A fun read for inciting creativity before you go out for a shoot. How often do you consider your ability to develop creative ideas, before your lens selection, camera model, or location selection? This book will help get your priorities straight and develop your idea maker!
| 3.2 |
Mind like water is a visual metaphor for a state of being. A nugget I hope you gain from watching this video is quoted “choice is a function of awareness, awareness comes as a function of meditation.”
So if no-one has ever taught you the goal of meditation let me help you “observe things from a place of non-reaction, which does not mean detachment, but means not attached to an outcome.” And this is my personal favorite photographic mode, allowing my own choices to be fully aware and scooping creative power from the natural surroundings….I hope you begin a practice of meditation into your life to help you create with a watchful eye and this article blesses you with the inertia to start that practice.
YouTube - Michael Beckwith - The power of Meditation
| 2.5 |
JoeyL Tutorial Review - Behind the Scenes | An American Peyote Scribble
Well, if you haven’t been ‘up’ on a recent internet fad, there was a buz about a Photographer calling himself Joey L…..he was interviewed glowingly by Strobist, and self produced a tutorial DVD to teach others how he produces his shoot. Just so you’re informed on the pop culture behind this review. I’m about to review this review in talking about the creative process….
“This is the first Photoshop tutorial I’ve ever bought, and it was purchased for the following reason: I’ve become comfortable with the basics of Photoshop, using the clone tool for basic corrections, levels and saturation control for various tonal adjustments. Basically using those tools to enhance the feeling I wanted to communicate with the images taken using my cameras. I’ve been looking for a learning package to help me take things to the next level and to expand beyond the basics of enhancing an image and start using Photoshop as a tool to create a specific visual impact with my digital images – beyond what can be accomplished with cameras and basic lighting.”
Now that’s a good reason to get yourself a PhotoShop tutorial. Maybe it’s just cause this guy’s a climber, but he’s definitely articulate and intelligent.
” Did the JoeyL DVD contribute in the aim of fulfilling my creative desires? “
That’s a great question, I sometimes find the same desires in my life as I’m hard pressed for creative time when business tasks take up 90% of my day.
” The creative process was a main draw when I finally sent my credit card info for the DVD, knowing full well that $249 was just dropped electronically. In my opinion a description of the creative process is probably the weak point of the tutorials. “
An American Peyote was disappointed by the DVD - and while I feel for Joey, I’m not surprised that the creativity mark was missed. Why?
While Joey the photographer certainly has a style - it’s a level 6 style - one that is recognizable and marketable. The current trend is in love with anything dark, or low key a little bit pictoral. A style is repeatable, and marketable in a DVD, and powerful enough to convince an intelligent person to spend $249, but real creativity is almost too hard to see. Real creativity hides among the interaction between a self and a medium ….like in Tao 33.
Creativity is a process.
A process of pouring out oneself into a medium: for understanding, for expression, for communication, for documentation.
Technique is a gateway to open up the flow of creativity.
“During the lessons Mr. Lawrence talks through his thinking process in adding various layers and how to do different adjustments. Adding layers and blending and the use of manipulating shadows and adding light to images is well explained. This is exactly what I was looking for, since it shows you how to enhance lighting effects in Photoshop which were absent or difficult to produce in reality.”
But to learn creativity, one must learn to be open.
Evidently the reviewer did open up after watching the video again a few times “In this capacity I’m very happy with my decision to drop $249 on the JoeyL DVD tutorial and would do so again.”
One day I’ll have a DVD worth spending $300 on, that will leave it’s customers open, educated and inspired. But creativity is never something that can be bought, only something that can be initiated or opened as I impact you, or you draw from the universe. I wish a creative blessing for my climber friend, and that JoeyL learns to communicate what wells within him. So let this review remind you as you’re tempted to buy the latest DVD, to instead go out and watch the sun set, feel the grass in your toes or hug your daughter. Open up to the flow, instead of spend your cashflow.
| 2.5 |
Please join me in a meditation on ancient Hebrew scripture:
Well, where to start with all that.
First do you have any potential biases? Have you ever considered the truth contained in Hebrew scriptures? If you can find truth in the oldest spiritual text on the planet - then you might have a chance with a lens too. Clear your mind of any haze of skepticism and find the essence of these scriptures and how they may effect you.
Vs. 1 is an intro - kinda set’s the stage with the most important summary of all. Connect with God and you’ll connect with creativity itself, more on that later.
