028: Off With His Head

The Man Who Fell To Earth, originally uploaded by gingerpig2000.

The images were supposed to be accidental, but life is short and why waste a great image idea?

It is important to remember the relationship you have with the world around you, here the idea of a cut off head image and the shape of my new vase just came together and then sparked off the linking 'man who fell to earth' concept (it's a film from the 1970s).

Working on art in one part of your life helps to spark innovation in other parts, and with practice you can end up with more innovation than you can handle. Bu the practice is important, especially in a world where most people feel safer if you remain, like them, as a passive observer instead of a creator.

Creation and observation are two different skills, one passive and the other active, and most commentators are observers of other people's art and are quite happy if you restrict your thinking to their commentary. Creation, on the other hand, means your personal involvement in all phases of what you are doing.

27-Smile... It's Friday

The end of my rainbow, originally uploaded by gingerpig2000.

Smiling, and a shot straight out of the camera.

Always be prepared to drop an idea when it begins to fall apart. This one was supposed to show the top half of my head in the main mirror, and my smiling mouth offset in the small mirror, but it was just too difficult to set up without the shower appearing in shot. So I dumped it, and went for putting the beer in the small mirror and then doing a series of shots until I was in shot - and by some luck I picked up some of the flash on the side of my face.

The camera I set to the 'dusk' automatic setting after quickly trying out several other settings to get the best colour - the indoor setting was washing out the colours, while the beach and the sunset settings made everything go too red/yellow.

26: Nerds

Culturicalus Nerdii, originally uploaded by gingerpig2000.

Today I uncovered my inner nerd - not, although there is something of me in this image. After seeing so many repetitive 'silly walks' too close to the Mont Python original yesterday, I was glad that I had accidentally gone down a different road.

In a similar vein, someone wrote that they were staying in a hotel room, with no props, hence were frustrated they could not put together decent photographs. However, I think that their problem was not a lack of props but basic classicalism. It goes like this - you like taking pictures, and you look out for suitable things which would make good props. Once discovered, they become labelled 'props' in the mind, and we can use them in whatever way we feel in our photographs. However, a hotel room is full of 'hotel room things' like a bed, chair, mirror and such, and the chances are they are not what we would choose if we were looking for props.

What, though, if we were to rid ourselves of all sub-classes of object and instead just thought of everything to hand as 'things'. We exist in relation to whatever things surround us, our existence can be defined in terms of our relation to them. If we are always some form of 'we', and everything else is just 'things', then the only thing restricting us is our preconceptions of how we relate to the things. Dump that mind set, and then what you are left is the opportunity to photograph your present self in the present situation using whatever things are to hand at present. If you can achieve that, and it does require practice, then no where is frustrating because you always have to hand everything you need.