Tag: Creativity

An Interview with Peggy Dyer…

Jason3 Comments

As you may recall, a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting up with Peggy Dyer, a professional photographer here in Colorado, and I got to learn about her latest project – One Million Faces.  We got a chance to sit down a second time and I learned a lot more about her creative energy, where she finds inspiration, and about where the One Million Faces project found it’s genesis.  In addition, we also got to talk in more detail about the Lensbaby series of lenses, starting with the first one ever,  going through the most recent Lensbaby Composer, and even a sneak peak of an upcoming lens from them.  Best of all – I actually was able to put together a video of it to share with the community.  It all looks very intriguing and with her creative energies, I am really getting motivated to get out there and try some shots with this gear.


An Interview with Peggy Dyer from CBJason on Vimeo.

A couple links from the interview, including some local charities and other resources that readers may find interesting are also included below:

Until tomorrow, Happy Shooting!

Great Green Gobs of Grapes!

Jason2 Comments

This week has been a particularly creatively filled one here on the blog:

  • Monday I shared the HDR image workup from last weekend and published the weekly podcast
  • Tuesday had another shot showcasing the benefits of looking all around for ideas (including behind you!)
  • Wednesday was the more detailed explanation of the Lensbaby Composer and selective focus

And now today, another source of inspiration from the kitchen!  I was cleaning some grapes for lunches and was struck not only by their size (these things were huge!), but also by the cool way the light in the kitchen was bouncing off each grape in the colander.  It helped that the colander is stainless steel and reflected some nice green tones back onto the grapes themselves, making them look even greener.  On instinct, I took a few, and here’s the best of it (and although it was taken with a 70mm Macro, this was not taken from macro range – that should tell you the size of these guys):

Grapes Galore!

Not too shabby for a “spur of the moment” capture.  Nothing like what you’ll see over at Mike Palmer’s blog (he does a lot of cool shallow dof work with food photography, and is a friend-of-the-blog), but a step in the direction of creativity anyway!  Catch an cool colors in your kitchen lately?  Share your thoughts, perspectives, links to other images, ideas and feedback in the comments section!  Keep on shootin’ and we’ll see you back here for the Friday post!

What’s This?

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What's This? - Week 10

Nothing fancy today – just something to whet your creativity – can you guess what this is?  It took me a while to dig through my archive of images to find one that I could crop this way and effectively not give it away.  The winner….well, wins!  Good luck to all, happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Oh yeah, don’t forget to vote in the poll – how much time do you spend shooting for your own projects each month?

Photography for Fun?

Jason5 Comments

As I started a new job here in Colorado, I was actually quite excited to do so, because a fair portion of it includes some photography portrait work, event photography, and a lot of publishing in catalogs, brochures, and marketing materials.

As a hobbyist photographer for going on 4 years now, I would guess that I am similar to many other hobbyists – I enjoy learning more about the field, and at some point, there has always been an interest in “taking things to the next level.”  Today, my Thursday Thoughts revolve around that premise, and the age old adage that one should be careful what one wishes for.

Taking pictures for ones own pleasure and self expression is always gratifying, but when taking on photography as a profession, your own creative vision can very quickly become muffled, if not lost on the creative vision of others.  In the past month of working at my new position, I am already noticing that photography at work has become very much that – work.  What it has also done though, is what I was most fearful of – I am taking my camera gear out less and less for my own creative expression and enjoyment.  I guess the silver lining is the awareness came rather quickly.

Now, I am making sure I take some time regularly to get out and just take pictures for the sake of taking pictures – doing it for fun and my own learning and advancement.  So, for my Thursday Thoughts, I figured it might be useful to share my own mission with the rest of the listening audience:  whatever your goals or dreams are with photography, make sure you save some time for yourself and your own creative vision and self expression.  After all, isn’t that what drew you to photography in the first place?

Happy shooting!

