My world is relatively small in the daily. In this unsettling era it seem at times that the larger world has flung it into the cosmos. When that overwhelming sense overtakes me it helps to pull it back through descriptive creative effort.
Showing posts with label creative. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creative. Show all posts
3/3/18
Far Flung
My small world catapulted into the cosmos...
My world is relatively small in the daily. In this unsettling era it seem at times that the larger world has flung it into the cosmos. When that overwhelming sense overtakes me it helps to pull it back through descriptive creative effort.
My world is relatively small in the daily. In this unsettling era it seem at times that the larger world has flung it into the cosmos. When that overwhelming sense overtakes me it helps to pull it back through descriptive creative effort.
6/11/17
10/24/12
Revelation Dawned
A sunrise vision awakened...
Through speculative window a revelation dawned,
shifting frame of thinking...
unexpectedly, swiftly, precisely,
mind's eye scales peeled off
abruptly, promptly, directly.
Time substantiated a sunrise awakened,
lighting skyline of visioning...
unpremeditatedly, quickly, exactly,
mirror of the mind cleared
rapidly, agilely, expeditiously.
Life is more art than science
though science interprets facts of life
building blocks for creating
a world we interpret as our own.
Hence we make art,
authenticating our reason for living.
Through speculative window a revelation dawned,
shifting frame of thinking...
unexpectedly, swiftly, precisely,
mind's eye scales peeled off
abruptly, promptly, directly.
Time substantiated a sunrise awakened,
lighting skyline of visioning...
unpremeditatedly, quickly, exactly,
mirror of the mind cleared
rapidly, agilely, expeditiously.
Life is more art than science
though science interprets facts of life
building blocks for creating
a world we interpret as our own.
Hence we make art,
authenticating our reason for living.
9/4/12
2/15/12
How With No Fixed Focus
I zoomed in on my own forms of photo art...
In the past five years my creative endeavors have taken off in ways I never imagined at first. The teaching for me has been to start something that at first I may have no clear idea what I want to do but have one or two themes or ideas. With a minimal of equipment and as many free programs available now on the internet anyone can be a creator of content and take their ideas in new directions. It is a matter of what mode of expression intrigues you and how you want to create what is your own. You will find your own style and swath your own groove by using what thoughts or images in your head fire off your imagination. In my case I'm discovering that I have multiple currents running through me molding into an artistry of my own.
It has taken me quite awhile to stretch and play around in ways I see others don't and it was a result of some rather simple things. What I read and saw around me that was supposed to be the standard for good form in writing, videos or photography seemed technically proficient but fatigued to me. How many ways can you write about social problems, economics and politics without repeating yourself? I took a fiction creative writing class where I found people learning to mock stories that have been written before. What is the point in that? With video editing I learned from a good teacher but through my own inertia didn't stretch myself the way she has and one day I will pick that up again. The electrical impulse that really singed my mind is most photography I see is dry digital reproduction that follows the rules and really how many ways can you photograph the Grand Canyon? For some reason photography struck my visionary synapses as something I wanted to remake for myself.
The availability of a good camera on my smartphone allows me to easily take photos without lugging a separate camera around and suits my sense of minimalism twofold. I don't like to carry a lot of stuff around no matter where I go and I'm not enamored of complex equipment in anything. It also enables me to shoot a photo quickly and easily without much fuss or attention from others. I discovered a respected free photo editing program and learned the basics. It didn't take long to get bored with editing pictures that might earn "oohs" and "ahs" but looked like everything else in photo streams.
With no fixed focus in my lens I quit making pictures and started creating photo art. I started playing with a few features on my Android phone camera adding a few apps with the idea that a good photograph still must originate "in the camera" with solid composition. I upload each shot right after I take it over the air and when I get home save them to an external drive and then in current parlance process it. I tend to start with an image and a theme and usually end up with something I hadn't quite envisioned but somehow knew the navigational path. Along my way I have uncovered that I am able to integrate two currents that I've always worked with, the desert and American southwestern colors using processing techniques that bring them together into art that is recognizable as my own creations.
In the past five years my creative endeavors have taken off in ways I never imagined at first. The teaching for me has been to start something that at first I may have no clear idea what I want to do but have one or two themes or ideas. With a minimal of equipment and as many free programs available now on the internet anyone can be a creator of content and take their ideas in new directions. It is a matter of what mode of expression intrigues you and how you want to create what is your own. You will find your own style and swath your own groove by using what thoughts or images in your head fire off your imagination. In my case I'm discovering that I have multiple currents running through me molding into an artistry of my own.
