Personal project

One of the best ways to stay creative is to do a personal project. A couple years ago I decided to create a calendar using photos that I had taken during weekend bike rides. I ended up calling it “Within Biking Distance” and gave them out to my family for Christmas. My sister-in-law recognized a farm photo and knew that a friend of hers grew up there. So she told her friend about it and she subsequently bought 14 calendars from me.

But the purpose of this story isn’t necessarily the end result even though it was nice to sell some calendars. The important principle is that once I decided to do the “Within Biking Distance” series, I had a goal – something that focused my creative efforts. I had fun taking the photos and was able to plan when each phase of the project needed to be done so I could “ship”.

Check out this incredible personal project:  10,000 lakes. What’s your next personal project?

PIC-OF-THE-WEEK

I was glad to be in a plane and not having to find my way around that road spaghetti.

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?

 

God creates... you create

A miniscule sampling of God's unbelievable creativity...

Now go create...

PIC-OF-THE-WEEK

A still shot of our dining room table at Christmas time.

Discover

What was the most significant visual moment in your life?
One that I wasn't even aware of. I photographed an apple in a bowl of fruit. I proofed it. The darker proof caused the surface of the apple to become like a night sky. That gave me impetus to realize there were things in the process of photography that I could learn from by not staying bound to the rules and to play and discover.

The quote above came from a Q&A interview with Paul Caponigro, a photographer who is the recipient of two Guggenheim fellowships and three National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grants. I like the way he described the unexpected-ness of photography. I get the feeling he discovered a whole new world just by looking at the photograph with a darker exposure.

Could the things you create be enhanced by looking at them with a different perspective? What if you composed in a new key signature? Or restricted your painting to shades of red? Or wrote a novel with a 300 word limit? Or choreographed a dance in 5/4 time?

PIC-OF-THE-WEEK

Another covert photo as I was sitting in an airport.

Stay curious

We often talk about how failure is just a learning opportunity – a way to grow. But how do we do it? How do we step back and objectively look at what happened with an eye toward growth? The best idea I’ve found is to approach it with curiosity. Then go further and pretend that whatever happened, happened to someone else and begin to ask questions like…

“Why didn’t that turn out the way he/she envisioned?”

“What did he/she forget about the basics?”

“Would more (or less) time have made a difference?”

“Was he/she trying to work too fast?”

“Was it a lack of preparation?”

“Did he/she accept boundaries that were false?”

These kinds of questions are especially important as we begin any new kind of work. As we learn and grow it’s important to keep this in mind:

“The lack of curiosity (particularly in regard to our failures) means the death of any new work.”  Blaine Hogan

PIC-OF-THE-WEEK

I've been trying to get this photo of our town Main St. without cars for quite awhile.