Kickstart that Creativity

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In a rut?  Got writer’s block or photo funk?  Here’s some great ways to kickstart those creative juices!  This is actually part of a larger work I am putting together, called 101 Sources of Inspiration.  Here’s the first 25 I’ve put together:

Inspired Photography:

25 sources of inspiration

 

As we all endeavor to find new ways to express ourselves creatively, we can often find ourselves in search of inspiration to give purpose and definition to our expression.  Here are a number of sources that can inspire.  Some are traditional, while others are hopefully new venues to spark those creative juices.

 

  1. Tour a museum
  2. Look at others works.  The internet is rife with photo blogs, galleries, and imagery that can awe and inspire.
  3. Listen to music – of all types!
  4. The dictionary – open to any random page, find the 1st noun (or verb, or adjective, whatever) and try to capture a picture that encompasses the essence of that word.
  5. Take any object you see every day and turn it upside down, backwards or sideways.  Use it in that position for a day or two (unless it’s a drinking glass!)  Your brain will be forced to think differently.
  6. Read!  Whether it’s a magazine, book, recipe, or anything, it doesn’t matter.  Go to the local bookstore and pick up something you’ve never read before and open to the first page that catches your eye.  Inspiration can often come from such places.
  7. Pick a letter of the alphabet and try to find that in objects around you (buttons on the phone don’t count!).
  8. Draw!  It doesn’t have to be structured with paints or anything – use a crayon, pen, pencil, whatever you have handy.  Just start doodling and a direction or theme will come to you eventually.
  9. Close your eyes.  Count your breaths.  If you don’t fall asleep you will start to hear things you didn’t hear before, or sense things you were otherwise unaware of.  Pick any one of them and try to define it in one word.  Now take that word and express it with your camera!
  10.  Donate some time to a worthy cause.  Pick a cause, whether it’s the United Way, March of Dimes, your church, or some other local venue.  Participating in such a way has its own rewards and often can be an excellent source of inspiration.  The Big Brother/Big Sister program is also a great one!
  11.  Buy a compact (you can get these at a discount in places like dollar stores, yard sales, and flea markets.) and use that mirror to look at things.  Looking at the reflection of something can often open your mind to new possibilities. 
  12. Take a walk in a new area.  Whether it’s a forest road, a new street, or whatever – new scenes can often inspire.
  13. Visit a place you frequent during an unusual time.  (For example, if you get a coffee at Dunkin Doughnuts every morning – try stopping in at night.)
  14. Change your desktop to a neutral gray – your eye will start wandering away from the bland to find color or something of interest elsewhere.
  15. Plant something.  The act of planting gets you doing something to help the environment, and gets your hands doing something different. 
  16. Join a photo club.
  17. Sing the first line of the first song that comes to mind – out loud!  Take the third word and find a way to capture that word in camera.
  18. Go to the hardware store and stroll the aisles looking at the products.  If something catches your eye, go with it.  If nothing does, buy a box of something, anything.  Whether it’s nails, screws, washers, grommets, o-rings, or whatever happens to be in the next closest aisle.  Take it home and dump the contents on a table.  Take a picture of it.  Now start arranging the objects.  Take a picture of that.  Keep re-arranging, and taking pictures.  Look down at the objects.  Look up at them (if you can).  Put them on their side, upside down or any which way works.  Try balancing one on top of another.  You’d be surprised where this takes you!
  19. Open an old photo album and look through some of your past work.  Pick a number and say you’ll make it your next project to re-create that scene.
  20. Spell the longest word you can think of.  Now try to find a way to capture the essence of that concept on film! (Anti-disestablishmentarianism doesn’t count!)
  21. Dance to the next song you hear on the radio (or your iPod)!  What do your feet do?  Take a picture of your feet!
  22. Make a trip to the local animal shelter.
  23. Take a self-portrait.  It doesn’t have to be your face – try just your hands, feet, or knees.
  24. Organize a photo-walk.  Put an ad on Craigslist or your local paper and make it open to all.  You’d be surprised the amount of people that show up who have ideas of their own to share that can really jump-start your creativity.
  25. Go to a playground and play on the swings, merry-go-round, or see-saw.  Act goofy!  Changing your mindset and environment to that of a kid can open up creative avenues that have been closed for a while.

Got another way to inspire or encourage creativity?  Sound off in the comments…meanwhile, happy shooting, watch those apertures, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!