Projects!

Oh How Far We've Come!

“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” ~Ansel Adams

At some point in every creative person’s life, you hit a dry spell.  You want to be imaginative, and fun and innovative with your art.  Truly, you want to!  But you can’t.  You can’t focus, you can’t think, you can’t…well…create.

At one point in my photo-history, I hit just such a dry spell.  My solution was projects.  Mini-series, if you will.

Currently, I have several long-standing projects which I add to as I either come across an appropriate image-to-be, or when I’m in need of inspiration.  I’ve started a series on Bikes, Diners, Chucks (aka Converse Shoes), Old Cameras and of course, Quotography.  The above photo is part of both of the last two series!

Do you set challenges for yourself?  Do you find it helps gets the creative juices flowing?  If you haven’t tried, do you want to? =)

Feed Your Soul

My boss has always told me that I need to learn to categorize. His famous quote is that there is urgent, and there is important…and those two things may not always be the same. You may feel pressure to accomplish, to meet deadlines, to reach expectations…people may be banging your door down for things to be done now, Now, NOW (especially in our instant gratification society). But I’m trying to pause now, before I fill my days with fluff and filler, to determine if those things are important.

Every now and again, I try to take a step back.

The other day, I took a drive – just me, some good music, a tripod and my camera.  I had a strange craving to be near the ocean, which is weird…because I never have a desire to be IN our stretch of northern ocean. Haha  It was an odd cocktail of feelings.  I wanted to feel the enormity of the Atlantic, to see a pastel sunset over the subtle beauty of a quiet ocean, to appreciate the power of the water kissing the shore.  That day, the urgent had to wait.  It was important to feed my soul.

I actually spent about an hour on the beach, just appreciating life in that moment.  Most of my photos were taken on the way home – I’m a sucker for old diners, and I knew of a great one just off the highway in Middletown.  It was the perfect end to a very satisfying evening.

O'Rourkes - Middletown, CT

Remember to appreciate the moments, for they will soon be memories.

The Things We Do…

…for a photo.

The other night I stopped to fill up on cheap gas…the gas station was only about a mile from a diner that I had tried photo-ing a few weeks ago (but was unhappy with the results).  Since I had my camera, and a few minutes, I thought I’d try it again.

I parked the car and got out to find a better angle than the last attempt.  As I was walking around, I noticed my fingers were going numb from the cold, and I silently applauded myself on making such a <insert sarcasm font> smaaarrrt decision <end sarcasm font>.  But, I was there, and I wanted to get this right.

In a moment of inspiration, I decided that shooting from a low perspective might give me what I wanted.  The problem with that decision, though, was that I needed to lay on the ground.  Did I mention it was freezing cold out?

Olympia Diner - CT

Apparently, the people in the diner thought I was a vagrant and came out to ask if I wanted to come in where it was warm. haha  I was like, “No thanks, I’m fine!”

“But, ma’am you’re laying on the ground outside.  You sure you’re okay?”

Sooooooo…………….I got mistaken for someone down on their luck, AND I got ma’am’d that night.  The things we put up with for our photos, right? =)