So you think you aren't creative?

Steve Cavigliano · January 20, 2005

The more excellent photos I view, the more I wonder if I will ever absorb enough knowledge, vision, or whatever, to one day be the creative artist I aspire to become. Poor misguided soul that I am, I always believed you either had it (as in born with it), or you didn't. While that still may hold true, I just viewed an excellent clip by a renowned photographer that has caused me to seriously question this paradigm.

http://www.hlpusd.k12.ca.us/go/district/hlpnet/vmc/ecreate1.wvx

If you have 20 minutes, I highly recommend viewing this clip. It certainly opened my eyes. Even though, I'll probably have to watch it a dozen more times before it sinks into my tiny brain :lol If you already know all of this, you will, at the least, see some very nice shots. If you don't know all of this, it may, as it did with me, give you hope for future improvement :wink

If this is a re-post, I apologize. I really enoyed it and I'm so pumped, I'm gonna leave work early and go exercise my new found creativity :rofl

Steve

dkapp · January 20, 2005

Awesome video!

Best 20 minutes I've spent in a long time.

Dave

lynnma · January 20, 2005

dkapp wrote:

Awesome video!

Best 20 minutes I've spent in a long time.

Dave

Truly inspiring video.. I loved it.. I've got goose bumps. Highly recommended viewing.

John Mueller · January 20, 2005

Thanks Steve for finding and sharing this.Very inspiring

Dee · January 20, 2005

Excellent video
You know the shot of his daughter in the hammock, the minute I saw the one of her asleep I knew exactly what he was going to do! And, I was right.

I guess if you tell yourself to pick one thing to shoot, and then make yourself shoot 50 to 100 photos of that one thing, after about 40 or so if you force yourself to keep going your brain is going to come up with something different!

I think with me, I lose patience and just don't push that final 10%.

My other problem is technical (check the aperture! experiment with aperture!) and tripods!

It was very hazy near the coast and the light was odd. I got the coolest sunset progression (will post separately).

Other times, I just can't see the LCD... Here's an example. Yes I like the field of orange flowers, and the general composition is fine, and I adjusted it to make it pop more, B U T -- if I had seen those two flower heads one on top of the other I would have moved to space them out so I'd have a series of three -- but I couldn't see it until I got home and got it on the monitor.

So taking the time to check the shot in the EVF after I shoot it -- I might have seen that, and reshot, being more careful.

So that's what I mean about more patience.... so enjoy the colors and try to overlook my major composition goof!

Andy · January 20, 2005

very well done, excellent video. thanks steve

for the link!

* think outside that box
* have a lot of patience
* plan ahead
* push ourselves to find that "next right answer"

loads of great stuff in there!

Nir · January 21, 2005

I'm having problems with my connection - really choppy! Any way to download the complete video before viewing?

Steve Cavigliano · January 21, 2005

Nir wrote:

I'm having problems with my connection - really choppy! Any way to download the complete video before viewing?

Nir,
It was doing the same to me on my work PC (dsl line). The good thing was that although the video was a bit choppy (buffering), the audio came through clean. Dani on DPR is having the same, or worse, issues and this file is so big, I'm not sure it could be sent. Maybe through one of the IM programs or using an FTP.

Let me know if you're still unable to view it and I'll try (later today at home) to run it, save it and see how big it really is. I'm thinking that it's probably 100 megs or more. Once I save it (if possible), I'll have a better idea of how to, or if I can, send it.

Steve

Nee7x7 · January 21, 2005

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

Nir,
It was doing the same to me on my work PC (dsl line). The good thing was that although the video was a bit choppy (buffering), the audio came through clean. Dani on DPR is having the same, or worse, issues and this file is so big, I'm not sure it could be sent. Maybe through one of the IM programs or using an FTP.

Let me know if you're still unable to view it and I'll try (later today at home) to run it, save it and see how big it really is. I'm thinking that it's probably 100 megs or more. Once I save it (if possible), I'll have a better idea of how to, or if I can, send it.

Steve

Hi Steve!

I'm also having problems watching the video, too. Is there a different URL where maybe we can choose a lower bandwidth? It keeps freezing up on my computer...even when I close all my other windows. (My computer has an AMD Athlon processer...not the speediest one around)

I'm really wanting to see the video...I have the same issues... I don't feel creative enough and I'm so often disappointed in what I get after trying so hard to shoot something worthwhile. It takes a lot of the enjoyment out of photograpy for me when I seem to fail so much more than I succeed ~sigh.

Anyhow, I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone at the Yosemite shootout and hoping to see (and photograph) Yosemite in a brand new light (but I definietly need a new perspective, and I'm hoping the video will help!)

Cheers!
~Nee

Seamus · January 21, 2005

Nir wrote:

I'm having problems with my connection - really choppy! Any way to download the complete video before viewing?