Vs. 2 - can you actually conceptualize nothingness? Try it - oops - no you can’t do that, because you exist - I kinda see this verse along those lines. A little gotcha joke, that teaches a lesson. Quantum physics is now just learning and informing us that the mind creates the universe……another very tricky catch22, that we all find the answer to when we die.
Vs. 3 - Ok so we’ve tackled some pretty major philosophical hurdles, what’s next? Well we know a few things about light now in the Twenty First century. We admit to knowing less about God so let’s put it together. E=mc2 is the best explanation that we have so far. It’s no such thing as why - but a very nice how. Energy, can become matter if it’s moving fast/slow enough. Pretty cool so Genesis has it right, God created ‘light’ and there was matter all nice and tidy in His one substance. Those ancient people knew a bit of something about reality didn’t they! they just communicate it differently than we do.
Now let’s draw some parallels that are important for our craft. God’s first creation he used for our primary interface with the world. I don’t mean to Kinda tricky how he did that eh? We are created to interact with the light. Ponder the multidimensional wonder of that thought for a while since you’ve now realized that light gives us information, as well as creates the substance we inhabit.
But wait, I have to burst that wonderful thought bubble to break in that we don’t actually interact with the light anymore - we interact with the darkness. Yep, you’re responding to the darkness around you. The darkness tells you where your keyboard is; the darkness tells you where the subject in your viewfinder is; the darkness defines color and shape in your photographic prints. The study of visual perception has been around since the Greeks were able to guess that light came into our eyes, and the first photography book that really opened up my mind to understand the intricacy of how we see was Perception and Imaging by Richard Zakias. It is always my first recommendation for those seeking to study photography and understand building a photograph with visual elements.
So here you begin to understand the levels upon which I developed the concept and the motivation for this site - to Make Light Real
As another perspective on light as a key to metaphsyics, you can watch this clip by Bob Proctor
| 2.5 |
I’d like to dedicate this site to one of my mentors, Don Chocran
I first met Don, on the Moose River in upstate NY. When a guy old enough to be your dad can rip you up in a kayak, it gets instant respect. Buy my friend who introduced him as a great photographer, and so I was curious. A few campfire stories later and we were friends and he was giving me tips to nail some killer kayaking photos the next day. So on various occasions for a few years, I would assist Don with some of his big projects…
Above is a shoot in which I ‘realized’ what the inverse square law could do for me and it helped us get done on time. Below on the floor are a whole spool of fuse burning lights, two large Fresnel spots to push the light up above the proscenium into the corners. On Polaroid we had made it too hot - and we were running out of time for this view, so without a dimmer on the lights it would take me 5-10 min to move them to the exact position. But as a trade off, I switched the angles on the lights to cross their beams and double the distance to the corners. Exposure was good after that, and it was a visceral understanding in the aplication of the inverse square law.
Well this is just a shot for inspiration, but on a shoot inside this building was the first time I gelled the lights for a shoot. It just happened that I taped Roscoe gels to all the florescent lights on the ceiling in a boardroom to color correct them and dim them to match the tungsten spots. From then on I knew what lengths one must be willing to go to in order to get good pictures. Planning and a little bit of technique mixed with some good old fashioned elbow grease helps things progress to the point of good.
So I’d like to dedicate this site to Don, for all that he taught me by just watching him do his job. Thanks.
And point out to those reading, that getting outside your photographic specialty can really teach you some things and inspire you to bring them back into your own practice - so contact an architectural shooter and see if they’re willing to take you along to a shoot.
| 2.5 |
And mention that ‘Neil Cowley’ referred you!
Learn to be more creative
180º thinking
| 2.5 |
Adobe Photoshop Tutorial: Cast Light From A Window - Learn Adobe Photoshop
The above Photoshop Tutorial can give you an idea how you can manipulate a photo in photo shop from ‘flat’ light to something that looks like light is shining through a window using layer blend modes. The same principles apply using the Make Light Real Overlay files.
<before - after>
In honor of Good friday I’ll throw out an image for you to play with….
And your lighting overlay to give that transcendental religious feeling - download link.
If you like these texture files and want to support this site, buy a CD of the lighting effects:
| 2.5 |
This last week I was playing with a texture file from a marble building I shot a while ago in Rochester NY on a portrait set I shot in Texas, which was explained in this post on using photographic flash in open sun.
You can download the 16 megapixel texture file directly here, and see all the texture files available for free download in my photo pool.
