Ambient Art

Updates & Stuff

~ I will be attending TEDxCMU this Sunday ! Watch it live on April 3 at http://bit.ly/c9IXPS #tedxcmu. If you want to meet up for lunch please e-mail me.

~ A new workshop in May will be held at WYEP Community Broadcast Center. Register info coming soon.

~ In July I will giving a talk at Upper St Clair Health fair on “Faith & Creativity.

~ Be sure to check out my “Workshop” page for class that had to be reschedule.

~ Jimmy Fallon is funny!

Street Photography

Madness That is Bliss

The paragraph below is what I wrote after reading the responses to the “Faith & Creativity” stories that I asked you to share with me. Please keep them coming. What follows is a stream of conscious writing: My apologies to whomever reads this. Sometimes you just have to.....

When I am happy I do not create. When I am blue, spirits haunt me. I need a tank of fuel to create. Fueled by spirits of the bottle, madness of the psyche, motivation of my heartbeat. I sit next to the crazy girl in the bar just to listen to her talk, “Set fire to the world, envelope please, another scotch & soda barkeep” she says. I love every breath she takes. Just listen to her. It's like jazz. I steal every idea she spews. She looks at me and says “I hate people." Next she asks me the same damn thing, “Do you hate people?” No, I just like like it when they don’t ask too much of me. I am not a joiner or a loner, just a seeker of the divine. Maybe I am the divine. I think I could have been a prophet if I would have just listened more to the voices, but I didn't. The voices, the ones that speak between levels of consciousness. I drift awake, drift asleep, they speak, they whisper, they thank me for my hospitality. We need the room, you provided the space. They thank me for the fuel that I provide. They ask for another, I pour a drink, down it, then another.

Recognizing those crazy moments of madness, that is bliss. That is what pure consciousness must feel like.

Faith & Creativity ~ Share Your Story

Share your story with me.

I would like to hear about how your faith has shaped, formed, moved and inspired your creative practice. Or how your creative practice has opened up the world of faith, spirit and connection with the Divine in your life.

Start off by e-mailing me at jecraig@mac.com after that we can Skype or have a phone call.

Why do I ask? Looking to find people who I can connect with, write about and hopefully photograph their stories to help others along their own journey.

Please pass this post along.

100 Straight Miles

I drove 100 straight miles today on the Ohio turnpike. 100 straight miles, no turns, no hills or no valleys in the roadway. The plains of pasture-land blended with blue skies, fluffy clouds and the graying horizon. This is what pure consciousness must feel like.

Grandeur without measure, glory beyond belief, 100 miles of straightness. The road was quiet. I barely passed a car or truck the entire trip. At times I was lost in the void of what is real. My wife and daughter both asleep. 100 straight miles of quiet. This is what pure consciousness must feel like.

I dreamed of walking 100 straight miles. Just myself, my breath, my feet and a journey without need of discovery. What would it be like to walk 100 straight miles in quiet? A walking meditation with no purpose, only to experience. This is what pure consciousness must feel like.

These thoughts, however obscure, ran throughout my head. My journey has changed in life. I needed to ask myself some questions. Those are always the hardest ones to answer. Sometimes you just don’t know. Then again sometimes you need to answer those questions.

I walk.

I am giving myself the month of March to go for walks, lots of them.

Weekend Workshops & Book Recommendations

Thank you to all for attending this past weekends workshop. Below are a list of book recommendations that can help guide you along your photography journey.

Remember photography is to be experienced with a camera in your hand. Reading books and blogs (including this one) is only a smattering of information. Go for a walk and create something new...

Book Recommendations

Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson

Learning to See Creatively by Bryan Peterson

Zen of Creativity by John Daido Loori

Moment

Current Reading: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Marakami
Current Music: Consequence of Chaos by Al Di Meola
Mood: Needles & pins all over...
Smells: Coffee & left over spaghetti
Sounds: Humming heater & panting dog
Temperature: 7 degrees feels like -2 out there.
Thoughts: New biz-site coming soon(ish)

Photo of the Week

Is The Internet Changing The Way You Think

Finished reading “Is The Internet Changing The Way You Think?” edited by John Brockman, 150 of the world's top thinkers answer this question.

