“Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.” – John Cleese

Among the many gems John Cleese shares, he outlines “The 5 factors that you can arrange to make your lives more creative.”

1 – Space

“You can’t become playful, and therefore creative, if you’re under your usual pressures.”

2 – Time

“It’s not enough to create space; you have to create your space for a specific period of time.”

3 – Time

“Give your mind as long as possible to come up with something original.”

4 – Confidence

“Nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.”

5 – Humor

“The main evolutionary significance of humor is that it gets us from the closed mode to the open mode quicker than anything else.”

View more creativity videos by John Cleese here.

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I’ll be presenting a free lecture sponsored by Canon today at 2pm hosted by the The Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California.

In this two hour event I’ll present a series of short lectures including a version of my TED talk You’re More Creative Than You Think You Are (above).

Find out more about the event here.

Learn more in my workshop Illuminating Creativity.

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During my recent South Africa Photo Safari (sponsored by NIK) in Mala Mala, South Africa, I spent several days photographing African wildlife. We saw all of the big five (lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, cape buffalo) and many other animals. It was the first time I made a concerted effort to make finished wildlife photographs. I gained an increased appreciation for how moments of peak action (or lack thereof) can make or break some photographs. I made many competent photographs, but only one that I felt began to have an inspired quality. I suspected I would have no intention of using these kinds of images professionally – and confirmed this. But, these images rekindled an old flame.

Making these images reminded me of the many hours I spent drawing animals. I quickly discovered that for what I wanted to depict, portraits weren’t enough, interaction and context were necessary. I was interested in how people, of many eras and cultures, react psychologically to animals and to the archetypal ideas of animals we share. One of my favorite essays is about an animal – the snake. Psychologist James Hillman’s A Snake Is Not A Symbol (from the book Dream Animals.) has an enormous amount to offer about how we respond to images of animals. He suggests we reanimate images, especially those we encounter in dreams, through an extended inner dialog with them.

Days later, after making these images, during which my guide repeatedly warned me about the potential for finding hidden snakes, I had a dream about a snake, which was very important to me personally. For me, it was one more in a long line of dreams about snakes. It’s fascinating to see how inner material resurfaces during the creative process and what we can do to stimulate and work with this process.

What images could you make to help you reconnect with and develop important material in your inner life?

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Musician and researcher Charles Limb wondered how the brain works during musical improvisation — so he put jazz musicians and rappers in an fMRI to find out. What he and his team found has deep implications for our understanding of creativity of all kinds.

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Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses — and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius. It’s a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.

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5 Ways To Listen Better – Julian Treasure

4 Ways Sound Affects Us – Julian Treasure

Sound Health In 8 Steps – Julian Treasure

In our louder and louder world, says sound expert Julian Treasure, “We are losing our listening.” In this short, fascinating talk, Treasure shares five ways to re-tune your ears for conscious listening — to other people and the world around you.

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John Jay Executive Creative Director of Wieden+Kennedy shares his insights on creativity.

Read more of John Jay’s insights on aiga.org.

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Musicophila – The Power of Rhythm


Musicophila – Brainworms


What Hallicination Reveals About Our Minds


Inside Oliver Sack’s Brain – NOVA

Oliver Sacks talks about how music affects the brain.

Watch more great insights from Oliver Sacks on PBS.

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Read more in my creativity ebooks here.

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Try setting half an hour a day for your creative life. If you did this everyday for one year, you’d give yourself 182.5 hours, roughly the equivalent of 4.6 work weeks. As you can see, it really adds up.

Many find it helps to pay yourself first in the morning. Get up early and get more time for yourself. One advantage to setting time aside in the evening is that the amount of time you spend can often be extended. Try both. Monitor your energy, Strike a balance between what’s practical and what’s ideal for you.

Set up a space that’s ready for you to be creative (even if this is a User setting on a portable computer) and keep it organized, so you’re ready to go when you get your time and you don’t waste it organizing.

Finally, when you’re able, take a trip for a long weekend or week of total immersion. Trips can add many more valuable hours to your creative life, as well as new stimulation, new material, and a fresh perspective.

The biggest challenges are starting and sticking to a plan. Start now. You’re sure to miss a day here and there, just don’t make it a habit. Instead, make a habit of taking some time for yourself.

Listen to more creativity tips here.

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Find more creativity videos here.

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Levni Yilmaz’sTales of Mere Existence are creative, funny, and insightful.

Find more Tales of Mere Existence here.

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Levni Yilmaz’s Tales of Mere Existence are creative, funny, and insightful.

Find more Tales of Mere Existence here.

Find more creativity videos here.

Read more in my creativity ebooks here.

