Cinematographer and Fine Art Photographer Crescenzo participated in the EOS Moving Image Workshop in May.
The boundaries between motion and still photography no longer exist. Canon HD SLR technology empowers you to capture video and still photography with a single camera and a vast selection of accessory options.
See and hear what Crescenzo has to say about the workshop. Click here to view his video interview
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Gremlin Taming Tips from Rick Carson
In keeping with an earlier post, here are some Gremlin Taming Tips from Rick Carson
Breathe! Your breathing is both a barometer and a regulator of your level of contentment.
Stay aware of your skin. It's both a wonderfully sensitive receptor and a miraculous sheath that separates you from the rest of the world.
Remember that feeling good is primarily an inside job. Events occur around you. Your experience of those events occurs within the boundary defined by your skin.
Simply Notice. Notice your thoughts, feelings, fantasies, memories and assumptions and notice that these are all different processes.
Play with options.
Relax your pact to keep your act intact. In the words of Terry Allen, "Your ego may not be your amigo."
Think of your awareness as a spotlight that you control.
Change for a change.
In every moment you are a devotee. You devote your awareness to something. Choose with care, breath to breath, what you devote your awareness to and devote fully.
Breathe! Remember to take in all of the air you want and to exhale fully.
The key is choice. Don't grapple with your gremlin. Simply notice him or her fully, and then choose to redirect your awareness - or not.
Worry is a cerebral house of mirrors into which your gremlin ushers you. Worry and constructive thought are different processes. Worry is fraught with anguish, feels lousy and results in shallow breathing. Constructive thought involves knowing where you want to be, and taking the steps to get there.
Your past is not attached to you. You may be holding onto it. But it is not holding on to you.
A belief is just an opinion to which you've developed loyalty. Notice your opinions.
When you're not sure what to say, consider saying, "I'm not sure what to say."
Your existence has been a series of precious moments leading you right here, right now. What's next is up to you.
Remember where you end and all else begins and leap off into the future.
Consider the notion that you and the world were created 2 seconds ago complete with history, props, and players.
Center yourself.
Be at choice with what you're attending to.
Breathe! Your breathing is both a barometer and a regulator of your level of contentment.
Stay aware of your skin. It's both a wonderfully sensitive receptor and a miraculous sheath that separates you from the rest of the world.
Remember that feeling good is primarily an inside job. Events occur around you. Your experience of those events occurs within the boundary defined by your skin.
Simply Notice. Notice your thoughts, feelings, fantasies, memories and assumptions and notice that these are all different processes.
Play with options.
Relax your pact to keep your act intact. In the words of Terry Allen, "Your ego may not be your amigo."
Think of your awareness as a spotlight that you control.
Change for a change.
In every moment you are a devotee. You devote your awareness to something. Choose with care, breath to breath, what you devote your awareness to and devote fully.
Breathe! Remember to take in all of the air you want and to exhale fully.
The key is choice. Don't grapple with your gremlin. Simply notice him or her fully, and then choose to redirect your awareness - or not.
Worry is a cerebral house of mirrors into which your gremlin ushers you. Worry and constructive thought are different processes. Worry is fraught with anguish, feels lousy and results in shallow breathing. Constructive thought involves knowing where you want to be, and taking the steps to get there.
Your past is not attached to you. You may be holding onto it. But it is not holding on to you.
A belief is just an opinion to which you've developed loyalty. Notice your opinions.
When you're not sure what to say, consider saying, "I'm not sure what to say."
Your existence has been a series of precious moments leading you right here, right now. What's next is up to you.
Remember where you end and all else begins and leap off into the future.
Consider the notion that you and the world were created 2 seconds ago complete with history, props, and players.
Center yourself.
Be at choice with what you're attending to.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Inspirations....
"The price of being a sheep is boredom. The price of being a wolf is loneliness. Choose one or the other with great care."
