The Creative Journey: Expectations, Surprises & Delights

“Don’t expect, either in life or in art. Open yourself to discovery. Enjoy the mystery. All the good stuff is hidden in the dark corners. It’s what gives life its sense of vitality.” John Daido Loori from “The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life.”

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I took this photograph one lovely late spring day while walking in the forest, camera in my hand and no idea what I might photograph that morning. I was exploring, open to discovery when I chanced on this micro scene on the forest floor. Had I been focused on a particular goal I probably would have missed this delightful image. Later, when I published it in June, I composed this poem — no other explanation needed. Surprise and delight are enough.

Morning light
Puddles the forest floor –
Walk softly.

Kerry Leibowitz is an outstanding Landscape Photographer and a fine writer. I discovered his Lightscapes Nature Photography Blog a few weeks ago. When I received an email notification of The Moment, Kerry’s latest post, I went over to have a look. Wow! Kerry describes his trip to White Sands, New Mexico with a marriage of images and words you must see to appreciate. I’ll not spoil the experience. Click over to The Moment and see for yourself. You will not be disappointed.

After reading Kerry’s post (twice) I got to thinking about one of my own experiences, one that I will never forget. One morning in April, 2010 I was in Ceres Nature Preserve setting up to take a few photographs. I was surprised, delighted — so much so that I didn’t make any images of the experience. Instead I recreated my experience in words and posted Morning on Emerald Lake a few days later. I invite you to share that experience with me now.

Life is a creative journey that can be delicious, especially when you follow John Daido Loori’s advice and open yourself to discovery.

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More Tides on the Delaware

I was all set to title this post “High Tide on the Delaware” — until I developed and scanned another roll of film today. The lead image of the pier is much better than the one I shot at high tide. So I changed my mind.

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I shot this photo yesterday. I brought my 24mm lens because I had the itch to go wide. Glad I scratched that itch. The tide was out enough to expose some nice textures on the beach, the clouds co-operated (I used an orange contrast filter), the boys hanging out on the end of the pier added interest to the photo and the reflections called out to be photographed.

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This photo was taken last week. High tide and a brisk breeze made for some interesting conditions. As many times as I’ve photographed the pier at Red Bank Battlefield Park, this was the first time I went out onto the pier. I had it to myself. I used my 75-150 zoom lens to get close to one of the old piles sticking out of the water. Can you feel the movement of the water?

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Here’s another shot of the same pile. I couldn’t make up my mind which photo I liked best so I included both. When I was standing out on the pier, I was reminded of John Daido Loori’s writing about “seeing with your ears and hearing with your eyes.” I felt the water all around me, heard the lapping of the waves on the rocks, smelled the river aromas and the wind  — it was a glorious moment.

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Turn to the north and look up — what a view. That’s the Phila. skyline on the horizon. Can you feel the water now? I used my 50mm lens for this shot and cropped from the top to raise the horizon and give the image a panoramic feel.

The first photo was taken with my Nikon F3HP and Fuji Neopan 400 rated at 640. The rest of the images were taken with my Nikon N8008s and Tri-X rated at 1250. I had loaded the N8008s with Tri-X for a party but we ended up not going. Shooting at 1/4000 sec was the only way to control the light. Who knew I’d ever need a shutter speed that fast?

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Digital Restoration: The Journey & the Inspiration

It seldom occurs to us that the older folks in our lives, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc., were young once and that someday we’ll be the old fogies.

Have a look at this photograph of my grandmother and I, taken in May, 1949. Grandmom was 60 and I was 4 1/2 years old. The photo is one of my favorites and my first serious restoration effort. The inspiration? I needed a good image of my grandmother for the second edition of her cookbook that I edited and produced as an e-book in November, 2010. I used this image on the title page.

I finished the cookbook, “The Collected Recipes of Frances K. Sullivan” in plenty of time to burn the e-book to CDs and mail out to my sister and cousins in time for Christmas. Everyone else got a wrapped copy in person on Christmas Day. I used this restored image of grandmom crocheting in her favorite chair for the cover.

The first edition of the cookbook was done in November, 1987 and printed using a dot matrix printer (and more than one ribbon). Mom helped me decipher grandmom’s handwriting and put the book in order. Mom also paid for the printing and binding (spiral bound 8 1/2 X 11). And we surprised everyone in the family with a copy of the book that Christmas 23 years ago.

This time around I had far more sophisticated computer resources at my disposal. There are 20 chapters in the cookbook. It occurred to me that it might be fun to include images from grandmom’s life in the book so I inserted an image at the beginning of each chapter.

I had discovered a small suitcase filled with old snapshots in mom’s garage. The photos belonged to my late Aunt Martie Ann. As I went through these images looking for material, I saw grandmom as a young mother. I saw her growing family. I realized that these images weren’t simply old photos — they were much more. They were windows into the lives of my grandmother and her family. Real people!