If you like these texture files and want to support this site, buy a CD of the lighting effects:
| 2.5 |
I don’t really need to tell you that I don’t watch TV do I?
How about I challenge you to improve your seeing by escaping from the bombardment of your senses in front of the TV?
You see TV makes you a captive audience to 30 second intelligence aimed at motivating you to buy something or continue to be glued to the nonsense. Kill your TV and watch movies if you must, but kill your TV and play a seeing game!
Othello is a great option. In it, you must capture pieces by surrounding them with your color of chip. This game can challenge your mind to make strategy and predictive decisions, help you to see in B+W, and improve your pattern recognition skills. The game is pretty exciting and can go from win to loose in several moves. And as a strategy hint, win the corners!
Chinese checkers is probably my favorite board game. Maybe cause I hardly loose. Chinese checkers is unique in that it’s a positivist strategy game - no pieces die or are captured - it’s only who can get to the other side first. Chinese checkers will demand that you analyze a complex and changing system to make the most positive move within the current design. The game reflects the efficiency of nature and will help you see connections and act on them, this will transfer to your photographic and artistic endeavors.
I believe each of these games will improve your visual awareness, calm your mind, and give you some fun with your loved ones.
| 2.5 |
Strobist: The Lighting Journey: Where Are You?
That said, I believe that all photographers experience a fairly similar series of growth phases as they strive to improve at lighting. Some people may blow through the phases, while others get to a wall - or comfort zone - and camp there for a while.
Too true, I’d love to show you one photo that blew me through that wall and into ‘the journey’ in earnest.
I shot this one in 2004, in the stairwell of a wedding reception hall in Upstate New York. Overall it was a pretty average wedding, and I was actually tired out and wouldn’t have shot this had not my wife and assistant at the time convinced me that she would do the posing if I did the lighting. So I figured something out, and I shot it - and when Liesl got the magic out of them I nailed it. But I was tired and didn’t think much of the shots until I got home and was able to edit them. Then it really struck me. Wow, still it gives me goosebumps. It’s really a timeless shot, abstracted from all location or context….
…..but it has that mood, and that energy, and style…..
This is when I realized lighting is the key. Lighting is the key to freedom, to speed, to expression in photography. Now not all photographs need be lighting driven, as in my job documentation is important, but getting to art is equally important. This shot drove me to experiment and play until I had learned the essence of lighting.
Strobist defines 7 levels of lighting competency:
Level seven is defined by absolute mastery of the craft to the point where it transcends into art on a regular basis. Well that’s very Hebraic numerological of him - ha! But it’s very astute, and I respect him for admitting that his average day is shooting at the ‘bag of tricks’ level - but I don’t think he’s giving himself enough credit for his realization of the craft. It’s only his job restraints that hold his craft down - because if you’ll note, the level six ‘lighting style’ is marked with financial success, it also becomes a necessary step to reach subject driven light for a commercial photographer. Because in reality, selling oneself is the hardest step - not producing art.
However, I think that I can get you to the level seven “Subject Driven Light” within one workshop experience with me. How can you make that claim?
“When you turn that fantasy into a fact, you’re in the position to build bigger and better in fantasies….and that my friend is the creative process.” - The Secret
From there you can then revert to play and experimentation to increase your regularity of reaching the level of art - but you know what it is, you can begin your journey with the end in mind and be motivated by a small taste of nirvana at the workshop. The nirvana of light transforming my vision was what it took for me to look deep enough to find it.
Then the question you must define.
In my philosophy of teaching, to avoid the cliché ‘do what I do’, and to avoid the pitfall of style, you must reach not for the right answers - but for the right questions. And when you ask the right questions - the subject will give you the right answers.
And once in a great while, someone seems to transcend this process and become the lighting equivalent of Yoda, able to snatch the X-Wing fighter out of the swamp with the sheer power of will. These guys have no predictability to their lighting other than extreme quality….But very rare is the photographer who is both gifted and versatile to the point where sheer quality and elegance are their only calling cards.
All you need is a jedi photography instructor :-p …..
| 2.5 |
Action download Assignment audio/podcast Color Theory Creativity Exposure Free stuff Gear Hear the Shadows how to Inspiration learning Lightroom Mind Like Water Motivation On Art ONE Action Philosophy Photographic Flash Photography Lighting Photoshop Quotes Real-light Overlays Reviews Shoe Flash Technique Tao Technical The Zone Travel Tutorials Video Workshop
Posting tweet...
Powered by Twitter Tools.
