It is late on Sunday night as I write this, moments before midnight. I am tired. A creative tired from the past seven days of work. In the past forty-eight hours Elizabeth & I had two days of non-stop shooting. As I type these words it still feels like I have a camera pressed up against my left eye and the feel of the indent in my right hand from holding on to the camera for an extended period. The work was good; the light over the past 2 days was good. At times too bright and hazy, but all light is good.
Monday thru Friday of last week I wrote...a lot. I stepped away from my desk and wrote. I find it hard to sit at my desk and write. For me my desk is for editing photos, updating this blog and responding to e-mails. Off to write, to create (either with a pen or camera) I need to leave the desk. I sat in the library and wrote, I sat in coffee house and wrote, even ventured to my back porch and wrote. I wrote.
Filling up a journal is a good feeling. An addictive feeling and if you have ever filled up a journal there is a good chance that you will continue to fill up journals. Seeing a small stack of moleskin journals accumulating on a bookshelf is good (also scary, hoping that nobody but you ever reads them).
I walked last week. I walked as much as I could. The weather was nice so I did my best to stay out of my car as much as possible. On Thursday I had a networking meeting on the South Side of Pittsburgh at nine. Not wanting to use my car nor sit in traffic I decided to get up early and walk to the “T” (PGH subway/train hybrid). Forty minutes to get to the station, 15 minutes on the “T” and then another twenty minute walk to the appointment. The second half of the walk was a great experience. I walked down a street that I have driven on many, many times over the past twenty years.
Thursday I saw the street for the very first time.
I am going to finish my beer and go to bed. Will organize my writing projects in the days to come.
P.S. Wednesday I will be taking photos for Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy – they hold a “walks in the woods” every Wednesday evening (6:30) between the months of June through September. Bring your camera & I will do my best to help answer any of your questions (mini Photo-Walk).
Info about “Walks in the Woods” can be found here :
http://www.pittsburghparks.org/walks-in-the-woods
5.31.2010
5.25.2010
5.21.2010
Feedback ~ Critique Me
Random photo taken on an evening walk. What do you think?
All photography & artwork on this site is licensed under a creative commons licensing: Please feel free to use and distribute the photography & artwork in accordance with the licensing
All photography & artwork on this site is licensed under a creative commons licensing: Please feel free to use and distribute the photography & artwork in accordance with the licensing
5.20.2010
Flowers, Fog & Morning
Woke up to a foggy morning. Grabbed the camera & went into my backyard. Notice the spider at work.
I have no idea what these flowers are called but they do grow wild in my backyard every spring.
I have no idea what these flowers are called but they do grow wild in my backyard every spring.
5.19.2010
Moment
Current Reading: Eaarth: Making a Life on Toughs New Planet by Bill Mckibben
Current Music: Seeds by Martin Sexton
Mood: Older
Smells: Eggplant plant & zucchini
Sounds: TV, background noise
Temperature: 57 degrees
Thoughts: Faith & Creativity ~ this is one constant, recurring, ever-present thought that I should write about.
Current Music: Seeds by Martin Sexton
Mood: Older
Smells: Eggplant plant & zucchini
Sounds: TV, background noise
Temperature: 57 degrees
Thoughts: Faith & Creativity ~ this is one constant, recurring, ever-present thought that I should write about.
5.18.2010
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow ~ Tonight
Looking forward to seeing everyone...
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm intro to new PUG followed by Q&A
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
5.17.2010
5.14.2010
Dates & Stuff
5.18.10 –
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm intro to new PUG followed by Q&A
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.9.10 - Boudoir workshop w/ Elizabeth
6.10.10 -
Understanding Exposure Class @ Northland Library 7-9pm I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.15.10 -
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm into to new PUG followed by Q&A (topic/speaker TBD)
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.17.10 -
Understanding Exposure class @ Northland Library 7-9pm (Part II) ~ I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & Your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.24.10 -
Photo Walk
Topic: Dusk on the North Shore
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: Gate “A” Heinz Stadium Pittsburgh PA
What to bring: camera, tripod, passion to learn and a friend.