It has taken me quite awhile to stretch and play around in ways I see others don't and it was a result of some rather simple things. What I read and saw around me that was supposed to be the standard for good form in writing, videos or photography seemed technically proficient but fatigued to me. How many ways can you write about social problems, economics and politics without repeating yourself? I took a fiction creative writing class where I found people learning to mock stories that have been written before. What is the point in that? With video editing I learned from a good teacher but through my own inertia didn't stretch myself the way she has and one day I will pick that up again. The electrical impulse that really singed my mind is most photography I see is dry digital reproduction that follows the rules and really how many ways can you photograph the Grand Canyon? For some reason photography struck my visionary synapses as something I wanted to remake for myself.
The availability of a good camera on my smartphone allows me to easily take photos without lugging a separate camera around and suits my sense of minimalism twofold. I don't like to carry a lot of stuff around no matter where I go and I'm not enamored of complex equipment in anything. It also enables me to shoot a photo quickly and easily without much fuss or attention from others. I discovered a respected free photo editing program and learned the basics. It didn't take long to get bored with editing pictures that might earn "oohs" and "ahs" but looked like everything else in photo streams.
With no fixed focus in my lens I quit making pictures and started creating photo art. I started playing with a few features on my Android phone camera adding a few apps with the idea that a good photograph still must originate "in the camera" with solid composition. I upload each shot right after I take it over the air and when I get home save them to an external drive and then in current parlance process it. I tend to start with an image and a theme and usually end up with something I hadn't quite envisioned but somehow knew the navigational path. Along my way I have uncovered that I am able to integrate two currents that I've always worked with, the desert and American southwestern colors using processing techniques that bring them together into art that is recognizable as my own creations.
1/8/12
The Presentation Of Self
In everyday life...
Self-Portrait of the artist by representation in photographs.
The self-portrait is a highly self conscious act by a creative person and may by some considered an act of conceit. Perhaps that might be but consider the artist may have no other subject, is actually more self-conscious depicting others or simply is trying to express who and how they see themselves. It is an attempt to represent the image they wish to project or see themselves reflected in. In some sense it is an act of courage to turn the self inside out for the world to view. It could be an accurate depiction of themselves or a presentment of whom and what they see themselves as.
In this set of photographs my goal was to record myself as I approach my sixties for several reasons. Primarily though for visual documentation as I see myself now to be able to look back on in future years. I have been chronicling myself this way since my twenties, although not in any specific regularity, finding that when I look at past photographs my perception of self as not been much different as documented. There are three photographs, one is an outline of an image I have of myself and another is a standard photograph while the other an everyday act recorded in a unique way.
Self-Portrait of the artist by representation in photographs.
The self-portrait is a highly self conscious act by a creative person and may by some considered an act of conceit. Perhaps that might be but consider the artist may have no other subject, is actually more self-conscious depicting others or simply is trying to express who and how they see themselves. It is an attempt to represent the image they wish to project or see themselves reflected in. In some sense it is an act of courage to turn the self inside out for the world to view. It could be an accurate depiction of themselves or a presentment of whom and what they see themselves as.
12/19/11
The Electric Etch A Sketch
Utilitarian as aesthetic matter...
The perpendicular and horizontal lines that cross the landscape of the sky are omnipresent whether or not the ground beneath them is occupied by humans. Over the decades many of these lines have been buried but still just about everywhere you travel you see poles and lines. They serve as the conduit primarily for electricity which is the foundation of the other technologies of modern life, wireline telephone, cable television and the internet.
There are very few of us that live in contemporary society that would like to live without electricity and at least one of the other services these lines carry. Even wireless is transported at some point through the path of a physical line. Some people view them as marring the landscape, some are oblivious to them and some of us see them as markings on the panorama of state-of-the-art life. We are fascinated by what they transmit as well as viewing them as sketch marks to be recorded and developed into our creative vision of what the world around us looks like. They have a useful mission and utilitarian purpose as well as serving as outlines for images to the creative mind.
