Carmel Rancho Barn, Carmel Valley, CA

Carmel Rancho Barn

A month before he passed away, my mentor and friend, Morley Baer, ran his final workshop with John Wimberley and John Sexton. Along with these wonderful teachers there was a cadre of friends whom I had met over the years through Morley or from my work with The Friends of Photography. Every October, for 10 years prior, Morley organized a workshop that brought together some very talented photographers to take images of uniquely Californian landscapes. That year we were granted access to one of the last remaining Spanish Land Grants – Carmel Rancho.

For 4 days we scoured this rural landscape, took photographs, ate some amazing meals and shared the camaraderie of some very creative people. Not that I’ve ever been happy with photographs that I’ve taken on any workshop, but on this inspiring long weekend, I did find a few views that I actually still enjoy.

There are many nostalgic thoughts that this images kindles in me but this white barn and pasture always makes me smile remembering the last time I saw Morley. 

Blue Moon

Blue Moon

Indoor Universe

Indoor Universe

How often do I look up, or for that matter down, in the course of a day?

Down is easy. A lot! Right now, working on this post, I’m looking down at the keyboard of my computer. Okay, just gave away that I’m not the best of touch typists… but thinking about other times… getting dressed – especially shoes, reading, watching where I’m walking, eating, even taking a look at my most recent photograph on the back of my camera is a downward viewpoint.

During the course of my day there seems an inordinate amount of activities that keep me in a downward point-of-view. Or maybe I should have had that nose job so gravity would have less of a handle!

So what makes me look up? Clouds, airplanes, rain, birds, stars, the moon, prayers, laughing, lying on my back, trees… and celestial looking indoor lighting, I guess…

Why?

Why?

I can’t imagine a more interesting, frustrating or life altering question. 

Of all the questions, especially asked of myself, ones starting with why are the most difficult to answers…

Why did you just do that?
Why do I look like this?
Why is the sky blue?
Why didn’t I take that exit?
Why can’t I?
Why am I sick?
Why did this happen?
Why do I hate them so much?
Why did I just do that?
Why do I waste my breath?
Why can’t they do that?
Why do I love you?
Why can’t they just go away?

…and the proverbial – Why did the chicken cross the road?

All these frustrating why’s have now lead me to roll my eyes and ask, why did I take this picture?

I would like to thank all the wonderful artists who participated in a marketing seminar I was a part of at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts on Saturday March 3, 2012.

70+ artists came to learn how to market their art and their participation in Art at the Source - this coming June 2-3 and 9-10, 2012 open studio weekends in and around Sonoma County.

I had the pleasure of sharing the day with these talented artists talking about their art and providing some thoughts to consider on marketing themselves and listened to some local artists share their experiences on what has made their past participation in Art at the source a successful one. All in all an inspiring day of sharing hopes and dreams with very creative individuals!

If you would like to have a fun weekend or day trip to the Sonoma area and see some wonderful Art at the Source please consider scheduling your visit for the first two weekends of June. I certainly am going to try and make it!

Thank you to Rebecca Love, Art at the Source and the Sebastopol Center for the Arts for asking me to participate in this informative seminar and to everyone who came to learn!

…and the very best to all of you for a successful open studio weekends!

     Photographs by Rebecca Love

Shooting Star

Shooting Star

On clear moonless nights, away from city lights, a star filled sky fills my sight.

I can’t say that I look at it for long though. Be it a sense of discomfort with a void so clearly presented or just my neck hurting, but as dusk’s first pinprick appears, I do hear myself repeat “Star light, star bright, the first star I see tonight…”

My Mother taught me this nursery rhyme and repeated on my evenings first glimpses, I smile in her memory. But it’s the wish cast out at the end of the rhyme, that in these weeks, trying to find something to say about this photograph, has me wondering. Why are stars, and especially shooting stars, the wand-tips that promise the granting of wishes? Why a light from so far away or one made by a bit of debris burning through our atmosphere, reminds us to hold our breath while issuing our most intimate desires? Are these holes and slashes across the black fabric, openings to what or who can grant them?

I don’t have any answers but typing my questions into Google one wise creature kept answering…

When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you

 If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do

 Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of
Their secret longing

 Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true 

Composed & written by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington for Walt Disney’s 1940 adaptation of Pinocchio

Motorpool Classroom

“I could never do what you do, I don’t have a creative bone in my body.” I have heard this or some such statement for years from students, guests at openings or people who find out I take photographs for a living. If I could I’d like to reach back into their history to discover and remove the experience that made them feel this way. If the thought makes it true then…

But then there is Michael Michalko who’s first point in his article “Twelve Things You Were Not Taught in School About Creative Thinking” in The Creativity Post is that everyone is born a creative person. From these first affirming words I’d like to offer a synopsis of his thoughts here…

1. You are creative. The artist is not a special person, each one of us is a special kind of artist. Every one of us is born a creative, spontaneous thinker. The only difference between people who are creative and people who are not is a simple belief.