If you are using windows media player go to tools options performance and change the buffer from default buffering to buffer and set it at 60 seconds. The video will load and play although there will be delays when the buffer is full.

this video is amazing..... I will watch it again..... it also contains the ultimate put down,,,,,,, " I was shooting postcards"

If this man ever writes a book I will buy it...

Shay.

mercphoto · January 22, 2005

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

http://www.hlpusd.k12.ca.us/go/district/hlpnet/vmc/ecreate1.wvx

What app will run this on a Mac?

Raidrallyrider · January 22, 2005

mercphoto wrote:

What app will run this on a Mac?

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/windowsmediaplayerformacosx.html

Nee7x7 · January 22, 2005

Get ready to do some reading!

shay wrote:

If you are using windows media player go to tools options performance and change the buffer from default buffering to buffer and set it at 60 seconds. The video will load and play although there will be delays when the buffer is full.

this video is amazing..... I will watch it again..... it also contains the ultimate put down,,,,,,, " I was shooting postcards"

If this man ever writes a book I will buy it...

Shay.

Thanks Shay! I tried your suggestions and managed to get through the video (still with lots of buffering delays, tho...sigh)

Dewitt has written books, articles, and also has other videos for sale! I did a google search and found his website >

http://www.dewittjones.com/html/home_2.shtml

The articles were free to read (everything else costs money) and the first one "Seeing the Ordinary as Extraordinary", is very similar to the video (without all the buffering delays

)

Cheers,
~Nee

fish · January 22, 2005

Great video! Thanks for posting.

Seamus · January 23, 2005

Nee7x7 wrote:

Thanks Shay! I tried your suggestions and managed to get through the video (still with lots of buffering delays, tho...sigh)

Dewitt has written books, articles, and also has other videos for sale! I did a google search and found his website >

http://www.dewittjones.com/html/home_2.shtml

The articles were free to read (everything else costs money) and the first one "Seeing the Ordinary as Extraordinary", is very similar to the video (without all the buffering delays )

Cheers,
~Nee

Thanks Nee, I read the articles and enjoyed them

Shay

Roger · January 23, 2005

Nee7x7 wrote:

Thanks Shay! I tried your suggestions and managed to get through the video (still with lots of buffering delays, tho...sigh)

Dewitt has written books, articles, and also has other videos for sale! I did a google search and found his website >

http://www.dewittjones.com/html/home_2.shtml

The articles were free to read (everything else costs money) and the first one "Seeing the Ordinary as Extraordinary", is very similar to the video (without all the buffering delays )

Cheers,
~Nee

Weird enough, I keep getting 403 error - access forbidden while trying to access this URL...

In the meanwhile, for those wanting to save the video (just because they cannot see it online, or like me, wanting to review it without all that downloading trouble), you can do it by means of a small piece of software called SDP (Streaming Download Project), downloaded from http://sdp.ppona.com/ (just select the first item in the Products and info box and it will start the download, save it and install it).

The video size is 86,825 KB.

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

The more excellent photos I view, the more I wonder if I will ever absorb enough knowledge, vision, or whatever, to one day be the creative artist I aspire to become. Poor misguided soul that I am, I always believed you either had it (as in born with it), or you didn't. While that still may hold true, I just viewed an excellent clip by a renowned photographer that has caused me to seriously question this paradigm.

I still think there is some inner quality we must have, either having born with it or acquired it somehow. I Agree with Dewitt that it is a special feeling of bond with all that surrounds us, just similar to that of being in love when we are over-sensitive.
The video is excellent to demonstrate that we do not have to belong to some very special group of people to do it, any ordinary person can train the senses to get those extraordinary moments of creativity.

Dee wrote:

I guess if you tell yourself to pick one thing to shoot, and then make yourself shoot 50 to 100 photos of that one thing, after about 40 or so if you force yourself to keep going your brain is going to come up with something different!

I feel it as a special intuition we have to set loose. For instance, when I see one of those shots and I do it, when I do it over again trying to improve it, almost all of the times the first shot is the best one. However, while doing it, I may come up with another excellent shot but with a different scene.
Also love to go back again and again to the same places/scenes, at different times/seasons or even at the same ones, and always being able to get some good shots to show us that there is always something new to be seen...

Dee wrote:

Other times, I just can't see the LCD...

It also happens often to me worse that that and I hate it. It is when you think you have a scene someway but, as the LCD is so small, you miss some annoying detail which should not be there and you just see it on the screen of your computer after downloading... So, sometimes the technical means do not fill our abilities, but we have to learn to live with them while we cannot afford improving them.:(:

Cheers,
Roger

USAIR · January 23, 2005

Steve
Thank you enjoyed this video very much

Fred

So you think you aren't creative?

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