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm intro to new PUG followed by Q&A
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.9.10 - Boudoir workshop w/ Elizabeth
6.10.10 -
Understanding Exposure Class @ Northland Library 7-9pm I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.15.10 -
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm into to new PUG followed by Q&A (topic/speaker TBD)
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.17.10 -
Understanding Exposure class @ Northland Library 7-9pm (Part II) ~ I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & Your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.24.10 -
Photo Walk
Topic: Dusk on the North Shore
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: Gate “A” Heinz Stadium Pittsburgh PA
What to bring: camera, tripod, passion to learn and a friend.
5.12.2010
Walk, Faith, Creativity
I was out for a long walk this morning after dropping my daughter off at school.
The air smelled sweet from the rain that has been falling for the better part of the last forty-eight hours. The air was cold with a heavy humidity to it, never thought that humidity could exist in cold air, but it did. The sky, gray-white, overcast, thick clouds blanketing the horizon.
I have taken this same walk twice before. I call it my urban sprawl walk. It is a walk that takes me through a couple of different neighborhoods, small biz districts where I can stop at the post office, bank and the drug store. I like that. The walk ends on a long busy stretch of road, (noise) that leads back to my neighborhood.
I have a “thing” (thing is a poor choice of word as it is more like an obsession) about the creative benefits of taking a walk to clear the mind. It’s meditation and exercise at the same time. One activity with multiple outcomes. Not a bad way to increase productivity and turn over thoughts in your mind.
For years I have taken walks as I did today. This morning's walk was an odd thing for me. Usually my walks are in the woods where I can feel all Henry-David-Thoreau-like and get a sense of a connection to the divine. (Thoreau nor the Divine show up on busy roadways, it's just not safe.)
Walking on sidewalks, inhaling bus fumes while trying to block out the noise of…well everything. I miss the woods, but the urban sprawl is new, different and unexplored on foot. For years I drove to the woods for moments of quiet, never learning the landscape that I was driving on. Change brings creativity. That is why I was out walking in the first place. To think about creating something new; project, thought, idea. I get this feeling inside of me that I need to have a creative release to give quiet back to my mind.
Walking in silence when the world is erupting is an act of surrender. Quietness brings out answers to the seeking questions that I have been asking myself.
There is only one giant problem; I have no way of recording these thoughts in my head because I am out walking in all this noise.
Odd isn’t it – people have creative important epiphanies when they are nowhere close to being able to write them down (some magical curse from the Muse of creativity). Whatever fragmented thoughts make it all the way home must have been the finest ones. The Muse must send out the leftover mini-epiphanies to somebody else pondering in the streets, actually, most likely the woods. (Do you think people get these experiences when golfing??)
The reason for this specific walk: over the past couple of months I have been taking a class on spiritual journaling. Truthfully, I have not been journaling on my spiritual pursuits. I have been journaling, just not while asking God to speak to me through pen and paper.
Nonetheless, this class stays present in my mind, just sitting there begging me to write it out (not down, but out as in a release).
Faith & Creativity ~ this is one constant, recurring, ever-present thought that I should write about.
I need to figure out how to write down my story of faith and creativity and the effect it has guided my life.
By the time most of you have read this post I will have had my first conversation/meeting to bring this subject to life.
Is creating something enough to build your spiritual faith on?
Yes…
It is not the starting or ending point - it is the realization of the experience.
The air smelled sweet from the rain that has been falling for the better part of the last forty-eight hours. The air was cold with a heavy humidity to it, never thought that humidity could exist in cold air, but it did. The sky, gray-white, overcast, thick clouds blanketing the horizon.
I have taken this same walk twice before. I call it my urban sprawl walk. It is a walk that takes me through a couple of different neighborhoods, small biz districts where I can stop at the post office, bank and the drug store. I like that. The walk ends on a long busy stretch of road, (noise) that leads back to my neighborhood.
I have a “thing” (thing is a poor choice of word as it is more like an obsession) about the creative benefits of taking a walk to clear the mind. It’s meditation and exercise at the same time. One activity with multiple outcomes. Not a bad way to increase productivity and turn over thoughts in your mind.
For years I have taken walks as I did today. This morning's walk was an odd thing for me. Usually my walks are in the woods where I can feel all Henry-David-Thoreau-like and get a sense of a connection to the divine. (Thoreau nor the Divine show up on busy roadways, it's just not safe.)