The crisscrossing of utility lines, utility poles, streets and traffic lights, rail lines, medians that divide them, sidewalks and shoulders that define them are commonplace but not ordinary due to purpose. They all have function and are the underpinnings of the very civilization we often taken for granted and sometimes curse. Every facet of twenty-first century living in some way or another is dependent upon them. The allure that appeals to me is two-fold. I am fascinated by the intertwining networks that somehow connect to make it all work and the angles and irregularities of the lines and shapes that are like borders on maps in the sky around us. They evoke images for me to record with a camera and then turn into my own work of my creativity.
The perpendicular and horizontal lines that cross the landscape of the sky are omnipresent whether or not the ground beneath them is occupied by humans. Over the decades many of these lines have been buried but still just about everywhere you travel you see poles and lines. They serve as the conduit primarily for electricity which is the foundation of the other technologies of modern life, wireline telephone, cable television and the internet.
There are very few of us that live in contemporary society that would like to live without electricity and at least one of the other services these lines carry. Even wireless is transported at some point through the path of a physical line. Some people view them as marring the landscape, some are oblivious to them and some of us see them as markings on the panorama of state-of-the-art life. We are fascinated by what they transmit as well as viewing them as sketch marks to be recorded and developed into our creative vision of what the world around us looks like. They have a useful mission and utilitarian purpose as well as serving as outlines for images to the creative mind.
10/29/11
Is It A Blur or Visionary?
Struggling with my creative self...
Pushing the envelope.
Some of my best writing and photography is not by design but by mistake, a fuzzy outline, a blur. They just happen. I will have an idea of what I want to write but end up writing something vaguely similar to what I started out with in the original thought. My struggle is with what I think is mediocre that I can easily produce and still elicit a good response. What I mean by mediocre is work that although it might be very good it is not unique or stands out from similar writing or photographs. How many photographs of a desert sunset can there be before they all become the same? I do my backyard landscape well now but how to do it originally or differently is what I struggle with.
I don't think I'm unique in that struggle but I do think it can be a struggle to be unique in this ubiquitous age of the internet. Some people have hobbies or play sports and that is their outlet to stand out or be a part of the crowd. For those of us who are creative that is our outlet regardless of our talent or how we express ourselves. We may never be a Rembrandt or Mozart but the challenge is to produce the best work we can and keep raising the bar.
Lately I've been experimenting with my Droid X taking pictures as they happen or something strikes me. Since I like to do as much as possible "in the camera" with relatively minimal editing as an enhancement I try to do different things while taking the shot. Recently it's been in motion or playing with settings. I still take the best possible landscape and street photography I can but I regard a lot of it right now as stock photography. The idea is that in the future I'll look at them again with a renewed eye and realize they still have value. Right now I'm a malcontent, a dissident against my own average, not willing to settle for mainstream, forcing myself to edit a photo blunder to turn the picture into a different wonder. If I were a painter I'd say that it is a fight against painting-by-numbers and struggling with an explosion of colors while taming them at the same time. Also by contrast toying with lack of color in black and white.
It seems I turned a corner with writing this year although I'm not where I would like to be, I don't feel as if I'm cranking out the same political and economics commentary I once did. Previously it was a struggle to get out of the same old habits writing history. Really that is the contest with all my creative enterprises, writing, photography, video and editing all of them. Building upon what I've already done while still bursting out at another level with something rejuvenating and vibrant. Currently it is photography. When I become bored with my own work then I know it is time to experiment and make mistakes or redirecting what I started to a different channel. In trial and error suddenly there comes a surprise, something different, a breakout moment that begs to be continued.
Pushing the envelope.
Some of my best writing and photography is not by design but by mistake, a fuzzy outline, a blur. They just happen. I will have an idea of what I want to write but end up writing something vaguely similar to what I started out with in the original thought. My struggle is with what I think is mediocre that I can easily produce and still elicit a good response. What I mean by mediocre is work that although it might be very good it is not unique or stands out from similar writing or photographs. How many photographs of a desert sunset can there be before they all become the same? I do my backyard landscape well now but how to do it originally or differently is what I struggle with.
I don't think I'm unique in that struggle but I do think it can be a struggle to be unique in this ubiquitous age of the internet. Some people have hobbies or play sports and that is their outlet to stand out or be a part of the crowd. For those of us who are creative that is our outlet regardless of our talent or how we express ourselves. We may never be a Rembrandt or Mozart but the challenge is to produce the best work we can and keep raising the bar.