Hugh MacLeod
Hugh MacLeod
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Competitions, Portfolio Reviews, Calls for Entry
MPLS Photo Center
Black & White People, Places and Things - Deadline 7/23
PCNW - Photographic Center Northwest
Present Tense: 15th Annual Photographic Competition Exhibition - Deadline 6/12
Descry Magazine
Catalogue of the Night - Deadline 7/30
F Stop Magazine : Portfolio Issue - Deadline 7/01
GUEST EDITOR AMBER TERRANOVA
Black & White People, Places and Things - Deadline 7/23
PCNW - Photographic Center Northwest
Present Tense: 15th Annual Photographic Competition Exhibition - Deadline 6/12
Descry Magazine
Catalogue of the Night - Deadline 7/30
F Stop Magazine : Portfolio Issue - Deadline 7/01
GUEST EDITOR AMBER TERRANOVA
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Competitions, Portfolio Reviews, Calls for Entry
APA/NY Photo Contest Early Bird Deadline extended to 5/14
Photographer's Forum 30th Annual Spring Photography Contest Final Deadline 5/17
Black and White Spider Awards Deadline Special Entry Packs 5/28
Picture of the Year International - a program of the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI)
The incentive will fund and showcase documentary work on social issues or political trends by aspiring documentary photographers. Application Deadline: 5/31
Download pdf here
Exhibit A Final Deadline 6/1
The Gala Awards
The 2010 WPGA Annual Competition Deadline 6/29
The Invisible World Early Bird Deadline 5/30, Final Deadline 7/25
Black & White Early Bird Deadline 5/30, Final Deadline 7/25
Center for Photography
Strange Beauty Deadline 5/18
Jurors: Darren Ching and Debra Klomp Ching
Black and White Deadline 6/15
Juror: Andrea Modica
RayKo Photo Center
Call for Entry: Portrait photography Deadline 6/5
Les Rencontres d'Arles Photo Folio Review
7/4 - 7/13 Arles, France Registration closes: 6/20
Photographer's Forum 30th Annual Spring Photography Contest Final Deadline 5/17
Black and White Spider Awards Deadline Special Entry Packs 5/28
Picture of the Year International - a program of the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI)
The incentive will fund and showcase documentary work on social issues or political trends by aspiring documentary photographers. Application Deadline: 5/31
Download pdf here
Exhibit A Final Deadline 6/1
The Gala Awards
The 2010 WPGA Annual Competition Deadline 6/29
The Invisible World Early Bird Deadline 5/30, Final Deadline 7/25
Black & White Early Bird Deadline 5/30, Final Deadline 7/25
Center for Photography
Strange Beauty Deadline 5/18
Jurors: Darren Ching and Debra Klomp Ching
Black and White Deadline 6/15
Juror: Andrea Modica
RayKo Photo Center
Call for Entry: Portrait photography Deadline 6/5
Les Rencontres d'Arles Photo Folio Review
7/4 - 7/13 Arles, France Registration closes: 6/20
Inspiring...
"Our dreams carry with them the energy for their achievement; our fears carry with them the energy of our defeat." M. Neill - SuperCoach
Monday, May 3, 2010
Procrastination and Creative Avoidance
As a consultant I often hear from clients that “there isn’t enough time in a day” or “I’m so stressed out” or “the day got away from me” or “I’m stuck and I don’t know where to go next”. We’re talking about procrastination, fear and time management – and recognizing this is the first step to achieving your goals.
I’m presupposing that you’ve done the work on your mission, priorities, and actually have a focused To Do List. If you do not have a focused list, take a few moments to identify one objective you’ve had for yourself but have not completed. The message of this article is focusing your activities in such a way as to get done the things that need to be done – without interruptions. It takes discipline and practice.
How do you currently spend your time? It’s often very hard to examine how you spend your time – it’s an eye-opening experience. To accomplish this, track your time in one hour intervals. Be honest about the time you are idle, or are filling time but are not working towards your principal goals. Write it down – do this over the course of a week.
Getting into action alleviates the stress of procrastination. Ask yourself why you’ve been putting off these goals. Put emotions aside and look at this situation as logically as possible. Your next steps are to complete a list of your creative avoidances and a separate list for your procrastinations. The difference between the two are that procrastinations are the things you need to do that you’re not doing – your goals; and creative avoidances are the things you are doing - the distractions - that are keeping you from doing the things you need to be doing.
When it comes to procrastinating, many of us are experts – personally I weigh every option and “think everything through” – when often all I need to do is take the leap of faith, push past the fear, make a decision and move forward. We justify, rationalize, and redirect our focus to avoid the “difficult” tasks. Creative avoidances include organizing and reorganizing; preparing and repairing; diversions – telephone, e-mail, etc. All of these can take you away from your key goal, and often keep you spinning in a circle and never achieving your goals. Whether it is fear of success, failure, vulnerability, others reaction, or lack of “how to” skills, or lack of belief in yourself, fear can and will get in the way of attaining your goals. Procrastination is just a way to cover up your fears about a certain goal. This procrastination is always some justification and rationalization that seem right at the time. To prevent this justification and rationalization from occurring it’s important to get a reality check on the task at hand.
Once you’ve completed your lists of your creative avoidances and procrastinations it will give you a chance to finally think out and list all those things you really need to do to move yourself forward. And a good place to begin is with what you envision yourself accomplishing by a certain point in time. Write it down, and create the list of tasks required to move you toward that vision. Identify the first or next step towards accomplishing the goal, and commit to a time to start.
