1.30.2011

One Hour Walk Project


This past Friday afternoon I spent one hour of walking through a snow covered park in the Mexican War Streets on Pittsburgh's North Side.

Some days you just need to get out of the house and walk to see life. Too much of my time has been spent indoors lately, slightly maddening. Last year at this time I was leaving the gray skies of Pittsburgh, Florida bound to the sunshine.

The goal is to purposefully shoot B&W in camera (which I never do) and also to shoot in jpeg, also something I never do.

Taking photos of whatever struck me: people bundled up walking their dogs, random graffiti and the crazy few who enjoy bike riding in the cold weather.

The other composing idea was to frame large landscapes with small life in the bottom right hand corner. If you flip through my Flickr photos (HERE) you will see that I was not true to that self-imposed rule.

Needing to get out of the cold I slipped into Monterey Pub; an Irish pub amidst the Mexican War Streets. I like this place. I like its character. I could become a regular here, if I ever frequented a bar enough. I ordered a Guinness while Ruby Tuesday by the Stones played on the jukebox.

Good day. I warm up with a cold beer, write in my journal, flip through photos and the bartender who looks just like Jesus serves me a beer.

1.29.2011

Moment

Current Reading: Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami
Current Music: Flesh on Flesh by Al Di Meola
Mood: Happy!
Smells: Cantaloupe
Sounds:Disney Princess
Temperature: 27 degrees light snow
Thoughts: Still image / Written page

1.26.2011

Commenting on Comments

I may crucify myself for saying this later…e-mail me. Better yet, write me a letter.

I enjoy the e-mails that you have been sending me through the years. They are filled with honesty, depth and meaning.

I have decided to turn off the commenting option on this blog. It's not that I don’t want to talk, I do, but I want to move the conversation in a different direction.

Been thinking about it for awhile and the time feels right. This blog has shifted towards a working diary format. I love the comments...well, most of them. I will definitely miss the motivational advice that I been receiving from a group of you.

The RSS feed will still refresh over to Facebook & Linked-In. I rarely check in on my Linked-In page but I do moderate my Facebook page most days.

Maybe it’s the cold weather? It is that time of year in Pittsburgh when the walls start closing in. I miss walking. I miss the large sky. I miss a well-thought-out response. Take your time and write to me if you feel the need. There is much reacting, take pleasure in composing.

The hiatus on commenting could go either way, not sure. Whichever direction this leads, good conversation is what I am looking for. For those of you who e-mail me please continue to do so. I will do my best to respond.

See the “Say Hi” tab at the top of this page for my e-mail info.
If you would wish to write me a letter, e-mail for the address.

p.s.
The pen in the photo above was a gift from my Father. I think of it as an instrument rather than a pen. The longer I hold a camera in my hands the more I think of it as an instrument also; an instrument that takes a lifetime to learn how to play.

Photo of the Week

1.24.2011

Conversations & Theft

When is it enough? When is it time to quit sharing?


It all started off as a normal day. Coffee, Internet reading, photo-editing, research...then I came across this….(so badly do I want to insert a hyperlink here).

When conversation leads to theft.

I have shared openly here on this blog and within the photo community. I have taught, consulted and had general sit-downs with others to share ideas. "Create, connect and grow" is my business philosophy. It's not just a catch phrase for attention grabbing.

The ending thought to all my workshops is:
Photography is the easiest medium to master, but the hardest within to be noticed.

I am not even sure if I wrote that or if I ripped it off of somebody. I have been saying it for years and it ended up as a reoccurring theme in my blog and journals. I Googled the phase and it comes up nowhere so I assume that it is mine or at least not published. If I am wrong in my thinking please let me know. I will give credit and much thanks to the author.

It is hard to be original in photography. We are all chameleons of the images that came before us.

However, honesty in business should not be that hard of a stretch to pull off.

As of late I have been rambling on about how we have all turned the digital-cultural-commerce age into re-mixes of generations past.

Maybe this is true?

Hopefully we/I spend more time creating anew than in stealing the old from yesterday.