Learn more in my creativity workshops here.

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MILTON GLASER DRAWS & LECTURES from C. Coy on Vimeo.

Milton Glaser speaks about drawing as a form of visual thinking.

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Learn more in my creativity workshops.



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Dewitt Jones

March 6, 2011 | 2 Comments

Dewitt Jones offers great advice about being more creative.

Learn more about Dewitt Jones here.

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Sean Kernan talks about creativity and his creative life.

Find more on B&H Events here.

Learn more about Sean Kernan here.

Read my conversation with Sean Kernan here.

Read more than 40 of my conversations with photographers here.

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John Cleese On Creativity


John Cleese Make Something, Even Mistakes


John Cleese On How To Put Your Mind To Work


John Cleese The Brain Explained

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How do I find inspiration ?

Let me count the ways!
1              Walk in nature

2              Visit a new place

3              Plan a future trip

4              Read

5              Listen to music

6              Watch movies

7              Look at artwork

8              Review my finished images

9              Review my unfinished images

10           Make new images spontaneously

11           List new creative things to try

12           Try something new creatively

13           Sketch ideas

14           Free associate

15           Brainstorm

16           Meditate

17           Yoga

18           Massage

19           Astrology, Numerlogy, and Tarot

20           Daydream

21           Dream

22           Play like / with a child

If one of these doesn’t work, I know I’m wound way too tight.
Then I just need to relax … and try one or more of these again later.

Find more resources on Creativity here.

Learn more in my digital photography workshops.

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Continuity

October 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment


Continuity. Every screenwriter needs to create it. Every storyboard needs to interpret it. Every director needs to guide it. Every editor needs to refine it. If you’re a still photographer, you may be called to do all of these things.

Continuity lies at the heart of the art of storytelling. The types of images selected and the transitions made between images presented in groups can be powerful tools for visual communication. Sequences can provide useful comparisons and contrasts between separate images and their contents. They set a pace and rhythm for looking. Carefully orchestrated they can create the illusion of moving in time forward or backward, linearly or non-linearly. They can be used in extremely creative ways. The best sequences make images clearer, more meaningful, and more moving.

Photographers can use continuity to guide and structure initial explorations on site; use a storyboard as a checklist to make sure no angle goes uncovered. Photographers can use continuity to find missing gaps or resolve challenging transitions in ongoing projects; update a storyboard and find the out what you’ve got too much of and what you don’t have enough of or find a bridges to connect disparate images. Photographers can use continuity to edit, sequence, and present existing work more effectively; fine tune a story in sophisticated and compelling ways; there are many possible solutions.

There are many classic strategies for sequencing images and creating transitions between them.

Persistence
Pans
Zooms
Fades
Numbers
Cuts

Include continuity in your work and you’ll find you’ll be able to solve many more visual challenges in many more ways and make the reception of your work more effective and powerfully felt. Once you understand what the many possibilities are and how they work, you can be extremely creative with them. Some artists have even been celebrated more for their use of continuity than their singular images. Continuity is so powerful that it can be an art in and of itself.

Read more on AfterCapture.

Learn more about storytelling here.

Learn more in my digital photography workshops.

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People often credit their ideas to individual “Eureka!” moments. But Steven Johnson shows how history tells a different story. His fascinating tour takes us from the “liquid networks” of London’s coffee houses to Charles Darwin’s long, slow hunch to today’s high-velocity web.

Find more of my favorite TED videos here.

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Self_Sing
Recently, I was leading a workshop in Joshua Tree National Park. We’d come to a place called White Tank for evening light. Perched high on a cliff, I looked down into the surrounding valley and saw a young woman wandering through magnificent boulders and fabulous cacti. She was drifting slowly, almost aimlessly through the scene with her right hand raised in the air – singing. As the sound drifted through the sun drenched evening air, I couldn’t tell if she was singing a children’s song or an African chant. She was utterly unselfconscious and seemed completely absorbed in the moment. Her moment helped me appreciate my own more. I wondered, “Why we don’t all give ourselves more license to sing?” Children do it. Adults often don’t. We compare ourselves to professional singers.We grow self-conscious. We become silent. We forget to sing. What if we spontaneously sang more? Would we come to know our voices better? What if we allowed ourselves become completely absorbed in the moment more frequently? Would we appreciate the passing of each moment more? Would we find ourselves appreciating the things around us more? Why wouldn’t we do these things? Are the reasons we give ourselves for not doing these things as helpful as the reasons we can find for doing them? Why not sing more? What is the truest sound for this moment? Go ahead. Make a noise. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be real.

Find more inspiration in my Creativity Lessons.

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