Images by John 'K'
Life as seen through my lens…
The joy of collaboration
Posted by on March 6, 2011
This past week has reminded me what a joy it is to collaborate with creative endeavors. It started with a simple favor for a friend, where I helped restore the original colors on a photo taken of some awesome fabric-work, and I then worked with the fabric artist to insert one of my full moon photos into the piece.
… and then over the weekend I was asked by a local art gallery to photograph a visiting artist as he worked on an exhibition piece. At one point he seemed to be wondering how to proceed with the piece, and so I offered a suggestion. We discussed the relative aesthetics of my suggestion for a while, and then he started to paint it in, seeing how it would look, knowing that if he didn’t like it he could alter the work to something different.
The more he painted and the more the image took shape, the more he and I liked what was emerging on the canvas. It was amazing to watch this artist take the idea and turn it into something visual in a way you just can’t do with light and pixels. Knowing that he’d taken my ideas and used them in the final piece makes a connection to the work that is very personal for me.
The Artist Hines can be found at http://www.theartisthines.com, and the studio (Studio Seven Arts) where I occasionally shoot events for them (and where some of my images are also on sale) can be found at http://www.studiosevenarts.com. Both are also on Facebook.
Going green in B&W: Dealing with an inspirational blockage
Posted by on March 2, 2011
If you’ve been following my work, you’ll know that I love to shoot nature. Flowers, the animals in our back yard, the sights we see around us while hiking, and so on… but every now and again I look at the beauty around me and see nothing that I feel the urge to shoot. It’s like I’ve seen it all already – why do I want to shoot it again.
Get me in one of those moments, add in a busy work schedule, and sprinkle liberally with some family “fun” and you have a recipe for a photographer’s block.
I hit one of these earlier this week – I couldn’t think of anything worthy of picking up my camera for, and for someone who has in the past made a point of shooting something every day no matter what, it was a strange feeling to have.
So last night I was sat at my desk, looking up at the ceiling as I tried to compose some thoughts for a presentation I was writing for work, and there above me was this CFL bulb. I looked at the shape and uniform light and suddenly felt the urge to try and capture it. I fired off a few hand-held shots, pulled them into Photoshop, had a play, and this was the end result.
The moral of this little ramble is… if you have hit a block and are lacking inspiration, look at something you wouldn’t normally shoot and just experiment.
Sometimes we focus on the wrong things…
Posted by on February 28, 2011
I’m on Facebook. I’m there so I can more easily keep in touch with my family who are spread around the globe, and more recently I’ve started to share some of my photography there, but I’ve added a collection of friends and acquaintances as “friends” too.
In watching their updates, I often wonder what it is that makes people want to share their every thought and action on a site such as Facebook, where pretty much everyone can read what you put out there.
Without naming names, here are a few examples of the stuff I see…
“Experimenting with my big top cupcake again today…there is nutella involved.”
“Just discovered his X-box 360 has a free version of Pandora on it! OMG, I can do chores now!!!”
“Felt like tbe biggest asshole filling up my SUV”
“: ]”
“suppose I should get on with this ironing!”
“just seen Captain Glamtastic is at the club in October – will he… won’t he….??????”
“Seattle. Spa time.”
“bad dream :(“
“your phone being off doesn’t make it as special dude”
These are just from the past few hours…. and this is without all of the game updates (which I block the moment I see a new one).
Are people really that bored that they can find nothing else to do than post this cr*p to the world? For Pete’s sake people, get a hold of yourselves. Get outside and see what the real world is like. Go take a walk or a hike or a bike-ride. Go and check in on an old neighbor and make sure they are OK. At the very least, if you’re going to post cr*p, at least make sure you’ve spelled it correctly!
Oh… and use some common sense in what you post too. Don’t post personal details (phone number, address, stuff like that) and then go telling everyone that you’ll be away from home for the next 2 weeks on vacation. That’s just an open-house invite for all the low-lifes near you!
Also, do people realize that a search of someone’s profile on Facebook is becoming one of the standard things that potential employers do before they will consider looking at a job applicant?
Facebook is a great tool if used correctly, but so many people are blind to how it can be used against you, and it’s all because they focus on the wrong things…
It’s all in the eyes…
Posted by on February 17, 2011
You can tell a lot about a person by looking them in the eye. In this case you can probably tell that this person (me) is tired. Tired of stress at work, tired of pressures at home, and tired of worrying about what the future will bring.
By this stage in my life I’d expected to be free of the responsibilities of small children at home, and for that matter I was hoping that my kids would have all left home, but it’s not to be. My two youngest daughters (both at an age where their mum and I were living in our own place building our own family) are still living at home, and add to that the fact that one of them has a 16 month old daughter and will soon be bringing another baby into the world, and at times I find myself wondering if I’m just being taken for a ride.
I’m lucky enough to be in a fairly secure job that pays pretty well, but at a stage in my life where I should really be making sure I have a solid retirement plan, the money that should be getting set aside to help support my wife and I in our retirement is being spent on supporting a growing list of dependents, and so I find myself worrying about the future and whether we’ll be able to live without hardship in retirement.
There are times I feel like kicking my adult daughters out of the house and forcing them to make their own way in the world – it works in nature, and I know some people that would do it in a heartbeat… but something holds me back. Whether it’s concern for their safety, a fear for what it would do to our granddaughter (and soon to arrive grandson), or just something in my mind saying “now what would your mum have done – certainly not that” that stops me from doing it I don’t know… but I do know that while I don’t want to see them suffer unduly, I also don’t want to see our plans for a secure retirement go down the tubes because of the continued drain on our resources from having to continue to support them.
… so I’m going to take these tired eyes, and my wife, and get away from things for the weekend. Hopefully a quiet relaxing time away from all of the stresses and pressures will allow me to see things a little clearer.
Ingredients for a Perfect Valentine’s Day Weekend
Posted by on February 12, 2011
Take the beautiful Pacific Coast scenery of Monterey, Pacific Grove and Carmel, Add a splash of sunset, a romantic inn, mix in a whale watching trip, some good food and drink, and top it all off with the company of the love of my life, then bake it all in the warmth of the California sunshine, and you have the recipe for a perfect Valentine’s Day weekend getaway.
Images by John 'K' 