Walking on sidewalks, inhaling bus fumes while trying to block out the noise of…well everything. I miss the woods, but the urban sprawl is new, different and unexplored on foot. For years I drove to the woods for moments of quiet, never learning the landscape that I was driving on. Change brings creativity. That is why I was out walking in the first place. To think about creating something new; project, thought, idea. I get this feeling inside of me that I need to have a creative release to give quiet back to my mind.
Walking in silence when the world is erupting is an act of surrender. Quietness brings out answers to the seeking questions that I have been asking myself.
There is only one giant problem; I have no way of recording these thoughts in my head because I am out walking in all this noise.
Odd isn’t it – people have creative important epiphanies when they are nowhere close to being able to write them down (some magical curse from the Muse of creativity). Whatever fragmented thoughts make it all the way home must have been the finest ones. The Muse must send out the leftover mini-epiphanies to somebody else pondering in the streets, actually, most likely the woods. (Do you think people get these experiences when golfing??)
The reason for this specific walk: over the past couple of months I have been taking a class on spiritual journaling. Truthfully, I have not been journaling on my spiritual pursuits. I have been journaling, just not while asking God to speak to me through pen and paper.
Nonetheless, this class stays present in my mind, just sitting there begging me to write it out (not down, but out as in a release).
Faith & Creativity ~ this is one constant, recurring, ever-present thought that I should write about.
I need to figure out how to write down my story of faith and creativity and the effect it has guided my life.
By the time most of you have read this post I will have had my first conversation/meeting to bring this subject to life.
Is creating something enough to build your spiritual faith on?
Yes…
It is not the starting or ending point - it is the realization of the experience.
5.11.2010
Brazilian girl & Chinese Lady
I see a Brazilian chick wearing a short black skirt just long (or short) enough to cover her girlie parts, canvas-hiking boots that are well past worn out, a beat up gray sweater that she could have borrowed from her Grandmother or purchased for five hundred dollars at Anthropologie. Wild, nappy hair, as if she used to have dreadlocks and has tried to comb them out, clumps of hair that are dyed platinum white and some that are died blond to give depth and texture to her brunette quaff.
She carries a persona that she is trying to pull off, defiantly an urban city girl with a love for punk edge – I bet she can hold her own. The only thing that is odd about her is her hands. Her hands look much older than the rest of her. The Brazilian chick is thin, young, olive skinned, 20ish, with style, but her hands look as if to belong to a woman in her seventies; a woman who has worked a lifetime with those hands.
Small, round red glasses perched on the edge of her nose while she sits with good posture having a video-chat on her laptop with a lady that is obviously Chinese speaking Mandarin.
A Brazilian chick speaking Portuguese to a Chinese lady speaking Mandarin and it is quite clear that they both understand each other just by all the laughter they are sharing.
As for me, OK, yes I do feel a little guilty eves-dropping on them but neither of them knows it. I am sitting in a coffeehouse on the upper east side of Pittsburgh, one table behind her and a row of tables separating us. It’s hard not to notice a crazy (but cool) looking Brazilian chick speaking Portuguese and laughing out loud while having a v-chat with a Chinese lady speaking Mandarin…Ok, I am not eves-dropping, just witnessing the spectacle.
Brazilian chick and the Chinese lady both start dancing to the Humpty dance song that has started playing over the coffeehouse stereo system.
The Chinese lady just kissed her monitor and pressed her breast to the screen while dancing to the music. Both start laughing painfully louder than before ~ they’re probably making fun of the creepy guy at the corner table eves-dropping while writing in his journal.
She carries a persona that she is trying to pull off, defiantly an urban city girl with a love for punk edge – I bet she can hold her own. The only thing that is odd about her is her hands. Her hands look much older than the rest of her. The Brazilian chick is thin, young, olive skinned, 20ish, with style, but her hands look as if to belong to a woman in her seventies; a woman who has worked a lifetime with those hands.
Small, round red glasses perched on the edge of her nose while she sits with good posture having a video-chat on her laptop with a lady that is obviously Chinese speaking Mandarin.
A Brazilian chick speaking Portuguese to a Chinese lady speaking Mandarin and it is quite clear that they both understand each other just by all the laughter they are sharing.
