I’ve Got Nothing.
My friend, I’ve got nothing this week. I’ve stared at this screen for what seems like hours, and my mind keeps getting distracted by the way my heart hurts. It’s been a tough year so far. The pandemic. So many lives and livelihoods lost. So much fear and anxiety. And now the murder of George Floyd, the subsequent protests in …
The Same River Twice
Everything changes, including we ourselves. Failure to recognize this essential impermanence, even to celebrate it, is a missed opportunity to live life as it is, not as we wish it could be, and to cope with change and uncertainty creatively rather than fearfully. Let’s talk about it. I’ve decided to begin posting my weekly podcast here to my blog, as …
The Value of Doubt
Doubt gets a bad rap but it has long been doubt and the willingness to live with uncertainty that has led to innovation and creativity. What would happen in our creative lives if we were more willing to look more carefully at our doubts and set aside the things we’re so sure of? Let’s talk about it. I’ve decided to …
Making the Edit Easier
I came home from my last trip with almost 20,000 photographs, which is, by any standard, a whole lot of photographs. I edited them down to about 30. That’s 19,970 images that didn’t make the cut. If I looked at every one of those photographs for only three seconds, it would take me 1,000 minutes, or almost 16 hours, to …
Find What You Love?
Poet Charles Bukowski says “find what you love and let it kill you” But that advice, edgy as it sounds doesn’t sit right with me anymore. But there’s another poet, also named Charles, and I like his life advice much more. Charles Baudelaire says “find what intoxicates you and let it give you life.” Or that’s how I read it. …
Chasing Colour
Two weeks ago, I talked to you about my four Un-Stuck Filters, four techniques I use when I’m shooting to put a little more life into my images and give me a good place from which to begin. But what if you’re just not seeing anything? We’ve all had those days. That’s when I give myself an assignment. Something fun and simple. And …
It’s Not the Tool
There’s a lot of talk these days about how much better analog tools are than digital, but when we rely on our tools to render soul and authenticity in our work, when the tools get either the credit or the blame, I think we’re heading in the wrong direction. Let’s talk about it. I’ve decided to begin posting my weekly …
Navigating Fog
Any creative effort, in fact life itself, is undertaken in a context of uncertainty. But there are times things feel more uncertain than other, like we’re lacking direction. The Japanese concept of Ikigai provides helpful vectors or points of light, that make it easier to navigate in the fog. Let’s talk about it. I’ve decided to begin posting my weekly …
Who Says There’s No Un-Suck Filter?
In my first book, Within The Frame, before all of this blew up and I became a writer (and just how exactly did that happen, anyway?) I wrote that “there was no Un-Suck filter in our photography” and since I didn’t get a flood of emails asking me what on God’s green earth I was talking about, I assumed people …
Touch the Heart
Songwriter Leonard Cohen once asked “How do we produce work that touches the heart?” It’s a question I think we need to pursue if we’re going to make anything that finds traction or resonance, most especially for ourselves but for others. So how do we do it? Let’s talk about it. I’ve decided to begin posting my weekly podcast here …