The rest is truly a matter of being self-aware – catching yourself when you lean towards a creative avoidance, when you should be focused on the procrastination list. To Do lists help tremendously especially if you can get outside feedback from friends, coaches, consultants, peers, and spouses, they can be helpful in holding you accountable.
Steps:
Angela Krass is the founder of fotoprojx.com.
I’m presupposing that you’ve done the work on your mission, priorities, and actually have a focused To Do List. If you do not have a focused list, take a few moments to identify one objective you’ve had for yourself but have not completed. The message of this article is focusing your activities in such a way as to get done the things that need to be done – without interruptions. It takes discipline and practice.
How do you currently spend your time? It’s often very hard to examine how you spend your time – it’s an eye-opening experience. To accomplish this, track your time in one hour intervals. Be honest about the time you are idle, or are filling time but are not working towards your principal goals. Write it down – do this over the course of a week.
Getting into action alleviates the stress of procrastination. Ask yourself why you’ve been putting off these goals. Put emotions aside and look at this situation as logically as possible. Your next steps are to complete a list of your creative avoidances and a separate list for your procrastinations. The difference between the two are that procrastinations are the things you need to do that you’re not doing – your goals; and creative avoidances are the things you are doing - the distractions - that are keeping you from doing the things you need to be doing.
When it comes to procrastinating, many of us are experts – personally I weigh every option and “think everything through” – when often all I need to do is take the leap of faith, push past the fear, make a decision and move forward. We justify, rationalize, and redirect our focus to avoid the “difficult” tasks. Creative avoidances include organizing and reorganizing; preparing and repairing; diversions – telephone, e-mail, etc. All of these can take you away from your key goal, and often keep you spinning in a circle and never achieving your goals. Whether it is fear of success, failure, vulnerability, others reaction, or lack of “how to” skills, or lack of belief in yourself, fear can and will get in the way of attaining your goals. Procrastination is just a way to cover up your fears about a certain goal. This procrastination is always some justification and rationalization that seem right at the time. To prevent this justification and rationalization from occurring it’s important to get a reality check on the task at hand.
Once you’ve completed your lists of your creative avoidances and procrastinations it will give you a chance to finally think out and list all those things you really need to do to move yourself forward. And a good place to begin is with what you envision yourself accomplishing by a certain point in time. Write it down, and create the list of tasks required to move you toward that vision. Identify the first or next step towards accomplishing the goal, and commit to a time to start.
The rest is truly a matter of being self-aware – catching yourself when you lean towards a creative avoidance, when you should be focused on the procrastination list. To Do lists help tremendously especially if you can get outside feedback from friends, coaches, consultants, peers, and spouses, they can be helpful in holding you accountable.
Steps:
- Admit that your time needs to be utilized better.
- Honestly log your current time use.
- List your creative avoidances.
- List your procrastinations.
- Create a future vision – where do you see yourself in six months, a year, three years, 5 years?
- Commit to a TO DO LIST that supports your vision.
- Hone the TO DO LIST into a daily task list if it’s overwhelming.
- Select a goal and identify the first or next step to accomplish the goal.
- Commit to a time when you will begin the first step.
- Stay self aware – recognize your pattern of excuses, and don’t get bogged down in an activity that doesn’t support your end goal
- Partner with someone – Joining together with a colleague will keep you focused and on track.
Angela Krass is the founder of fotoprojx.com.
Thoughts...
Continuing along with last week's post I recently read this tidbit and wanted to share. Michael Neill is a super-coach to coaches and shares great insight...
Enjoy...
"The worst thing that can ever happen to you is a thought - generally speaking, a thought about whatever you think is the worst thing that could ever happen to you. But just because a thought pops into your head doesn’t mean it will immediately manifest in your life. (If it did, there would be more deaths by roller coasters going off their tracks, people falling from very high places, and heads exploding due to stress than any other cause.)
That’s because in and of themselves, thoughts have no power. It’s only when you invest your own energy and consciousness into them that they begin to become real.
A thought without your personal investment is no more powerful than a tea bag without boiling water. It’s only after you add the water that the tea begins to infuse and create the flavor, and it’s only after you add your agreement and energy to a thought that it begins to impact your life."
Enjoy...
"The worst thing that can ever happen to you is a thought - generally speaking, a thought about whatever you think is the worst thing that could ever happen to you. But just because a thought pops into your head doesn’t mean it will immediately manifest in your life. (If it did, there would be more deaths by roller coasters going off their tracks, people falling from very high places, and heads exploding due to stress than any other cause.)
That’s because in and of themselves, thoughts have no power. It’s only when you invest your own energy and consciousness into them that they begin to become real.
A thought without your personal investment is no more powerful than a tea bag without boiling water. It’s only after you add the water that the tea begins to infuse and create the flavor, and it’s only after you add your agreement and energy to a thought that it begins to impact your life."