As for me, OK, yes I do feel a little guilty eves-dropping on them but neither of them knows it. I am sitting in a coffeehouse on the upper east side of Pittsburgh, one table behind her and a row of tables separating us. It’s hard not to notice a crazy (but cool) looking Brazilian chick speaking Portuguese and laughing out loud while having a v-chat with a Chinese lady speaking Mandarin…Ok, I am not eves-dropping, just witnessing the spectacle.
Brazilian chick and the Chinese lady both start dancing to the Humpty dance song that has started playing over the coffeehouse stereo system.
The Chinese lady just kissed her monitor and pressed her breast to the screen while dancing to the music. Both start laughing painfully louder than before ~ they’re probably making fun of the creepy guy at the corner table eves-dropping while writing in his journal.
5.10.2010
Moment
Current Reading: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Current Music: Nothing Like the Sun By Sting
Mood:Good
Smell:Cat
Sound:Treadmill
Temperature: 61 degrees
Thought: I need to rest the part of my mind where words come from.
Current Music: Nothing Like the Sun By Sting
Mood:Good
Smell:Cat
Sound:Treadmill
Temperature: 61 degrees
Thought: I need to rest the part of my mind where words come from.
5.07.2010
5.06.2010
New Dates Announced
5.18.10 –
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm intro to new PUG followed by Q&A
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.9.10 - Boudoir workshop w/ Elizabeth
6.10.10 -
Understanding Exposure Class @ Northland Library 7-9pm I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.15.10 -
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm into to new PUG followed by Q&A (topic/speaker TBD)
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.17.10 -
Understanding Exposure class @ Northland Library 7-9pm (Part II) ~ I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & Your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.24.10 -
Photo Walk
Topic: Dusk on the North Shore
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: Gate “A” Heinz Stadium Pittsburgh PA
What to bring: camera, tripod, passion to learn and a friend.
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm intro to new PUG followed by Q&A
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.9.10 - Boudoir workshop w/ Elizabeth
6.10.10 -
Understanding Exposure Class @ Northland Library 7-9pm I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.15.10 -
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm into to new PUG followed by Q&A (topic/speaker TBD)
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.17.10 -
Understanding Exposure class @ Northland Library 7-9pm (Part II) ~ I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & Your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.24.10 -
Photo Walk
Topic: Dusk on the North Shore
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: Gate “A” Heinz Stadium Pittsburgh PA
What to bring: camera, tripod, passion to learn and a friend.
5.04.2010
True Metaphor
Metaphors: comparisons that show how two things that are not alike in most ways are similar in one important way.
True: the state of being in accord with fact or reality
I have been trying to write this article on the theme of a "true metaphor", as in one word or idea that holds truth, problems & interpretations all in a single phrase. Confusing idea, don’t you agree? It all started last week when I met this man who walked out of the pages of the Old Testament and shook my hand. He had a big smile, strong hand shake and a laugh that was contagious.
I was filling in for a last minute job at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary to document the installation of a professor. I had no idea what an installation of a professor was. Apparently it is when a teacher/preacher gets an important job.
What I received from this encounter was the best damn sermon I ever heard. This Old Testament scholar gave a talk and transcendental speech that I have been waiting 30 years to hear. He bridged truth and metaphor into a single thread of thought. I was blinded by words, ideas and hope for what we all could be, become, or better yet evolve into.
I am not going to paraphrase or try to explain this experience because I could not do it justice. What I want to share is the "true metaphor" that I have been struggling with.
True-metaphor: Arts only purpose is to serve
The only purpose art has is to entertain the rest of nature. After God created the world he gave to his last creation (us, humanity) the gift of creativity. Nature as a whole is concerned about living, better yet - staying alive. The only act of creation in nature is the act of reproducing. Humans and humanity - we get to create, ponder and then create anew for the totality of our existence on this planet.
Arts only purpose is to serve…
If you have attend any of our workshops, Q&A's or Photo-Walks you know I preach this phrase as the photographer’s gospel. What does it mean? To me it is about training what might end up being your future competition. In truth it is about training what will hopefully turn out to be my future collaborators, teachers and community.
If you’re creating something then in no way can you be doing harm. Art can only be part of the conscious solution, not the unconscious problem…
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