The images I put into the cookbook whet my appitite for more so I published a photo book. This is the cover I created for that project. The book is 8 inches X 8 inches printed on real photo paper. It contains 46 digitally restored photos and sits on my mom’s coffee table. I gave it to her as a Mother’s day gift — she loves it.

The cover image is another of my favorites. Here’s Frances K. Sullivan (she wasn’t a grandmom then) as a young mother in her early thirties with her first three children. The building in the background is the farmhouse. Mom wasn’t born until the family moved to Phila. a few years later.

The reason the image is light and ghostly on the right is because it was double exposed. I cropped and fiddled and came up with a decent image.

The inspiration for my digital restoration journey began with the desire to include images from grandmom’s life in the new edition of the cookbook. The journey continues and takes me deeper into the lives of grandmom and her family. Just the other day I ‘finished’ and published the restored image of grandmom and uncle Harry when grandmom was 10 years old. I restored another image of her grandmother (Uncle Harry’s mother). The journey continues to expand.

I don’t know where the journey will lead but I’m certain of one thing. The images I restore digitally will preserve these precious images and bring them to life for our children, grandchildren and generations to come. And I’m enjoying every minute of the journey.

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Morning Light

Morning light
Puddles the forest floor –
Walk softly.

 

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Reflections: Graduation Day — June, 1970

Hop on the way back machine while I turn the clock back to June, 1970 on the day my late sister Ann graduated from high school. My gift to Ann was a photo album celebrating her special day. When I dug out and scanned the negatives the other day I found two nice reflections.

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Here’s Ann in her cap and gown out on the street in front of our house talking with a friend or neighbor in their car. The beautiful flower basket reflected in the car was from mom and dad. That’s mom in the foreground.

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Ann changed into her ‘civilian clothes’ for the party later in the evening. Here she is smiling, cake in hand enjoying that happy day so many years ago.

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My inspiration to dig out and scan Ann’s graduation photos came from this lovely portrait of Ann that I found while scanning prints from the family albums the other day. I don’t know who took the photo. It may have been me but that doesn’t matter. When? Again, I don’t remember. Ann would have been 59 in July had she not passed away ten years ago so I’m guessing this photo was probably taken about 20 years ago.

The two graduation photos were taken with Kodak Ektacolor S color negative film using my Pentax Spotmatic SLR that I had purchased new a few months before. The combination of my Epson V600 scanner and VueScan Pro scanning software gave me the tools I needed to scan and clean these precious negatives after all these years. I was surprised and pleased at how well the colors came up.

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Grandmom As I Remember Her

I was searching for a photo of my grandmother that would do her justice, a photo where the real person shone through. I wanted a good image of her for the title page of the second edition of “The Collected Recipes of Frances K. Sullivan” that I (editor) finally finished this week — a full 23 years after the first edition.

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Do you believe in serendipity? Synchronicity? I do. I found this photo, the perfect image in an old suitcase in my mother’s garage. This is grandmom as I remember her. The photo was taken in May, 1949. The cute kid is me when I was a wee lad of four and a half years. Grandmom was a vital 60 year old.

As I went through the collection of old family snapshots, I found images of grandmom as a young mother, as a ‘mature’ woman with a growing family and as a grandmother. I found photos of other people I knew that were taken when they were younger. I got to thinking about how our mental images of the people around us characterize them as they are now (or how we knew and remember them), forgetting that they were young once.

I accumulated quite a collection of wonderful pictures from the past while editing the cookbook. I included 21 in the book and will publish these on The Aware Writer as a series. I’ll share my thoughts and I’ll probably write a few tutorials illustrating my adventures with my new flatbed scanner and how I was able to rejuvenate old images with PWP. Stay tuned…

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I Wonder Why?

raindrops wander on the glass.

I wonder why

I marvel at the sky.

I wonder why

I sigh and cry.

I wonder why

I laugh and play.

I wonder why

I wonder

and wander through

my toybox mind.

What will I play with today?

I wonder.

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Morning on Emerald Lake

It was so quiet, the air was afraid to move and the birds spoke in whispers.

Hearing the splash, I turned. They were moving out from the shore, gliding on the mirror of Emerald Lake. As they swam along they spoke to each other of seasons past, of sun, of moon and the delicious wind in their faces. While I, the intruder, kept still, watching and listening.

He urged her to go first. She said no. “We are partners love and we shall leave together.” They lifted their wings, rising from the water, running together, racing down the lake as one, feet barely touching the water. Faster and faster they went, powerful wings beating the air until…

They were free, long necks stretching, reaching for the sky, climbing higher and higher, until they soared over the treetops at lake’s end, banked left and were gone.