Create something new.
Be ethical.

Moment

Current Reading: The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin
Current Music: The Promise by Bruce Springsteen
Mood: Motivated to do good
Smells: Coffee
Sounds: Wind & garbage trucks
Temperature: 9 degrees, cold very cold.
Thoughts: Implied harmony & empty space…

Pittsburgh Photography Workshop 2.12.2011

In your gut you want to be a PHOTOGRAPHER. Or maybe you just want to learn how to use that expensive camera you just bought but you’re not sure who to ask. You have a great eye for composition but you just need some guidance, an advisor to help YOU fulfill your dreams. Make the jump from thinking, daydreaming and create great photographs…

Is this you?
-You take great pictures
-Everybody tells you that you take great pictures
-Your friends and family always ask you to bring your camera
-You bought an expensive new DSLR camera
-You have no idea how to use to it, except on AUTO
-The camera’s manual scares the bajesus out of you
-You love photography and want to get better

Who should take this workshop?
-If the list above is YOU
-You love taking photographs
-ISO, F/stop, shutter speed, and aperture are words that means nothing to you
-You have no idea what DSLR means
-If you want to able to tell your camera what to do
-If you want the mysteries of the photo universe revealed to you

What you will learn:
-Understanding exposure
-How to use your camera in manual mode
-How to take a photo “correctly” in camera
-Natural light techniques
-Understanding your lens
-Understanding White Balance
-Flash Techniques

TO REGISTER FOLLOW THIS: (HERE)
http://www.craig-photography.com/workshop/howtophoto/

1.18.2011

Intentionality of Vision


Looking through this distorted field of vision, raindrop starbursts by oncoming headlights, the separation of colors became only black, white or red, leaving little room for depth perception. My vision scared me. I had little control over my sight.

It was hard to see while driving home from teaching a workshop last night, it was a rainy night. It was one of those nights that the rain was not hard enough to have your wipers going constantly, but enough rain to impair vision.

When I would turn the wipers on it would blur my vision well before improving my sight. So, I would only sporadically turn the wipers on and off as needed. Driving with this pixelated windshield of small raindrops had me thinking about vision.

The word "vision" to me usually takes on a future-thought of what is to come. The word "vision" is one of my personal motivational words as in: “I need to have a vision, work with a purpose and give without expectation”. A simple phrase that I use to guide me along my journey of life.

This vision-experience of driving in the rain had me thinking about the intentionality of seeing; vision with a purpose.

A while back I came across a photo-book taken by children at a school for the blind. The book was amazing. It was about the intentionality of seeing even when sight is not an option.

I often wonder if I would still create photographs if I could not see them.

I think I would.

The idea to create something, be able to physically hold onto a moment for all to see is important. The idea that these blind school children are actually holding onto a photograph that they created...a photograph which would hold more of an image than the human eye can see because it held real life is amazing to me.

Their intentionality of what, when, where & why they perceived this moment worthy of documentation.

That is powerful.

I love the light. I hope it never fades.

If darkness approaches, I will photograph. It may/will become more of a collaborative effort but I will still photograph.

The images will be created out of the intentionality of seeing; vision with a purpose guided by sound, touch, taste and the warmth of the sun.

1.17.2011

Pittsburgh Photography Workshop 2.12.2011

In your gut you want to be a PHOTOGRAPHER. Or maybe you just want to learn how to use that expensive camera you just bought but you’re not sure who to ask. You have a great eye for composition but you just need some guidance, an advisor to help YOU fulfill your dreams. Make the jump from thinking, daydreaming and create great photographs…

Is this you?
-You take great pictures
-Everybody tells you that you take great pictures
-Your friends and family always ask you to bring your camera
-You bought an expensive new DSLR camera
-You have no idea how to use to it, except on AUTO
-The camera’s manual scares the bajesus out of you
-You love photography and want to get better

Who should take this workshop?
-If the list above is YOU
-You love taking photographs
-ISO, F/stop, shutter speed, and aperture are words that means nothing to you
-You have no idea what DSLR means
-If you want to able to tell your camera what to do
-If you want the mysteries of the photo universe revealed to you