Brockman doesn't seem to be interested in my view on this subject but I wanted to share my thoughts with you.

At first glance the easy answer is how the Internet has changed the way I live, not how I think. I sit a lot more. I opened a business without the need of a brick and mortar storefront. I have a lot more free stuff.

I think the same as I did before the advent of the Internet.

I research, read, receive daily news, watch TV, run a business, listen to music, network, meet friends, catch up with old friends, dream, travel, and purchase useless stuff...lots of it, all before the Internet.

Still I have no idea why the Internet is a capitalized word? Is "Internet" a proper noun?

I Googled that question to discover that it is a proper noun because there is only one worldwide Internet.

When thinking about that question my answer came to me.

When I am plugged into the net I am smarter. When I am disconnected I am dumber. Simple but true, my universal knowledge has expanded but my mind has not.

The ability to act, live, take action, to discover without needing to ask the Internet-machine first, that is thinking.

I am feeling reactive today but hey, that is just my thoughts….

Story within a Single Frame

Facing my uncomfortable zone. My one hour street photography project continued this past Friday. After having lunch with a fellow photographer and discussing my fears of street photography, I took off into the cold streets of Pittsburgh to shoot.

Shoot intentional; this is the advice he gave me. It was the second time I had a conversation with him on the theme of shooting intentionally.

For an hour I walked with camera in hand feeling uncomfortable, awkward and slightly nervous. My photography career has been broken into two major styles of photography, people and non-people. Photographing people is the easy part of my career. I direct, they listen. I have control. Non-people (landscape, nature, ambient, abstract) is also easy as long as Mother Nature does her part. Find a location, set up the tripod and wait for the splendor and glory to compose herself for the shot.

Street photography is the third leg to my photography. Photographing life without interacting or being invited, without a predetermined event to cover. Last year I documented the G20 Summit that was held in Pittsburgh. After that I thought how easy street and photojournalistic photography was.

I was wrong.

Shooting an event is shooting an event, but having the ability to see a story within a single frame is a skill. A skill that I am committed to developing.

After giving up I duck into a coffeehouse to warm up. From my table I took the above photo, a happy accident.

Go Suck at Something Else For Awhile

In photography I am more interested in my flexibility to change form than I am at mastery of a definitive style.

During a conversation with a fellow photographer I received critiquing about how to improve my seeing-photography skills. In a nutshell it was go towards what scares the hell out of you. For me, that is getting close to the unknown subject.

What I learned was that my ability to see has become boxed in. The other day I went out to shoot "street photography" and I ended up shooting landscape photography that happened to be out on the streets, rather than in the woods or atop a city skyline.

In truth the work was a failure with a lucky success. I failed because I did not shoot what I wanted to photograph, especially in my minds-eye. I would have rather came home with bad street photography, which I can grow upon, than a good set of accidental landscape portraits set in a city background.

In the summer of 1987 my parents took me to Beale Street in Memphis, TN as a graduation present from high school. I was, still am, that kid mystified by music. The memory or moment that changed me forever was when I was standing in line, waiting to get in to an R&B club, when an older couple remarked “who does that little white boy think he is wearing a Miles Davis t-shirt”. Truthfully I had no idea who Miles was. To me the shirt was pop culture. I could have easily been wearing a Che or tie dyed Bob Marley shirt.

That moment of being uncomfortable excited me to explore all avenues of music, in turn all avenues of photography.

My iPod is filled with music that interests me, not all music that I particularly enjoy. I keep going back to what I can’t understand but nonetheless intrigues me.

That is the photography lesson; being good at something boxes you in. I would venture to guess once your boxed in you are no longer as good as you once were.

I am going to go out and take a lot of bad street-photos until a get a couple of good ones . Than I’ll go suck at something else for awhile.

Thanks to Miles Davis.

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.

Photo of the Week

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

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.

Photo of the Week

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.

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)