Suck-Mode.

In Just For Fun, Pep Talks, Rants and Sermons, Vision Is Better by David34 Comments

Me. Happily in Suck-Mode in Kenya. Man I miss Africa! The image has nothing whatsoever to do with the post so don’t go looking for deeper meanings. Sometimes a photograph is just filler, ya know? During the Q&A time at Amazon the other day a guy in the audience asked me a question. It must have been very complicated because …

Confessions of a So-Called PRO.

In Pep Talks, Rants and Sermons, Vision Is Better by David242 Comments

Shot in Senegal. Long shutter speed. Dawn. Through the windshield. Moments before driver drove off the road, through the ditch and stalled in the bushes. A while back I wrote a piece about the “I’m only an amateur” mentality. In brief it was an unashamed rally call to photographers everywhere to stop seeing themselves as merely an enthusiast, not yet …

No Vision Without Passion

In Rants and Sermons, Vision Is Better by David50 Comments

My friend Yves on safari in Kenya. Yves will travel with me to India this year too, and I can’t wait to hang out with him again. He’s a surgeon, but his passion for photography would humble many of the pros I know. I think it was Zack Arias who recently said that if he hear the word “passion” one …

Sustaining, Part II

In Creativity and Inspiration, Vision Is Better by David26 Comments

Self portrait, Jan 03, 2010 Last week I started a discussion about sustaining the practice of art, based on the Kurt Vonnegut quote about the purpose of art being the growth of the soul.  Y’all chimed in with what you do to sustain your creativity, and if you haven’t read through the comments in that post, you’ll want to. This …

Sustaining The Practice of Art

In Freelance and Business, Pep Talks, Rants and Sermons, Vision Is Better, VisionMongers by David50 Comments

“The practice of art isn’t to make a living. It’s to make your soul grow.” ~Kurt Vonnegut Chase Jarvis recently posted about his Create-Share-Sustain paradigm. I’ve referenced it, linked to it, quoted it several times this past year. In that paradigm, the notion of sustaining the create-share cycle is generally seen as a financial one. It’s the grease on the …

Process versus Product

In Vision Is Better by David47 Comments

Chris Orwig making a portrait of me making a portrait of him. For a moment there we nearly got stuck in some crazy space/time-continuum mobius. (While we’re speaking of shooting film, and of Chris Orwig, check this out on his blog – love it in so many ways.) I have been resisting my return to film for a while. Trying …

JUST?

In Pep Talks, Rants and Sermons, Vision Is Better by David133 Comments

At least a couple times a week I get a great email from someone with something nice to say, some piece of advice they’re seeking, or just a general “hey how are ya?” and that email will say something like “I’m just an amateur photographer, but…” Just? That word elicits some pretty mixed responses in me. It makes me angry …

Get A Life.

In Books, Influences, News & Stuff, Vision Is Better by David14 Comments

There’s this great story about William Shatner ( aka Capt Kirk aka the Priceline.com guy) at a Star Trek convention. Clearly a bit put off by his fans he yelled at them to “Get a life!” Ok, not much of a story, more like a cautionary tale about biting the hand that feeds you, but I’ve always liked it. And …

The Power of What If…?

In Pep Talks, Thoughts & Theory, Vision Is Better by David19 Comments

I’m reading an article right now on creativity; it’s from the December 2009 issue Psychology Today (as is the picture above). My wife, who loves me more than she fears being arrested, stole accidentally borrowed it from our chiropractor’s office so I could read it. I plan to return it. Probably. You should acquire a copy, though by more legal …