The lake went still, ripples fading, birds quietly whispering again. The air was motionless and so was I — paralyzed with wonder, the image etched in my mind for all time, the morning on Emerald Lake when I, the intruder, was privileged to witness this magnificent pair of geese taking to the sky and freedom.

Photograph? Maybe next time. For now, I share my words and memories.

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Barcode Boulevard: Photo & Story

He feared the asking, she the telling. No rider in memory had ever dared the boulevard on this the night of the low moon. At least no rider had ever returned to tell the tale. Would they be the first? Legend be damned, they were the best. Still, they rode — hard and fast. Neither were fools and neither were eager to temp fate.

Sentinel trees lined the road, waiting for moonrise. Soon — too soon. If the wind parted the clouds? If the stark white light of the low moon etched the shadows across the road before they reached the end of the forest?

Best not to discover what happened to the foolhardy who dared barcode boulevard on the night of the low moon. Less than a klick and safety. Quickly before it’s too late and…

Barcode Boulevard

I rode barcode boulevard today on my bicycle. Can you see the end in the distance? It’s safe in the daylight — mostly. I got the idea for a story one day a few years ago while driving along Breakneck Road (honest, it’s the real name). I’ve only ridden that road twice on my bike and only for a short distance each time. It’s too dangerous and the hills are killers.

The sun was bright and low. It cast sharp shadows across the road. The idea of Barcode Boulevard just jumped into my mind and it’s been stewing ever since. I had my camera with me today so I took some photos when I stopped for a drink on Heritage Road (no Breakneck Road for this boy). All the way home I thought about this story and wrote a quick and dirty draft of one possible beginning.

I’ve some ideas percolating about how photography and writing are related. When my brew is ready I’ll pour a few cups so we can sip together.

I had some fun today. Besides getting out of the house on a nice November day, I rekindled my Barcode Boulevard idea, took a couple photos with my little Canon digicam and wrote a rough draft for the beginnings of my story.

I’m happy with the photo. I think it turned out nicely in B&W. I used the Gimp BW photo simulation to transform the color shot to B&W. My story beginning? It’s rough and the first go at one way of beginning this story. I need to explore, especially the two unnamed characters. It’s another fun project.

Another project. I have a roll of B&W film hanging up to dry in the bathroom. I’ll scan the negs tonight or tomorrow. Fingers crossed. More shots of my youngest granddaughters, the twins. Hope I get a few decent photos out of the roll. I’ll feature them in one of my posts. I have another roll of film I’ll probably develop tomorrow and I got my slides back the other day. Lots of new photos to play with and share. Stay tuned. But stay off  Barcode Boulevard on the night of the low moon.

Barcode Boulevard, the photo and story are copyright 2009 John McDevitt.

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When Writing Is Like Good Sex…

When your inner critic nags you to get busy writing too early it ruins the experience. It’s premature — like thinking of sexual foreplay as procrastination.

Jumping in the sack with your text editor too soon ignores your need for rumination and inspiration. Just as the anticipation of foreplay enriches sex, ruminating, playing and teasing ideas can take your writing to exhilarating heights instead of “is that all there is?”

Shoe was always one of my favorite comic strips. In one episode, Skyler sees his uncle, Professor Cosmos Fishawk sitting and gazing out the window. Skyler says: “You’re staring out the window again. A writer should be pounding the keyboard…” The Professor replies: “Wrong. Typists pound keyboards… Writers stare out windows.”

Cosmos was ruminating. You’re allowed. When you give your inspirations and ideas permission to spill out without concern for logic and order your writing will be so much richer. Ruminating isn’t procrastination, it’s necessary.

I was thinking about balance and whole brain writing this morning so I dug out my copy of “Writing on Both Sides of the Brain” by Henriette Anne Klauser. This book was written in 1987, but the message is fresh and the book still in print. I recommend it highly. In Ms. Klauser’s words: “To be whole-brained, you need only quiet down the noisy static side of you and listen to your own imagination.”

Our right-brain, our dragon, always sends us messages but the constant know-it-all interference from our left-brain inner critic drowns out our best ideas all too often. We need the co-operation of both sides of our brains. We all have the inherent skills to be whole-brained creative. Unfortunately, we’ve never been taught how because our western culture emphasizes logical left-brain thinking at the expense of our creative selves.

Giving yourself permission to ruminate is the first step in restoring our true heritage. When I was sitting here this morning, I fired up BrainStorm and just started taking notes and recording fragments as they occurred to me. And yes, I was looking out the window much of the time. The idea of sexual foreplay and rumination kind of popped into my head.

Be sure to have pen and paper or a program like BrainStorm running in the background while you ponder and your thoughts wander. Capture your fleeting thoughts when you can. Worry about how and if you’ll use them later. Have fun — you’re allowed.

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