August 2, 2020 | Leave a Comment |
My wife and business partner Arduina’s enthusiasm is intoxicating.
So I asked her to share a little of it with you.
Here are her 9 Ways To Bring More Joy To Your Photography.
1. PLAY!
Give yourself the gift of playtime. Try new things without judgement. Make a portrait of your neighbor, or your neighbors peacocks. Make a self portrait holding your most prized possession. Arrange a still life from your junk drawer. Try abstraction. Go underwater or book yourself a hot air ballon and try areal photography. Ask a friend to drive you around. My husband will sweetly slow the car down to help me make an image of a fox in a field or a goat on the roof of a shed. Try motion blur, long exposers or double exposures. Shoot with different lenses and cameras; try a 400mm lens with a doubler or a macro; play with plastic lenses or a Holga; or use a scanner as your camera. In order to get the most joy from playtime all you have to do you have to make time for play. I think of it as a healthy form of self care – if you can spend an hour on a treadmill you can spare a few minutes to photograph your favorite tree.
2. Experience A Different Time Of Day
Be amazed by magic light! Drag your sleepy head out of bed and watch as the dawn moves across your windows or play in the dappled light under a canopy of trees at mid day.
3. See What Your Eyes Can’t
Get yourself a tripod and shoot after dark. You could even use an intervalometer to make a time-lapse of yourself while you sleep and you may solve the mystery of who has been stealing the covers.
4. Explore
Wander about and catch yourself in a smile. Notice what you notice and make a record of what resonates. Photographer Keith Carter says, “Time spent in reconnoissance is never time wasted.” Time enjoyed is never wasted, whether you make a picture right then or return later with a wagon full of birdcages and clocks.
5. Be Inspired By Your Favorite Song Writer Or Poet
Pay homage to the song that got you through a bad break up or spend some time with Mary Oliver as she tirelessly guides you through the natural world.
6. Put Yourself In Someone Else’s Shoes
Try on a different point of view. Find happiness in shooting a scene while lying on your belly or standing on your tippy toes with your arms stretched up overhead. Any advice involving shoes makes me happy …
7. Lighten Up
Ditch your inner critic. Just because Edward Weston made an Iconic picture of a bell pepper doesn’t mean that you can never photograph a pepper. Just make pictures. In fact the one most people think of is entitled “Pepper No. 30” but he must have had an amazing time playing with creepy pepper #14.
8. Learn To Composite
So what if that cloud was in San Francisco and that ocean is in Maine ? Perhaps they would like to meet in a photograph?
9. Make A Print
Hold the joy you have experienced in your hands! Put it on your wall. Glue it in a book. Or mail it to your mother-in-law to thank her for loving you. I make my prints on an Epson printer – and I am deeply in love with that part of my process – but a print in any form (Cibachrome, cyanotype, or collodion) anything with three-dimensions is joyful to me!
View Ardie’s photographs on Instagram.
Visit Ardie’s website.
Inquire about one-on-one online training here.
Category: Creativity - Exercises Tags: arduina, Creativity, joy, Photography
July 16, 2020 | Leave a Comment |
“The ideas discussed in this video series are adapted from Corita Kent and Jan Steward’s book, “Learning by Heart: Teaching to Free the Creative Spirit.””
Find more from Austin Kleon here.
Find more creativity resources on my website here.
Category: Video - Creativity Tags: childlike, Creativity, seasons
July 3, 2020 | Leave a Comment |
Hosted first on Instagram, Ali Rajabi and I sat down and talked about my favorite subject … creativity.
I hope it inspires you to create!
Find out more about Hasselblad Master Ali Rajabi here.
Category: Video - Creativity Tags: ali rajabi, creative process, Creativity, style, Video, vision, voice
June 20, 2020 | Leave a Comment |
Enjoy this collection of quotes on listening and hearing.
“Hearing is a form of touch. You feel it through your body, and sometimes it almost hits your face.” – Evelyn Glennie
“There’s a lot of difference between listening and hearing.” ― G. K. Chesterton
“Looking but not seeing is the hearing but not understanding of the eye.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana
“We have two ears and only one tongue in order that we may hear more and speak less.” ― Diogenes Laertius
“Listen thrice. Think twice. Speak once.” – Anonymous
“Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.” ― Bernard M. Baruch
“It takes a great man to be a good listener.” ― Calvin Coolidge
“The art of conversation lies in listening” ― Malcolm Forbes
“The art of conversation is the art of hearing as well as of being heard.” ― William Hazlit
“The word ‘listen’ contains the same letters as the word ‘silent’.” ― Alfred Brendel
“Listening is about being present, not just about being quiet.” Krista Tippett
“You can’t fake listening. It shows.” ― Raquel Welch
“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.” ― Ernest Hemingway
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” ― Stephen R. Covey
“Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is we don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply. When we listen with curiosity, we don’t listen with the intent to reply. We listen for what’s behind the words.” ― Roy T. Bennett
“It takes two to speak the truth – one to speak and another to hear.” ― Henry David Thoreau
Read more
Category: Creativity - Quotes, Quotes - Creativity Tags: Creativity, Creativity - Quotes, hearing, listening
May 18, 2020 | Leave a Comment |
Join me for a discussion on creativity online with Ali Rajabi.
https://www.instagram.com/nightblueman/
Find more details here.
Check out my ebook Process here.
Enjoy my free Creativity resources here.
Learn more in my photography and printing workshops.
Category: Event - Online Tags: ali rajabi, Creativity, Instagram.
October 1, 2019 | Leave a Comment |
You can learn a lot from watching how other artists work, especially if they’re working in another medium. Figuring out how you work in similar ways to produce your own authentic works is an exercise in creativity itself. And creativity is like a muscle, the more you work it the stronger it grows.
You’re sure to be inspired by these 6 masters.
Anni Albers
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Helen Frankenthaler
Hannah Hoch
Donald Judd
Jacob Lawrence
Find more How To Be An Artist posts here.
Find more in my social networks – Facebook and Twitter.
Get more great curated content with my newsletter Insights.
Category: Newsletter - Curated Links Tags: anni albers, art, Creativity, donald judd, hannah hoch, helen frankenthaler, how to be an artist, jacob lawrence, jean-michel basquiat
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