What you will learn:
-Understanding exposure
-How to use your camera in manual mode
-How to take a photo “correctly” in camera
-Natural light techniques
-Understanding your lens
-Understanding White Balance
-Flash Techniques

TO REGISTER FOLLOW THIS: (HERE)
http://www.craig-photography.com/workshop/howtophoto/

1.14.2011

Friday 4AM

4am. Can't sleep. Decide to get up out of bed and write something. Laid in bed thinking about different rants that I could write about, after getting out of bed and setting up a writing corner by the fireplace I can no longer remember what to rant about. The fleeting muse is a mystery to me. She opens herself up to you in moments of drifting consciousness and leaves in wakeful moments of clarity.

Reading “Life” by Keith Richards & James Fox. I like that Richards gives credit to his co-author of the book. Too many books are co-authored by ghostwriters. Why not give credit?

A couple of years back I used to have an e-mail relationship with a ghostwriter. She would give me tips and encourage me to write in different directions. I enjoyed that relationship, sorry that it drifted away.

Writing has always been integral to me. As I move forward in this year much more time is dedicated to long journal entries. Much of last year was also dedicated to this, for some reason I did not share much of it. My journals from last year are in no way reflected on the blog. I may try to dig up some of that stuff and share it with you. I have a nice essay on “Faith & Creativity” that I think you might enjoy.

Back to “Life” by Richards, damn he writes great about playing guitar. He hits the emotion of what it is like to be intertwined with an instrument better than anybody else I have read. What is most surprising to me is that the reason I pick up the book in the first place was because it was listed on the best of business books by Wired magazine.

Everything happens in music first. If you want to be ahead of the game on marketing, advertising, branding and most importantly creativity start by studying the music business.

I have based my entire photography career on what I have learned as a musician. There is just something about the balance between extreme commitment (wood-shedding) to your craft and the ability to go out on stage and earn your audience.

Last thing ~ If you haven’t check out my wife's blog in awhile be sure to give it a look. She has been creating some killer stuff… (HERE)

1.13.2011

Moment

Current Reading: Life by Keith Richards
Current Music: Small Craft on Milk Sea by Brain Eno
Mood: Good
Smells: Snow melting on my dog
Sounds: Heater kicking on
Temperature: 19 degrees light snow
Thought: Hurt less, feel more....

1.10.2011

Creative Non Fiction ~ Until the next death, Big Blue

Standing outside on the sidewalk on Wallace Street. Just walked out of the big blue funeral home. Directly in front of me is the church where I attended preschool. Hated that place. Who hates preschool? I did. Mean old lady teacher, still gives me flash backs of her yelling at us.

For the life of me I cannot remember the name of the funeral home that I just walked out of. Big Blue on Wallace Street is all I can ever remember calling it.

I have walked in and out of this place well over a 100 times. That is a lot of time spent in the house of death. It’s the family funeral home. My Grandfather was one of thirteen kids. They created quite a lot of offspring, in turn lots of deaths throughout the years. Top that off with the fact that I was an altar boy for St. Michaels Church right down the road from big blue. A couple times a month I would be standing next to Father John holding the smelly smoking incense as he recited the rosary for the mourners. More often than not it was someone who was somehow related to me.

Today I was at big blue paying my respects to Mrs. Waterston. I knew Mrs. Waterston my whole life and never new her first name. It was always “Hi Mrs. Waterston” followed by a hug and kiss on the cheek. A kind lady, she will be missed.

Mrs. Waterston is Jimmy's mother, my best friend from elementary school. This was the first time I have seen Jimmy in over twenty years, at his mother funeral.

Jimmy and I did not have much to say to each other besides the general niceties about our lives. “Kids?” and “Yes, two boys and a girl.” “You?”, "One girl. She is four, five this January.” Next I would have asked how his mother was doing but that topic of conversation was no more. He asked about my parents. I said goodbye to Jimmy then proceeded to kneel at the casket and say a prayer for his mother and to thank her for all the cinnamon toast that she made us.

It's nice seeing your first best friend, even if you have nothing to talk about. Talking, that should not have been a problem for us. We never did have much to talk about even as kids. Jimmy was smart and bad at sports. Me, I was not interested in school and getting better at sports every day. No big childhood break up; one day I went to the ballfield and he went to the library and that was that.

There would be one more time that Jimmy would come into my life before the death of his mother. Right after college we were both dating sisters at the same time without either one of us knowing it. My sister was here in Pittsburgh and his sister was studying at Penn State. The sisters did not turn out well for either of us, especially me.

So here I stand on Wallace Street, outside on the sidewalk in front of the big blue funeral home across the street from my preschool after having a short and slightly awkward conversation with my childhood friend at his mother's funeral viewing.

The street is dirty, littered with garbage day. My car is parked between two pickup trucks that are filled with junk they must have collected on trash day. You know those trucks that drive around picking up broken lawn mowers and old TV’s that no longer work? Those types of trucks.

I sit in my car and think about the fact that the only time I come back to this town is to go to the big blue funeral home. Nobody ever gets married here, they only seem to die. How odd is that?

Drove past the elementary school. Still the same but with a new playground. Drove past the ballfield that I spent the majority of my childhood at. It’s a mess. The basketball backboard is torn down. Two big metal polls are left standing where backboards used to be hung. The ballfield is over grown and the batting cage has been removed. My childhood ballpark is now a ghost town and is no field of dreams.

Drove my old paper route to see what has become of the place. Houses condemned, abandoned or just not kept up. This is why people only die here, I think to myself. There is no life left.

Drove past Jimmy's house on 10th street. Big yellow house with a For Sale sign in the front lawn. All I could think to myself was 'Good luck unloading that Jimmy.'

I had one of those moments where I could see the eight year old in me playing in that yard, climbing that big tree that still stands in the backyard.

I loved the town that I grew up in. It was old world. Everyone was Italian, we were all Catholic, and even the non-Catholic seemed catholic to me. We listened to Bruce Springsteen, drank iced tea out of paper cartons. I delivered newspapers to old ladies who would give me cookies and to old men who would let me sip the wine they made in barrels in their garages.

Today I am 41, Mrs. Waterston died at 77. I never even knew her fist name, never even thought about it until I started writing this.

Until the next death, Big Blue.

1.09.2011

Monday ~ Interesting Stuff


Came across some interesting links.

Evernote app (HERE), I am late to the game on discovering this app. I just downloaded it to my iPad. I keep paper journals but think this is the best note-taking tool that I have ever discovered. Not sure how much I will use it but I am interested to find out, especially like the voice recording feature.

“Facebook hype will fade” article by Douglas Rushkoff, read it (HERE). It seems that the Facebook story has been all over the news network shows this weekend. This article is a counterpoint outlook to the 50 billion dollar hype that has been surrounding Mark Zuckerberg.

Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think? A new book edited by John Brockman the founder of EDGE.org. This is a book that I am very much looking forward to reading. Wall Street Journal has a good article about this upcoming book (HERE).

It looks like my reading and studying digital culture/commerce has not come to an end in the New Year. The hive mentality of copying the digital leader is too wide spread for a new culture to arise. Can you think of music or fashion that dates the 90’s or 00’s? The 60’s, 70’s & 80’s have a sound a fashion but these last twenty years has been owned by the remix, remash and redo culture. Or as I like to call it the copy, pay & wait culture of current day.

Who am I to complain? The last ten years of my life have been very good to me. My lifestyle could not exist if it was not for the digital culture/commerce that the Internet has provided. If I had to be tied to a brick and mortar store the freedom that I have would be gone.

Create, connect & grow.

Pittsburgh Photography Workshop 2.12.2011

In your gut you want to be a PHOTOGRAPHER. Or maybe you just want to learn how to use that expensive camera you just bought but you’re not sure who to ask. You have a great eye for composition but you just need some guidance, an advisor to help YOU fulfill your dreams. Make the jump from thinking, daydreaming and create great photographs…

Is this you?
-You take great pictures
-Everybody tells you that you take great pictures
-Your friends and family always ask you to bring your camera
-You bought an expensive new DSLR camera
-You have no idea how to use to it, except on AUTO
-The camera’s manual scares the bajesus out of you
-You love photography and want to get better

Who should take this workshop?
-If the list above is YOU
-You love taking photographs
-ISO, F/stop, shutter speed, and aperture are words that means nothing to you
-You have no idea what DSLR means
-If you want to able to tell your camera what to do
-If you want the mysteries of the photo universe revealed to you

What you will learn:
-Understanding exposure
-How to use your camera in manual mode
-How to take a photo “correctly” in camera
-Natural light techniques
-Understanding your lens
-Understanding White Balance
-Flash Techniques

TO REGISTER FOLLOW THIS: (HERE)
http://www.craig-photography.com/workshop/howtophoto/

1.05.2011

Thursday


Long days, been fighting the flu.

Currently working on enhancements to the photo-workshop during the days. A great deal of the updates can be found throughout the archives of this blog. There is something greatly egotistically enjoyable about scanning through your own archives for new ideas.

Life is lived forward but understood backwards. Which philosopher said that? That is what’s great about keeping a working portfolio and journals. With reflection, perceptions and time away to see the work anew again.

As I write this post I am on a conference call with/about entrepreneurship. Is there anything more boring than listening in on a conference call that is nothing more than a blog article rehashed? (maybe reading about me complaining about it)?

On an odd side note: I went to the eye doctor today. How long will my eyes stay dilated? Eye drops were applied around 4pm and it’s now 9:30pm and I look all black eyed.

1.03.2011

Moment

Current Reading: Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So: A Memoir by Mark Vonnegut
&
The Thieves of Manhattan by Adam Langer (both books very enjoyable)
Current Music: Antonio Ramos "Maca" (... Spanish Flamenco bassist, great stuff)
Mood: Back to life
Smells:Wine
Sounds: My dog panting..she does that a lot in her old age.
Temperature: 34 degrees
Thoughts: Life is lived forward but understood backwards.

1.01.2011

Working Artist's Duty

1:47am on New Year's Day. Still feels likes New Years Eve to me, I haven’t gone to bed yet. Elizabeth and I spent our New Year's Eve shooting a wedding. I finished importing my last wedding of the year, currently backing up to external hard drive while drinking a glass of Chianti Classico wine as I type this. Hope your holiday was a great one!

I have been writing and reading during my blog hiatus, felt good just to write. In this next year this blog will take on more of a diary style of writing to its format. No more “How-To” posts. Format is an odd word to use when blogging but I am going to use it.

Thinking about shutting off the comment option to this blog to keep my focus on generating a body of work and not to be influenced by what others think….not that I get many comments either way… It feels like the purity of creating and uploading for the sake of doing it should be enough. Not sure yet what, if anything, I will do.

For the past two years I have been community building, better yet, trying to community build in the photo community in Pittsburgh. I no longer will focus on that anymore. To my disappointment it seems more/most people (not all) are interested in opening a businesses than enjoying/learning the process of creating photographs. That's not a bad thing, unless the knowledge is being used to jump in with both feet while neglecting the process of gaining experience, being ethical to the professional community around you and the clients you are about to serve...which seemed to be the case.

Why? It could have been me; there is a good chance that I delivered the wrong message. So let me put it straight: Create something new, daily. Enjoy the creative process. If you have a passion to understand the craft of photography by all means go for it. It’s a great life.

With that said, teaching, consulting and workshops will continue but the open door policy that I have embraced will be no more.

Let me offer two apologies: one to the people with passion and effort who have a love for the creative process,. And two: to the established photo community at large, I meant no harm. I am sorry for the culture that arose.

Let me end with some good news…

I deeply believe that it is the working artist's duty to mentor and help the next generation of up and coming artist. I promise that I will figure out a way to help those who are truly passionate about there craft.

Do the least amount of harm possible and be aware of the harm that you cause.