It seems I turned a corner with writing this year although I'm not where I would like to be, I don't feel as if I'm cranking out the same political and economics commentary I once did. Previously it was a struggle to get out of the same old habits writing history. Really that is the contest with all my creative enterprises, writing, photography, video and editing all of them. Building upon what I've already done while still bursting out at another level with something rejuvenating and vibrant. Currently it is photography. When I become bored with my own work then I know it is time to experiment and make mistakes or redirecting what I started to a different channel. In trial and error suddenly there comes a surprise, something different, a breakout moment that begs to be continued.
10/9/11
Selfy Sunday | 10-09-11
Feeling Blue...
Jeff Smith and Levi Moore collaborate on a project called "Selfy Sunday" open to photographers on Google+ for posting and sharing a self-portrait taken that day or the week before. This photograph is my contribution to Self Sunday - Oct. 9 | 2011.
My contribution and the associated comments can be viewed by clicking on Feeling Blue | Jr Snyder Jr and clicking on +JR Snyder Jr will take you to my Google+ posts and profile. You may also want to visit my Picasa Web Photo Albums.
Jeff Smith and Levi Moore collaborate on a project called "Selfy Sunday" open to photographers on Google+ for posting and sharing a self-portrait taken that day or the week before. This photograph is my contribution to Self Sunday - Oct. 9 | 2011.
My contribution and the associated comments can be viewed by clicking on Feeling Blue | Jr Snyder Jr and clicking on +JR Snyder Jr will take you to my Google+ posts and profile. You may also want to visit my Picasa Web Photo Albums.
10/6/11
Home On The Range
Occupied by Desert Rats...
Desert rat is a term used regionally in the vernacular for someone who lives in the desert. Sometimes they live marginally but quite happily. This place is in the middle of southeastern Arizona and is occupied. There are a few other mobile homes close to it that are in a little better shape so I assume this is the oldest one in the small remote group.
There are a wide variety of desert rats and many have nicer digs and are self-sufficient with electric power, water and connection to the outside world via satellite dish. Remote desert areas may seem sparse but if you scratch the surface you will find all kinds of interesting and creative people who embody the spirit of the desert. Deserts are places where the hardy, both natural and human, create maximum use of the minimum of resources.
Desert rat is a term used regionally in the vernacular for someone who lives in the desert. Sometimes they live marginally but quite happily. This place is in the middle of southeastern Arizona and is occupied. There are a few other mobile homes close to it that are in a little better shape so I assume this is the oldest one in the small remote group.
There are a wide variety of desert rats and many have nicer digs and are self-sufficient with electric power, water and connection to the outside world via satellite dish. Remote desert areas may seem sparse but if you scratch the surface you will find all kinds of interesting and creative people who embody the spirit of the desert. Deserts are places where the hardy, both natural and human, create maximum use of the minimum of resources.
9/26/11
Selfy Sunday | 09-25-11
Purple In Silver City NM...
Google+ has turned out to be quite popular with photographers and other creative artists. Jeff Smith and Levi Moore collaborate on a project called "Selfy Sunday" open to photographers on Google+ for posting and sharing a self-portrait taken that day or the week before. This photograph is my contribution to Selfy Sunday - Sept. 25 | 2011.
This has turned out to be an enriching project and a great way to share with other photographers, amateur and professional, new or experienced your work and see the work of others. It is an exercise in how you portray yourself with your photography.
My contribution and the associated comments can be viewed by clicking on Purple in Silver City NM and clicking on +JR Snyder Jr will take you to my Google+ posts and profile. You may also want to visit my Picasa Web Photo Albums where I will also be migrating my photos currently on Flickr.
Google+ has turned out to be quite popular with photographers and other creative artists. Jeff Smith and Levi Moore collaborate on a project called "Selfy Sunday" open to photographers on Google+ for posting and sharing a self-portrait taken that day or the week before. This photograph is my contribution to Selfy Sunday - Sept. 25 | 2011.
This has turned out to be an enriching project and a great way to share with other photographers, amateur and professional, new or experienced your work and see the work of others. It is an exercise in how you portray yourself with your photography.
My contribution and the associated comments can be viewed by clicking on Purple in Silver City NM and clicking on +JR Snyder Jr will take you to my Google+ posts and profile. You may also want to visit my Picasa Web Photo Albums where I will also be migrating my photos currently on Flickr.
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