by successfulbob | inspiration, photography, photography - art quote, photography creativity
Do you see details when you create your images?
I know I’ll sometimes be surprised at what has appeared within the frame of my images knowing that I didn’t see it when making the capture. Occasionally it’s a happy accident but more often than not the element is one I would have left out by repositioning my subject or changing the view within by introducing a different angle.
“So what’s your point Bob?”
The point is we will often create better images when we pare down our compositions making sure that there are no competing elements to distract from the story we are trying to tell. Over the years I’ve had many conversations with my commercial hotel property clients about not trying to show everything in the rooms but to ficus on details that could tell the story with just a glance. That’s why I choose today’s quote from jazz artist Dizzy Gillespie. I continually find parallels as I look across different art modes such as painting, music and writing.
“You spend a lifetime playing music to learn what not to play,” Dizzy Gillespie
What can you leave out from your next image to make it more powerful? I’ll be thinking on that too…
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography - art quote, photography education
I went down to authorville today to find a quote for this Sunday. John Steinbeck. You may have heard of him. He wrote over twenty-five books. Some of them pretty well known! He also penned this quote and I think it speaks volumes to something we photographers need to spend time thinking upon.
“In art the subject upon which you concentrate is unimportant; it is only the quality of your concentration that counts.” John Steinbeck
Spend some time with this thought.
OK. Welcome back and here are some ideas from me.
We photographers take a shit-pot (please excuse my french) of images and find ourselves disappointed that we don’t have a really strong body of work. I feel it has to do with the ease of being able to make a picture these days and the ease of being able to share them, And, the lack of time and energy we spend on creating any single image. I see many photos posted receiving comments like ‘Fantastic!’ ‘Beautiful!’ And one of my favorites, ‘Amazing!!’
When in reality the image is nothing more than an OK snapshot.
I feel the best images I have been able to create are the ones that have involved planning, thinking, and yes, some serious concentration. I hadn’t realized it quite so clearly before. Thanks Mr Steinbeck for bringing a little clarity to my thinking and my art!
What do you think? How’s your concentration??
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography - art quote, photography education
Vinnie has the photo art quote to start the conversation today on Successful-Photographer…
I can’t be sure that this is what he was talking about in his quote but I will take the ball and run with it the way I read it.
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” ~Vincent van Gogh
I take this to mean that you don’t start at the top… but you have to start! Place the brush on the canvas and make the first stroke. Add another. And another. Don’t expect to wave a magic wand and immediately have a masterpiece.
Let’s bring this a little closer to home for photographers. As I coach and teach fellow photographers I often encounter a frustration from them that they aren’t being creative enough. Or things just aren’t happening fast enough. We live in a very “now’ society and often feel that success should come quickly because we have such fabulous tools to work with… There still needs to be basic practice followed by study of the attempt. Practice again. Try new techniques. Blend ideas that have come your way. Practice again. Squeeze the shutter one more time. Practice the techniques until they become second nature so vision can begin to fill some of the time formerly spent on trying to figure out the correct settings on the camera or figuring exactly out how to do exactly what you are trying to do…
I ask you this. What small thing are you working n that will allow you to head toward Great Things?
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography - art quote, photography education
Creativity…
Let’s chat about that.
One refrain I hear from many photographers is that, ‘I’m burned out.’ or ‘I just don’t have it.’ or ‘I can’t seem to come up with anything.’
I call bullshit!
OK that’s a bit rough but I wanted to get your attention, especially if you’ve ever used any of the above phrases or any derivative thereof. Why? Because it usually means you aren’t trying. Not trying anything new. Or you are afraid to fail or even make a mistake.
To be creative means to work. To try. To fail sometimes. Often many times before even the seed of an idea can be discovered for exploration. Which brings us to today’s Photo/Art Quote from a very wise woman…
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” Maya Angelou
So, may I make a recommendation? The next time you are feeling like you are in the dumps about creativity grab your camera and lens you haven’t used for a while and go shoot. Pick a new or ‘different for you’ subject and go shoot. Lay down on the ground for the next ten photographs while you go shoot. Give yourself a persona project and, you guessed it, go shoot.
You can’t be creative and do new things if you don’t push the envelope.
Oh did I mention… Get out there and shoot. Even when you aren’t necessarily ‘feeling it’.
Let me know ow it’s working for you.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography - art quote, photography education
Roy Williams is a pretty sharp guy. If you haven’t heard about him he’s a marketing guru and Founder of Wizard Academy. He produces and weekly newsletter called the Monday Morning Memo (see below) which leads to an interesting place to explore called the Rabbit Hole. I’ll let you check out the links on your own to find out more about Roy… I consider him a big thinker. A straight thinker and if you haven’t already guessed today’s Photo/Art Quote originated from him.
“Success is a snowflake.” Roy H. Williams
We all would like to be successful wouldn’t we? Success comes gradually. One snowflake at a time. You see one snowflake and it doesn’t look like much. The same in our business and our art. We do some small thing and it doesn’t seem like much. Then another snowflake joins the first. And another. And another. They start to come together to form a mass of snow. And it grows with each layer building upon the first.
