CREATIVITY + INNOVATION Page 30 of 38

Photography Fortnight Tip#6: Rock the diagonal

Photography Fortnight Tip#6This is a tip I learnt from the super-talented Susannah Conway.  I didn’t realise how much difference it can make when you just turn a vertical or horizontal line into a diagonal – and now I do it all the time.

Photography Fortnight Tip#6: Rock the diagonal diagonal5

Photography Fortnight Tip#6: Rock the diagonal diagonal1

Photography Fortnight Tip#6: Rock the diagonal diagonal7

Why not start looking for diagonal lines in your world!

Come back tomorrow for an interview with photographers Christine Boyd and Xander Neal of Northern Ireland-based photography studio navyblur (and then back for more tips on Friday!)

 

Photography Fortnight Tip #5: Look down

Photography Fortnight Tip #5: Look down look down

How often do you check in with where you connect with the earth?  We walk over hundreds of different surfaces every day which, paired with an interesting pair of shoes, can make a thoughtful image

Photography Fortnight Tip #5: Look down diagonal6

Where have your feet taken you today?

Come back tomorrow for more tips!

Photography Fortnight Tip #4: Look up

Photography Fortnight Tip #4: Look up look up1

The sky offers so many surprises – but sometimes we are so busy we forget to look up

Look up when you are out and about today – what do you see?

***

Tomorrow 17-year old photographer Ffion Atkinson shares her story. More tips throughout the week!

Photography Fortnight Tip #3: Seek out colours you dislike

flowers

We often notice only those things we choose to notice, and zone out thing we inherently dislike.  Although I love sunny flowers, I am not generally a fan of bright yellow.  So I went in search of it, and found so much waiting for me.

What is your least favourite colour?  Where can you see it around you now?

Come back tomorrow for more tips!

 

Photography Fortnight Tip #2: Take part

 

 

Photography Fortnight Tip #2

Often we have a natural inclination to try to fit an entire object in the frame, however big that might be.  Try to resist that sometimes (especially if photographing something quite ordinary), and go for bits of an object instead.  Sometimes the results can surprise you – and end up much more artful.  The image above is of part of a beautiful ceramic serving dish I found in Greece.

What ordinary things around you have beautiful parts?

Come back tomorrow for more tips!

Photography Fortnight Tip#1: rule of thirds (the classic!)

Photography Fortnight Tip1

This is one of the oldest ‘rules’ of photography, but it is so powerful when you consciously try to use it.

viewfinder grid

Imagine your viewfinder split into a 3×3 grid of nine same-sized rectangles.  Try to place the subject of your photo along one of the dividing lines (above), or in a place where the grid lines intersect (below).

Photography Fortnight Tip#1: rule of thirds (the classic!) hearts2

What rules do you like to break?

More tomorrow!

Life is not a dress rehearsal: two inspirational women share their stories

DWYL_BLOG_SHAREDSTORIES_650X250PX_LR

Today’s shared stories come from artist Kim Beller and comedienne Jenny Wynter.

Kim Beller

Life is not a dress rehearsal: two inspirational women share their stories IMG 0961 2

For me, doing what I love means to follow my heart wherever that takes me, to surround myself with people I love and to be open to all the possibilities that are usually right in front of me!

I lost my mom a few years ago to cancer.  She was only 62 when she died, but lucky for me, we were best friends and she taught me many lessons while she was here.  It was after I lost her that I began to listen more closely to the voice in my heart.  Things that used to matter didn’t matter so much anymore.  I poured myself into art and journaling and making jewellery…..anything to stay busy but more importantly to express myself through art.  I have said more than once, “art saved me”.  I decided that I wanted to be more serious about my art and creating, but couldn’t come up with exactly how I wanted that to happen.

Life is not a dress rehearsal: two inspirational women share their stories Scan 3With Mom

This idea has evolved over the past few years and kept coming up over and over until it pretty much hit me in the face.   Thanks to the encouragement of a dear friend, Nicole, I began to share my love of art journaling with others.  It started with a few girls in a yoga studio and has since gotten bigger and bigger.  I recently co-taught a book-making  “playshop’ in Manteo, North Carolina.  The joy of sharing the things I have learned over the years and creating with other women (men are welcome too)  is priceless.

My world was rocked with my mom’s diagnosis several years ago and we found a house with an apartment so she could live with us, but have her own space. It was really hard to go into that space for quite a while, but thankfully, time heals.

Life is not a dress rehearsal: two inspirational women share their stories IMG 1584 2

I have recently turned her living space into “heART space”, a place where anyone can come and be true to their self….to make art, work in  journals, whatever they need to do in a safe, nurturing and loving space.  “heART space” is where I teach “playshops” and share my journey with others. Although it was a lot of work emotionally to re-create this space, it has paid off in so many ways.  Being able to share what I love with others, and to honor my mom in this way has been a huge part of my healing.  I am able to make art, teach art and share with others in a way that I know my mom would love and be proud of.   I love being able to stay home with my girls and  to create and work at the same time. 

Life is not a dress rehearsal: two inspirational women share their stories IMG 1575 2

Now that I have this beautiful space to create and teach and play in, my bigger dream is to have some of my favorite artists come and teach workshops here. Perhaps Judy Wise, …..Misty Mawn……L.K. Ludwig…..just to name a few!

[All images courtesy of Kim Beller]

Kim Beller is a mixed media artist, inspired by the sea and all of nature.  Her passion is to create expressive pieces with recycled metals, found objects, heartfelt quotes, photography and bits of nature in her art and jewelry.  Most days Kim can can be found in her in the studio with the music turned up and the windows wide open. Find out more about Kim by visiting her website or Etsy shop]

***

Jenny Wynter

 Life is not a dress rehearsal: two inspirational women share their stories jenwynterfringe

Doing what I love means feeling grateful for the opportunity to make a living – and indeed, just a life – out of something that I would gladly do for free. My own mother was an artist, a singer actually. She was beautiful inside and out, and when she was around my age now, she won a very prestigious song-writing competition, the prize of which was a recording contract in Sydney. Very sadly, she never made it; she very shortly thereafter, completely out of the blue, died. (She had an aneurism.) Thus, not only have I been inspired by her example to do what you love, but I also realised from a very early age that life is finite. That knowledge, that it could end at any moment, has I think, ultimately made me feel like there’s not much point wasting the short time that I have here doing something I’m not passionate about! ·

The first time I saw Edward Scissorhands, I desperately wanted to be an actor. I cannot explain it, other than that it moved me in such a profound way (I was only twelve!) that I remember thinking “I want to make people feel as deeply as I felt today!” From that point onwards, I was hellbent on being an actor. I never sought out comedy roles (indeed, quite the opposite, I really wanted to be the pretty girl, the romantic lead!) but instead found myself constantly cast in them. That probably should have been a hint…

Life is not a dress rehearsal: two inspirational women share their stories jenpuppetshock

When  I was 22, I finally made the move to Sydney to seriously pursue acting and three weeks later found out I was pregnant. I was completely shocked and at first I thought performing was over for me. A couple of years later, with two kids under two, I heard through the grapevine about an improv comedy troupe looking for players. It sounded so fun, so I called up, auditioned and the following week was performing! That gave me enough confidence that people thought I was funny to start pursuing it professionally, and it just kinda snowballed. Not long after that I entered a stand-up comedy competition and to my surprise, it went really well and it didn’t take too long before I was making a meager living from comedy. It’s funny now to think that I accidentally fell into my comedic calling, because in hindsight I think it had been biting at me for quite a number of years before I really recognized how much I loved it! ·

In 2007 my family and I moved to Canada, so that I could pursue some comedy opportunities over there. I had these grand dreams of returning to Australia a comedic superstar, but my hubby asked that before we move to the big smoke in Canada, that first we go to a quiet little town just to get our family on track (my family having received the brunt of the time sacrifices involved in making my comedy career happen). Then something strange happened – we ended up loving small town Canada so very much, in that it was so fantastic for our family’s sense of togetherness that we ended up staying there the whole time. I was able to do bits of comedy here and there, certainly not to the extent that I would have liked, but enough to keep the flame burning. While I was there I developed a new full-length show, which is much more theatrical and incredibly personal than anything I’d ever done before. On the opening night of its work-in-progress showing, I was literally four minutes away from the curtain opening, with my newborn baby still breastfeeding on me and not a scrap of makeup on my face. I had a moment there of thinking “What am I DOING?!” and wondering whether I was insane to attempt this kind of thing.  But then afterwards, when the show had finished and I was basking in the afterglow of post-performance euphoria, I have never felt more happy. ·

Life is not a dress rehearsal: two inspirational women share their stories Jen Wynter Fringe

I wish I had known how long it would take to actually get good. I think that as an artist, you have to have a certain amount of cockiness and belief in your ability to succeed. But I think that, especially in the first couple of years of my work, I really thought I was a whole lot better than I actually was! Who knows, I’ll probably be saying that about myself throughout my entire life, but I think at the beginning I really thought my stratospheric rise to success was going to strike at any time. Now I’m realizing more and more how it really does take time to master a craft and that actually, whatever that ‘meteoric rise’ I was chasing even looked like, it’s a damn good thing it didn’t happen in my first couple of years because I was not even close to ready! ·

Now I have HUGE dreams. My new show (the one I developed in Canada) is called “The Unexpected Variety Show” and I just debuted it last month at the Cabaret Fringe Festival, where, to my delight, it received some beautiful glowing reviews. So now my biggest dreams are for the show. I’m taking it to the Melbourne Fringe this September, Adelaide Fringe early next year and have my eyes set on Edinburgh in 2012. My ultimate goal for it is that we will deck out a big family tour bus and spend the next couple of years taking the show around Australia and then the rest of the world. Blogging and video-blogging the adventure along the way.  That would be heavenly. And I’m sure at times, hell-ish! But I’m so, so excited about the prospect of it and you know, I think we might just do it. Life really is too short not to!

 [All images courtesy of Jenny Wynter]

Jenny is a comedian, musician, writer and mother-of-three. To find out more about Jenny and her work visit her website or blog, or connect on Facebook or Twitter]

Did you hear? Jessica Swift is making wellies!

Rainboots - Image Jessica Swift[Image courtesy of Jessica Swift]

I love happy people.

And Jessica Swift is definitely one of life’s happy people (see here for the Do What You Love interview with her).

Have you heard she is making rainboots covered in her gorgeous designs and carrying secret messages?

 We would call them ‘wellies’ here in England.

She needs your help to get them manufactured – and bring puddle-splashing happiness to people all over the world.

Check out her fun Kickstarter video here – only six days to go!

Tough choices and positive life changes: Artists Ayesha Puri and Rhiannon Connelly share their stories

 

DWYL_BLOG_SHAREDSTORIES_650X250PX_LR

Today’s shared stories come from Edinburgh-based artist Rhiannon Connelly and designer Ayesha Puri in New Delhi, India.

Ayesha Puri

Tough choices and positive life changes: Artists Ayesha Puri and Rhiannon Connelly share their stories IMG000071

I recently gave up my career of nine years as a tax consultant with a leading ‘Big 4’ firm to pursue my dream of becoming an entrepreneur and setting up my own venture, All Things Pretty (ATP). We focus on cushions and table linen and are slowly looking at expanding into other product lines in home décor.

Giving up my job was not an easy decision as my nine years in the role had given me a comfort zone.  I had worked hard to build a career and position for myself and often wondered if it was worthwhile to give it all up to do something entirely different.  However, although I had no experience, I did have faith, which to my mind is the most crucial ingredient to success.

Tough choices and positive life changes: Artists Ayesha Puri and Rhiannon Connelly share their stories cushions

Though my family was very supportive of my decision, I did meet a lot of people who warned me against the competition, the long gestation period for setting up your own business and the many other factors involved in giving up a steady, secure means of living. This meant it took me a while to make up my mind.  The realization to finally take the plunge came about two years ago when I was setting up my home with my husband and shopping for home linen. That’s when it struck me that if I had a keen eye to spot things for my home and I actually enjoy the process of hunting for the right stuff and finding the perfect spot for it, I would probably enjoy it as a business. I do believe in the adage that you must do what you love and love what you do.  However, though that was the trigger that sent me thinking.

