been uncomfortable lately? why not?

a handful of times recently i’ve bumped into language + it’s ability to shape our mind + it got me thinking about one’s professional vocabulary. not literally in terms of the words that we use in regards to work but rather the tools at our disposal or at least those incorporated into one’s arsenal.

the argument with language is that since we think with words, different languages or lack thereof, shape one’s thoughts. the old czech proverb, “learn a new language, get a new soul” highlights this. so to does the story told by susan schaller in her book “a man without words” + the radiolab edition. + if that’s not enough delve into scientific american’s take on it in their piece “how language shapes thought – the languages we speak affect our perceptions of the world” by lera boroditsky in the current issue.

i remember being aware of this as a high school + college student but it really wasn’t until i was on a train in malaysia talking with two swedish girls who had been sitting on the rough wodden bench seats longer then i had. after far too long on the train we all became fast friends + they explained the idea of tracemakk (guessing on that spelling as can’t find the word) which they told me was “the feeling of your ass having the taste of wood (from sitting so long)”. there’s no way to really say that in english + definitely not a way that’s so elegant.

personally, as a student + speaker of japanese i find this to be true though not to the extent i would hope. in other words, it’s not a wide open soul shaking revelation that comes with language but rather a nuanced view of things through another lens. but that in fact is life, right. i’ve always maintained that it’s the interpreters of the world that control everything spinning one president’s remarks softer + one dictator’s words smoother + one queen’s speech harsher.

in terms of visual media + design i’ve experienced this not so much with language but more in terms of technique. it’s the rare individual that continual forges ahead with mistakes in learning new ways to communicate rather then stalling after getting comfortable with a handful of methods. not only is this stall dangerous but it completely defeats the very work of creativity. if you rely on x number of tools then undoubtedly your confined to a relatively small window of view.

in order to better express oneself i think that learning various mediums of communication or essential whether it’s more lighting styles in photography, additional design programs or simply exposing oneself to styles that aren’t inherently compelling to you. whatever it takes, to remain comfortable is to risk stagnation.

make mistakes, learn new ways to communicate + see if your thought process is altered + eventually expanded in the process. do it today before you experience torschlusspanik, the stoic German term, meaning “the fear of diminishing opportunities as one gets older”.

a few ideas on creavity for friday:

adweek story minds in motion: space for creativity on finding the right head space for creativity to happen.

next up michael bierut on i don’t consider myself creative via ape.

+ one of my favs, the fantastic hugh macleod on the easy process of how to be creative. this guy is filled with gems + just can’t be stopped. if you’ve never been inspired by his work then dive in + see what he does as he embodies so much creativity it’s scary. sample nuggets o’ wisdom;

+ if you’re tying it into business, this is fascinating – jay z + warren buffet on what it takes.

I used to play the guitar when I was ten, you know. So I figured maybe my thing is playing the guitar, maybe that’s my little gift. Like somebody can make a cake, or somebody else can saw a tree down, and other people write… Maybe I got a better gift. But as of right now, I haven’t found out what it is.” ~ Bob Dylan, in a 1963

the first is steve jobs back in the day. really much more vocal then i expect but obviously excited about his work + motivated. the second is artist raghava KK on his life + it’s evolution along an inspiring + unique path. i like what both are saying. not just via their stories but through their lives, their actions. it’s readily apparent that they love what they do. + as a result have been stuck on it for a long, long time. the 10,000 hours of malcolm gladwell. the stick-to-it-ness that has to be in place to really succeed.

IDEAS

It’s never as it appears. Some shit ideas turn out being amazing and some amazing ideas turn out being shit.

It’s all in the execution.

coming from a photography background one of the very first things i did with my 5D II was shoot vertical video. not because i knew at all what i was doing but purely from a visual standpoint as i was used to seeing that way. in that vein, i’m interested in seeing what the online editions of your fav mags adopt – seems to me that there’s a place for vertical video to fit within the print columns that dominate our publishing industry. i’m already concepting a project for later this year that will be anchored in the vertical format. in the time being, let’s see if this blows up or not.

here’s a dated test sequence of animated stills that gives a small taste of vertical, though in this case it’s running splitscreen. definitely a fan of this as it makes vertical stills or footage that much more versatile as the clip could run as stand alone vertical embedded in an online mag column but could pop out to standard 4:3 or 16:9 once open in it’s own page.

