Back in time for Spring!

Let’s call a spade a spade… March was NOT my finest blogging month.  I’ve been away for much of the past 6 weeks as many folks have noticed.  I’ve been away shooting some wonderful commercial campaigns and photographing editorial assignments.  I’ve also been teaching a few classes and even managed to sit in on a workshop taught by some incredibly talented colleagues.  In addition to earning more frequent flier miles than I care to admit, March was a time to learn, explore, share and do a whole lot of photography both for work and for pleasure.

I have a pretty simple rule that I follow when I travel and/or shoot: I try very hard not to miss out on opportunities to be creative.  If I’m feeling tired or lazy, that’s just not an excuse not to get up and chase that next creative image.

This series of Golden Gate Bridge photos occurred at about 4:30am the day after a crazy week long commercial shoot and traveling (1600 miles by car, 4,000 miles by plane in addition to shooting everyday).  Though I can’t say that I’ll suddenly become an architecture photographer, I always try to make time to shoot just for myself.  No paid advertising campaigns, no stock images, no one is paying me to be out there… I’m there just for the love of the art form.

 iPhone Photo of the day (March 5, 2009): “Cow in a field”  Somewhere along Route 101, California.

Likewise, I’ve started a daily habit of taking shots with my iPhone.  Capturing images with a cell phone camera is so convenient because the iPhone is always on me.  The photos are always captured just with a basic iPhone lens and there’s no editing outside of the basic iPhone photo apps (no Photoshop).  It makes shooting more difficult in some ways… but it pushes me to be constantly thinking of interesting images while I’m traveling.  (A quick disclaimer: I did pull these images into my watermarking software to tag on that watermark… that’s the only non native iPhone tinkering that was done).

I share all these “iPhone photos of the day” images through Twitter and Facebook with the hope that it encourages folks to do something truly creative everyday… even if the end result isn’t perfect or even something you “love”… just like getting up at 4:30 in the morning on your first day of vacation, you may just find something out there that you like!  Furthermore it gets you in the habit of trying things that don’t always work… and creating something new every day!

Hit me up with YOUR iPhone creations anytime… I can always use the inspiration, and love to see the images!

Spring has arrived in Maine, and it feels wonderful to be home!