Tough choices and positive life changes: Artists Ayesha Puri and Rhiannon Connelly share their stories cushions2

I finally took the plunge only a few months ago when I decided “If I am going to go give this idea a shot, it has got to be now” –  and thus ATP was born.  I currently retail my products through a few home décor stores across India. It wasn’t an easy start with the retail stores – I wrote to dozens of them requesting for them to see my work and give me an opportunity to display my products. It took a while for me to understand how to go about manufacturing and showcasing merchandise at stores. During my initial few meetings, I met some very helpful, wonderful people who very kindly showed me my mistakes and guided me on how I should proceed. Even though every meeting may not have resulted in a sale or an opportunity for a tie up with a store, I learned so much from meeting experienced people who had been involved in this field for years.

It has been about six months since I have been fully involved in ATP. I am looking at expanding my market and selling my products overseas. In the next few years, I hope to get into exports, open a lifestyle store and be known as the one stop shop for home décor.

[All images courtesy of Ayesha Puri]

Find out more on the ATP Facebook page

***

Rhiannon Connelly

Rhiannon Connelly profile

Doing what I love – without realising it, this has been my guiding principle all along. My first experience of a “proper job” was so spectacularly awful that I left after a few months, and from then on I’ve always felt it was a priority to enjoy what I was doing. But that doesn’t mean that there haven’t been ups and downs and I’ve had to maintain a flexible approach. However, the threads of colour and travel keep appearing.

My first real passion was textile design using painted silk but after seven or eight years I basically burned out and made the difficult decision to stop (despite having been quite successful with a lot of outlets including Liberty of London, and seeing the likes of British TV personalities Jon Snow and Philip Schofield wearing my ties.) This tough choice led to quite a blue period – however, I was fortunate that I could return to tourist guiding ,which I also really enjoyed, and this gave me some breathing space.

LavenderImage – Rhiannon Connelly

Over time photography became more important, growing from something I did ‘on the side’ into a full time occupation. At first I did weddings and portraiture, which I liked but realised after a while I did not love. And then photographic art became my main focus – specifically a particular style of Polaroid manipulation, which partly attracted me by its vibrant colours.

But then Polaroid went out of business, leading to another period of creative block. I resolved to find a way to use up the last of my supplies in a joyful way to get past this. What I came up with was the “12 City Project” where I spent a week a month for a year photographing 12 European cities. This was quite an ambitious plan but I did complete the shooting part on schedule. I think that just announcing my plans at the outset gave me a lot of the momentum to carry it out.

Rhiannon Connelly 3

Now I have used nearly all of my supplies and although the Impossible Project is working on new film types, so far it does not yet suit my style. For me, the bright colours are as essential as the ability to manipulate the images. Instead of falling into another blue phase I’ve started to develop a range of textiles using my existing images. And I’m on the lookout for a different medium in case the film doesn’t give me the results I want.

Rhiannon Connelly 2

If there was anything I would like to have known earlier on it would be that discovering and doing what you love is not something that happens in a straight line but rather spirals in and out so that no skill learned is ever wasted. And to follow any interesting avenues without worrying that it is a “wrong” direction.

Whatever happens, in the future I would like to grow the textile range, explore licensing and find ways to share some of the techniques I’ve learned with others.

Rhiannon Connelly 1

 [All images courtesy of Rhiannon Connelly]

To find out more about Rhiannon and her work visit her website.

***

Would you like to share your story on Do What You Love and reach a new audience of creative souls?

Please see here and contact me for more details

The Creative Connection Event

The Creative Connection Event tcc2011 speaking bloggraphic

So excited to have been invited to moderate a panel at The Creative Connection Event featuring inspiring artist Kelly Rae Roberts and creative business mentor Kathy Hansen.  We will discuss ‘The Nuts and Bolts of Launching a Creative Business’. It will be a fantastic opportunity to draw out real insights and practical advice from three women who have achieved so much in a relatively short time, learning some incredibly valuable lessons along the way.

The event is the brainchild of Jo Packham, the creative force behind Where Women Create.  It will be in Minneapolis in September (more details here).  Will I see you there??