20080430_roadtest from heath korvola on Vimeo.

the strength i’m talking about is not about power or the guventor’s muscles. we’re not thinking along lines of sheer brute or blind energy. i’m talking about strength in line with tenacity. strength in the power of together. strength with the connotation of creative freedom, the energy + ideas to do what you know needs to be done. and do it your own way.

strength to not only correct what is skewed but better what is good, elevate what is strong. it’s not a lack of spine that necessitates what we’re talking about but rather a deep desire to change what’s in our power to change. to live up to your potential. to take risks + move beyond a status quo. in the words of william bernbach, “those who are going to be in business tomorrow are those who understand that the future, as always, belongs to the brave.”

this past year has been thrilling + heartbreaking in many ways as the world’s had ups + down that no one could have predicted 365 days ago. with the future as uncertain as it’s ever been now is not the time to pussyfoot around. it’s not the time to slink off into the background or rest on your laurels. i think that we need strength to get out + get beyond.

on a personal level i lost a friend to cancer last week + have seen several people i’m close to in the industry lose their longtime jobs. i’m already digging into that strength.

as an industry, our visual media realm has taken a beating with smaller budgets, shorter timelines + increasing pressure from micro stock, point + shoot + the 16 year old down the street. we’re going to have to get up our strength for this. and if we have even remote plans of using video + hybrid material to it’s potential we need to push so much harder.

in the macro view, the strength applications are almost limitless. dive in, choose a cause, find support + start flexing your muscles – creative or otherwise.

is that sterngth part of our makeup? is that strength within our social fabric? that i can’t honestly tell you. i’m no cheerleader for positivity. but i can feel a change is needed + i think that a quiet, relentless strength just might do the trick.

1: evaluate take a hard look at what you’re doing. i like the hop, skip, jump metaphor – where are you in terms of where you want to be? do you have a goal? if not how can you hit what you’re not even aiming at? when you’re done with all three of these steps, start back here. evaluation is a constant process. if what you’re doing is not getting the desired results then reevaluate + shake things up.

2: plan take everything you can into account. there will always be variables so focus on what you can. eliminate distractions + balance out what you can do with what you have. take action in the form of conscious steps in your given direction. could be recruiting the kind of employees you have your eye on, a fat new promo campaign or a great job lead, doesn’t matter. hell, even the a team had a plan.

3: work really this is what we all want to be doing but to get here you have to go through the above. this, my friends, is your reward – total unadulterated work in the vein of what you want to do + have created for yourself. the trouble that most of us have with this is that it doesn’t stop. and the further you get into it the crazier it gets. if you can’t handle that or really need your sleep, it might be time to think about something more 9 to 5ish. get started + don’t stop, ever. believe it or not, that’s actually half the fun once it gets going.

the biggie for the general public is the apple keynote earlier this week from the ongoing worldwide developers conference (WWDC) in sf which let loose new macbooks + safari as well as a new iphone + update. you can watch the keynote yourself here (as if you haven’t already). all in all great stuff, especially as the creative community is always hungry for speed. have to admit though that i was let down with the whopping upgrade in the iphone camera – from 2 mp to 3?!?! not that we need 45mp or something but at this stage one would think it would be a notch or two higher. the video, of course, will be grabbing all the attention anyway so i’m sure there’ll be more camera on the next go ’round. the mobile me upgrade is a damn good call + i’m sure it won’t be seeing much fanfare.

canon had the cojones to give us what we’ve been asking for last week and this is good stuff – full manual control in HD video. now i’ve been running this thru the paces + am much more at home with it than the auto controls. of course i shoot primarily manual with my cameras anyway so this is a natural progression for me. the freedom is well worth the wait. tech wise, i have a grasp on the iso changes + the physical aspects of aperture but what does the !??! does shutter do when working in video + why does it stop @ 1/30th???. you switch the dial up + sure enough get light adjustments but what’s causing that – you’re not changing frame rate or anything? anyone?

last on the upgrade list is onone software with their much trumpeted DSLR camera remote app for the iphone. now i may be an iphone kinda guy but i had trouble getting this to function where i needed it – mainly because it needs a computer connected directly to the camera. for me that doesn’t happen all that often, at least not where we’re dealing with a remote when you can work with pocket wizards or the canon TC-80N3 intervalometer sans computer (or if you’re a real geek). inside, however, this slick interfaced little app did studio work proud especially the live view feature, brilliant, but outside on an ad hoc network i was SOL.

trying to come up with a reason why i should buy the app the one thing i thought of was the possibility of using the intervalometer feature (check the video here) simultaneously with my canon intervalometer. working one camera wide + the other shallow i envisioned a time lapse that could run split screen with both big picture + detail. we’re putting the video together now but suffice it to say that despite setting up my macbook pro mere inches from the largest lake in glacier national park in order to run the iphone app via an ad hoc network i was allowed only a single image. the rest i ran on my own, which in the end wasn’t such a bad workaround.

so tying these three seemingly unrelated updates all together, what might be the best thing now that onone has to update the app for the new iphone 3GS anyway, is to simply drop the computer from the scenario + work with canon to get some type of bluetooth or similar set up in the camera so that the images can be downloaded directly to the phone. better now that apple had provided us 32gb versions as the norm.

the imagination idea was one of my early posts and among other things i mentioned the guy that grabbed balloons, tied them to a lawn chair and took off from bend, or. didn’t make it far. coincidently, he’s back this past week never giving up his idea and riding his homemade contraption all the way to idaho. that’s evolving imagination.

business wise, we all know that the industry is changing. the question is where it’s going. among all the guesses there are a few that ring more true, or at least more interesting, than others – one of those is this recent take by former NY Times staffer Vincent LaForet via sportsshooter.

lastly, creativity is everything… or nothing. when you have it and your in the flow there’s nothing better. when you don’t, it feels like you’re ready to join the dark side. i’m always thinking of how ideas originate, how the concepts that shape our world take hold and evolve. i ask other creatives whenever i have the chance where they derive their inspiration. the answers vary but what i’ve gleened is that the methods and consistency are similar. whatever it is you’re chasing take notes, always be fresh, keep the numbers high and never give up.

during a recent two weeks in oregon i came across an interesting article in the june issue of scientific american mind on creativity. not what you might expect from this journal but a good read nonetheless (other stories included chronic itching: causes & cures and bisexual species: unorthodox sex in the animal kingdom among others). how to unleash your creativity is a roundtable interview with three very different ‘experts’. the most recognizable is julia cameron author of the artist’s way. the other two are professors and all three are fascinated with the mechanics of creativity.

among the highlights is the idea of getting your ideas out – all of them. whether it’s by writing, as cameron advocates, or email, text, rss or something like jott or reqall yo’uve got to get the numbers up there. then follow through with the images to match. there is inherently no guarantee what works but your ratio of successful ideas, and thus successful images, goes up with the increasing numbers. the mag quotes:

“creative people are productive. they may have lots of ideas that don’t work, but the point is that they have lots of ideas. so if people want to be more creative – and to be effective problem solvers – they’re going to have to be disciplined…”

i would even take that a step further as i disagree that creative people, “may have lots of ideas that don’t work”. they definitely have a vast pool of ideas that don’t work. the key is to fight through those to the winners. einstein is quoted as saying something to the effect of it’s not that i’m so smart, it’s that i’m so stubborn.

in a basic sense the panel breaks down the process into four categories. not really the process of creativity but rather how to maintain creative prowess. those four ideas – capturing, challenging, broadening & surrounding – fit photography to a tee.

so follow your ideas and expand the creativity by getting it down on paper, pushing forward, keeping it new and never stopping. and if you’re up for the test, robert epstein from ucsd has on your creativity score here.