The thought here is to start on whatever it is you would like to be successful. Take a step. Create one snowflake. Then a next one. One small step at a time until suddenly you are an ‘Overnight Success’.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – What do you want to be successful at? What small step are you taking in that direction today? Tomorrow? And the next? Good luck!
Here’s a recent Monday Morning Memo from Roy (clicking on this link takes you down the Rabbit Hole)
I had an interesting moment a couple of weeks ago.
A client came to Austin for his annual marketing retreat and brought his top lieutenants with him. His company has a couple of hundred franchisees that do about a quarter-billion dollars a year.
Everyone was anxious to hear my marketing strategy for 2016.
“I need you to watch carefully and say nothing for the next 10 minutes,” I told them. “When I’m done presenting my little show you can ask questions, though I suspect I will have answered them all.”
“We’re scheduled to be here for 2 days,” my client said, “and you really think you can answer all our questions in just 10 minutes?”
I put a finger across my lips and turned off the lights. My presentation appeared on the big TV on the wall. Ten minutes later, my client said with big eyes, “How did you know my three favorite movies? Those characters were my idols when I was a kid.”
“You’ve been emulating them your whole life,” I answered. “It’s what attracts people to you and your companies. My plan for next year is simply to accelerate what I’ve been doing in your ads since the day I met you, but kick it up to a higher level.” After I gave them a few examples of what this would look and sound like and told them what I expected the impact to be, they had no other questions.
His lifelong guiding characters were Dr. Dolittle, Willie Wonka and Peter Pan. The female version of this character would be Mary Poppins, of course. They don’t live in a magical world, but magic follows them wherever they go. They bring the magic with them.
I decided to do it again last Friday. A woman you’ve seen many times on television arranged for Princess Pennie and me to give her a private tour of the campus before she and her associates walked into the Toad and Ostrich pub to hang out with Daniel Whittington and whoever else showed up that day.
You never know who’s going to be at the Toad on a Friday afternoon at four. Sometimes it’s 3 people. Sometimes it’s 20. But the only person who showed up that day was our friend, Gene Naftulyev. At the end of the evening our celebrity guest asked one of her associates to snap a photo of her with Gene. She put her chin on his shoulder so they would be cheek to cheek as she wrapped her arms around his chest. Startled, Gene beamed like a five year-old on Christmas morning. Click.
I’m fairly certain he’ll have that photo printed in poster size and mail a copy to all his friends.
During our walk around campus she spoke of the challenges she faces in forming a clearly differentiated identity for a new brand she has launched.
I pointed out that her public persona was merely the never-ending echo of a certain iconic character the public has always loved. My suggestion was that she allow her brand identity to be guided by the values and quirks of that character.
Weirdly, she had never consciously realized the story she’s been echoing for years. You could see the gears beginning to spin behind her eyes. “Oh my God,” she exclaimed, “This solves everything.” A highly memorable and sharply differentiated brand flashed into existence in a twinkling.
“Oh my God, this solves everything.”
She has always been the science nerd that everyone sees as “just one of the guys” until she takes off her ugly glasses, shakes her head, a button pops open at the top of her blouse and BOOM, she’s a bombshell.
Dual identity: science nerd and sex goddess. We’ve seen this character a thousand times and we always love her because she’s the worthy but unnoticed underdog who finally gets what she wants and deserves.
Can you see how the guiding hand of this identity – along with a couple of other characteristics I opted not to tell you about – could help to refine the style and voice of a brand?
Everyone has a story.
I don’t mean a story about them, but a story that shapes them. A story that sits in a canvas sling chair, offstage, invisible, affecting all their choices and actions each day like the director of a movie.
Who sits in your canvas sling chair? What story do you echo without knowing it?
I talk a lot about my own stories: Don Quixote, the Wise Men who followed a star, A Message to Garcia, The Old Man and the Sea, Henry V at Agincourt. What few people realize is that each of these stories revolves around a single theme: unconditional commitment to an objective no one else can see.
Dulcinea was important to no one but Quixote.
The star of Bethlehem was meaningless to everyone except the wise men.
Garcia set out to find a General whose location no one knew.
The old man kept fishing although he had caught nothing for 84 days.
Henry V believed in his ragtag band of men when everyone else thought they were bums.
Examine your own favorite characters.
See what they have in common.
Prepare to be impressed with what you learn about yourself.
And if you are wise,
you will allow that character
to bring all the facets of your company
into alignment.
Roy H. Williams
by successfulbob | photography, photography - art quote, photography education
“I’VE BEEN FRAMED!!”
You’ve seen this line used in many books and movies by criminals, or those thought to be criminals.
Much the same idea Gary Winogrand brings forth the thought that what we choose to put in or leave out of the frame can change the story and impact of an image. It can be as simple as taking the time to think about the background and taking slight a step to the right or left to simplify the area behind the subject. Or it could be taking the subject to a totally different environment to tell a completely different story.
“Photography is about finding out what can happen in the frame. When you put four edges around some facts, you change those facts.” Gary Winogrand
Winogrand was a street shooter, advertising photographer, photography instructor and student of the photographic medium. He’s worth a look at to inspire some deeper thinking in how we use photography to skew our stories, for good or bad, when we press the shutter button.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob