A Slideshow, Aperture 3 and Creativity

Firstly a shout out to Grant Marcus for his guest post yesterday.  Nice insight and I especially liked the monochrome image of the male lion’s face and the last shot of the elephant.  Both have that something special that makes you look twice, three times and each time still makes you notice something new.

Recently I have noticed a lot of photographers doing 365 projects.  The short version is that you are supposed to take a picture each day for a year, hence the clever name, and post it somewhere.  The goal is to force yourself to start thinking outside the box and get you thinking of new ways to create interesting images.  Now even though, in theory, I reckon this is quite a good idea I know that I will not be able to stick to the schedule.  Don’t get me wrong, I would love to give it a bash but I know that my life right now will make it a very frustrating exercise.  I truly admire people who can take on a project like this and see it through all the way!  Being a little obsessive a project like this might lead me to a point where I start getting tense about not getting a shot and I don’t need that right now.  I get it, would love to do it, but not yet.  Perhaps next year.  Or the year after.

So, for now I have decided that each Friday I will post a slideshow with a few images from the week.  These slideshows will mostly include wildlife and landscape images but every now and then I might slip a ‘this-could-have-been-a-365-project-image’ or an image from a recent commission in there if it is interesting enough.  For now here goes with a few images from the last week.

[slideshow id=2]

As you can see from these few images, the last week’s photography has been great and it is always great to have photographers on the vehicle who are willing to wait for the moment.  Wait for the light.  Next week I actually have a few days off in the bush so I will make the most of it and go out there and shoot what I want to.  How I want to.  Some interesting ideas and shots I would like to try and get.  Anybody keen to join?

Apple Aperture 3

During the last week Apple released Aperture 3.

I have never used Aperture for no other reason that I started out with Photoshop and then Lighroom and have not any need to change.  Lightroom does everything I need it to do, well almost, and I know the program well.  For a while now I have been quite excited to see what Adobe comes up with when Lightroom 3 is released and then suddenly Aperture 3 arrives.

As with anything Apple, there is a huge hype around the latest version of Aperture.  Reviews have been great and the list of features make for some pretty impressive reading.

I have just signed up and will be downloading the 30 day trial version of Aperture 3 during the weekend to check it out.  If only half of the reviews are correct and this program has the intuitive feel of most Apple products it should make for a pretty powerful editing package.

I am gonna have fun checking out Aperture 3 to see what the hype is about.  Lightroom 3 is going to have to pack quite a punch to stay ahead of the latest Apple hype.  Will share my thoughts once I have had a chance to play around a bit.

To read more or download a copy of Aperture 3 click here.

Before I sign off for the weekend a quick thought on creativity and sharing your work.

Morkel Erasmus, a previous guest blogger on Photo-Africa recently posted the image on the right on his blog. The image is a combination of a number of shots and some attention in Photoshop.

This image is a great example of digital art and the only thing that is certain is that people’s opinions will differ whether this is a good image or not.  The reality is this – Morkel took a few images, some time and a whole lot of Photoshop creativity to create a fantastic digital artwork.  Not a photograph.  In this instance the photographs do not stand alone as the final product but forms a part of the final product.

Creativity is the ability of making something out of nothing.  Taking a normal scene and making someone else see it for the first time.  Sharing your vision.  Creativity is also very personal and if you are someone who creates something, whether a photo, digital artwork or painting, you will never be able to impress all the people all of the time.

When you create something, share it.  And don’t worry too much what people say – whether good or bad.   Based on an old post on Seth Godin’s blog, remember that there are four groups of people who will potentially view your image or artwork.

• Strangers – People who don’t know you and have never seen your work.
• Critics – People who don’t like your work and sometimes don’t like you.
• Friends – People who like your work and think you’re ok.
• Fans – People who think your work is amazing / spectacular / unbelievable whatever you create.  Your mom normally falls in this category.

Before you react to any kind of comment on you or your work take a moment to think where the comment came from, learn what you can and move on.  There is no point in trying to please everybody all of the time.  Not possible!!  So whether you get good or bad comments on your work – listen, take from it what you can and then set out to create something else.  Take more pictures.  Make more digital art.  Share it with more people.  That is the only way you will grow your own creativity.

Have a good weekend and, yeah you guessed it… go out and create something!

Gerry