for a short period of time.

 

Getting there is important

I rarely post something from someone else in its entirety, but I think this is worth it (from Blaine Hogan):

You must understand that your art is not just what you make but how you make it. Your art isn't just the “what” of the end result, but also “how” you got there.

When we don’t allow for our end products to be birthed out of true artistic and creative processes that honor the “how” and even the “why,” the artist will be unable to infuse it with any internal significance. If it doesn’t mean something to the artist it won’t mean anything to the audience.

Weʼve all been in meetings or conversations about a piece of art where the following question is uttered:“Did it work?” This is not a question of art. This is a question for your washing machine. “Did it work?,” is not a bad question, there just might be better ones like…

Did you bring your insides out?
Did you acknowledge the lump in your throat?
Did you tell a compelling story?
Did you try something new? Something risky?
Did you work from your center?
Did you allow yourself to be moved?

We must put as much time into our “how” and our “why,” as we do our “what.”

This is how we make our process a work of art.

 PIC-OF-THE-WEEK

 I love to take farm photos. Yes, I did stretch the sky a little in Photoshop - couldn't resist.