2. Creative thinking is work. You must have passion and the determination to immerse yourself in the process of creating new and different ideas. Then you must have patience to persevere against all adversity.

3. You must go through the motions of being creative. When you are producing ideas, you are replenishing neurotransmitters linked to genes that are being turned on and off in response to what your brain is doing, which in turn is responding to challenges. When you go through the motions of trying to come up with new ideas, you are energizing your brain by increasing the number of contacts between neurons. The more times you try to get ideas, the more active your brain becomes and the more creative you become. 

4. Your brain is not a computer. Your brain is a dynamic system that evolves its patterns of activity rather than computes them like a computer. It thrives on the creative energy of feedback from experiences real or fictional. You can synthesize experience; literally create it in your own imagination.

5. There is no one right answer. Reality is ambiguous. The only certainty in life is uncertainty. When trying to get ideas, do not censor or evaluate them as they occur. Nothing kills creativity faster than self-censorship of ideas while generating them.

6. Never stop with your first good idea. Always strive to find a better one and continue until you have one that is still better.

7. Expect the experts to be negative. The more expert and specialized a person becomes, the more their mindset becomes narrowed and the more fixated they become on confirming what they believe to be absolute. Consequently, when confronted with new and different ideas, their focus will be on conformity. 

8. Trust your instincts. Don’t allow yourself to get discouraged. 

9. There is no such thing as failure. Whenever you try to do something and do not succeed, you do not fail. You have learned something that does not work.

10. You do not see things as they are; you see them as you are. Interpret your own experiences. All experiences are neutral. They have no meaning. You give them meaning by the way you choose to interpret them.

11. Always approach a problem on its own terms. Do not trust your first perspective of a problem as it will be too biased toward your usual way of thinking. Always look at your problem from multiple perspectives. Always remember that genius is finding a perspective no one else has taken.

12. Learn to think unconventionally. Creative geniuses are inclusive thinkers which mean they look for ways to include everything, including things that are dissimilar and totally unrelated. Generating associations and connections between unrelated or dissimilar subjects is how they provoke different thinking patterns in their brain.

And, finally, Creativity is paradoxical. To create, a person must have knowledge but forget the knowledge, must see unexpected connections in things but not have a mental disorder, must work hard but spend time doing nothing as information incubates, must create many ideas yet most of them are useless, must look at the same thing as everyone else, yet see something different, must desire success but embrace failure, must be persistent but not stubborn, and must listen to experts but know how to disregard them.

Petal Down

Petal Down

Finding beauty in fallen petals surprised me! A feeling for the detritus of a tulip blossom past its prime – so colorful in eternal rest, surprised me!

Why am I so surprised? Something so simple, so pedestrian… Something seen with every bouquet, every Fall, everyday! And yet it made me wonder what makes for a life so rich and colorful that in death its afterglow still elicits awe and wonder and beauty? Hhhmmmm…

An interesting thought started by just enjoying the surprise of seeing something more…

An Idea Forming

An Idea Forming

The mystery of an idea forming is in a drip, a drop, a squeak, a clap, a ring, a talk, a memory, a lapse, a dish, a leaf, a bird, a word, a tune, a spoon, a note, a float, a cut, a ride, a kiss, a piss, a shower, a sneeze, a smell, a breeze, a grain, a stub, a ball, a broach, a stone, a stump, a flame, a flash, a prayer, a branch, a flutter, a freeze, a shot, a line, a bruise, a brook, a pen, a poke, a run, a pun, a slip, a stream, a fall, a call, a jump, a scratch, a purr, a moan, a touch, a tease, a drive, a dream, a cat, a gnat, a wave, a smile, a cup, a pot, a swing, a dance, a ticket, a chance, a box, a plug, a drain, a cloud, a glare, a view, sour milk and skinned knees to name just a few.

Roadside Chapel I, Castelle di Monfamo

San Francisco’s Historic Churches Photographic Workshop 

Photocentral
1099 “E” Street
Hayward,CA 94541
(510)-881-6721

Workshop Dates:
Saturday, January 21, 2012 from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Follow-up class:
Saturday, February 4, 2012 from 9:00 am to noon

Description:
Spend the day learning architectural photography while photographing historic San Francisco churches inside and out. We will visit traditional churches like Grace Cathedral, St. Peter and Paul’s Church, Old St. Mary’s Cathedral as well as the newer St. Mary’s Cathedral. These impressive spaces provide a great opportunity to discuss how to approach an architectural subject, explore how much can be done with available lighting and how to approach this subject with your own vision. We will have a short talk at each church but most of the time is yours to explore and photograph. Marco Zecchin will be available to answer any photographic questions and help you focus your efforts. A couple of weeks later we will get together to share your printed photographs of our visit!

Any question contact me at marco@marcozecchin.com

Fees:
- Resident $125.00
- NonResident $135.00 

Limited space available, so sign up early! To sign up click here and type 15687 in the barcode search.