October 12, 2019

Break free from this structured existence of our demanding intellect, that tries to get us to see through another’s eyes and not our own unique perspective, societies attempt to con us, to keep us herded in fear from our own truths, are own revelations of our perceptive intuition. We must never fear being ourselves. To hide under a facade, is living in fear of becoming our true nature, our true selves. 

We must fight the urge to conform without asking deeper questions. Why are my inner ideas, my inner dreams and insights never realized?  

The simple answer is economics and how our capitalistic world that sells products that narrows ones choices and hinders one abilities to express a new formula of expression, your unique vision of independent thoughts.

We live a copycat existence, our lives being reduced to living in a commercial rather than an independent journey through our own creative talents. 

We are not going to allow companies to exploit us for profit with the newest and greatest products when we have the ability in ourselves to create a new world view, free from the commercial life we now live. Where money speaks and human voices are incarcerated for speaking their minds under this new rule of the oligarchs.

Human beings are not chattel’s, they are not someone else’s inanimate property to be sold and bought like cattle.

We must always battle a society that demands us to follow rather than lead. This compulsion to follow someone else’s will and to conform to that will without seeking your own voice is fear of self revelations! Fear of hearing your own voice standing alone and facing the violent marauders of exploitation that are devastating humanity and Mother Earth. 

Being independent is our true character not a lap dog for the wealthy.  

There is no rational excuse for why politicians that have been voted into office by the people would then turn around and betray their trust by bending over backward to please the 1% so they can retrieve their bribes of silence just like a pet puppy with his bone. If I would attempt to define this behavior of evil I guess I would have to say they sold their souls to greed and avarice. 

These men and women of wealth and deceit with their criminal minds at work, not to make a better world but to make more profits off the hard work of innocent human beings just trying to survive on this planet that is being destroyed by the very ones taking more and more from all of us. 

Fright inhibits oneself from seeing the truth kept silent in your own mind full of cliches that are meaningless.  We must fight for our freedom and the freedom that comes first is our inner being introducing itself to us and us finally feeling the unification of selfhood. We are no longer depended on outside voices with their loud obnoxious words trying to tear down our freedoms through subtle laws and through their hypocritical voices of fear. The only thing we must fear are these voices spilling out putrid thoughts to excite their pawns, their yes men and yes women to strike hate against people only because they are different from us, who is us anyway? We the people, I will say it again we are all unique and we need to demand that all people are treated equally. 

We are all looking to be part of something bigger than ourselves and this is a good thing but we must never lose our unique voice and we mustn’t confuse something bigger than ourselves with any organization or any government that OK’s the perpetuation of violence against any person, place or thing.   

A society that demands our attention through violence and products of gluttony is not a society of truth. We must seek a natural force of immersion in the ourselves first that allows us to meet our interior being for the first time and then through our vision of expression create images that represent our nature and not someone else’s.

We all have a natural need to belong to something bigger than ourselves. And that can be a good thing if and only if all voices are heard and listened to with respect and a willingness to try new ideas for the benefit of all.

We are small creatures with large ego’s. And we exist to conform to the standards of our piers. Each generation starts out thinking they are independent but that is an illusion. We all get assimilated into the larger whole of societies need for control. 

We exist to accept the forces of nature that move us in a direction that our intellects determines will become our new role in the interaction with the herd and our placement in an integral intersection of regrets and backward thinking, placating the minds of those that couldn’t break free from the controlling influence of the herded mentality.

When you are creating images with purpose you are in complete control of your composition. Your perspective is unique and it is demanding a vision that will express your inner world. These created images sometimes are very simple to make. There is flow and movement of your mind that enters the scene and you quickly understand the landscape before you and in that knowing you instinctively move yourself to a point of interest that expresses the scene through your unique vision.  

Other times you come to a scene and you must stop and reflect with your inner intuition, knowing that something is present, that is visually silent but it is demanding you to work at your composition, seek your interpretation of the natural forces present but not yet visually found. 

To find a path that brings you to a place that first enhances your initial visual thought and unfolds the nature of the scene so you can enter it with a knowledge of your unique inner voice that is giving you a revelation of a landscape you could have missed if you were in a state of anxious departure.  

We all want to find the perfect expression of the scene before us. What has drawn us to this place in this moment under these lighting conditions? We could accept our initial perception, shoot the image and then move on to the next best thing or we can stand in the presence of nature’s beauty relaxed and breathing in the atmosphere of the landscape and creating a bond with the scene on a deeper level and just waiting and enjoying these moments of being present as the light explodes in a brilliance of possibilities.  

By having the patience to wait and not start blitzing the scene with frame after frame hoping for a lucky composition and exposure you will be immersed 

in the thick of a visual narrative, each one having the possibility to express your inner intuitive force, to feel

the subject beginning to be visualized as you contemplate the scene by going deeper into your inner self awareness, a communion of physical nature and your inner visual senses on high emotions of faith in your being present and the image becoming expressed from this intimate bonding you are experiencing. 

Freedom of choice is the mantra of an independent self becoming a perceptive visionary of their inner world becoming externalized. Your visual development your freedom, is to express your inner world through external details, your intellect will want to categorize and label your approach as a structured repetition of other’s thoughts and composition. That is not what a true artist does. A true artist expresses his inner world with his own truthful interpretation through the workings of his inner life. We may not fully grasp his intent but his unique perceptions are worth the trouble of studying. His unique vision expressed through image creation is a personal revelation of his uniqueness.  

We can’t express our true selves without looking deeper into the structured environment we are born into. The controlling forces of this world are moneyed interests that do not look for revelations of the spirit but a conformity of the spirit to work and slave for the few that keep a tight lid on the extravagant lifestyle that consumes them.  

Don’t narrow your visual experience to a set of images already known, explore and experiment with your perceptive nature and create a unique vision that only you can express.

October 12, 2019

The big question concerning your inner vision seen through a mechanical device is whether or not you were truly present in the image creation or just skimming the surface of your exterior reality without thoughts of a meaningful dialogue between you and the subject that presented itself. This dialogue is your inner intuition realizing the potential that is there in the scene and your willingness to search the scene for the elements that will bring forth your internal vision.

One can be casual when taking pictures and sometimes those images turn out to be quite good and this gives one hope that with a deeper sense of your relationship with the outer world can be bridged with a focused intuition that can peel back the barriers present in the scene and allow you a moment of exposure that can capture the relationship you allowed to blossom with the subject that also chose you.

The camera allows you a distraction, a buffer between you and your subject and this can lead to frustration, boredom and an abandonment of the original scene for a more easy, more pleasing duplicate, an easier snap shot many photographers have chosen standing right where you are at now.

Why didn't you stop your mind from over thinking the scene and start using your inner gift, your intuition that will keep you in the present moment as you search for that connection, that relationship that is there but yet undiscovered. Not every image taken can be a winner.  We all go through periods of frustration when the weather, the light, the crowds can all interfere with our connection to the landscape present.  But we must persevere and take notes of the scene that beat us in the first round in order to make us re-group and come back to the scene with greater determination and openness to make a connection that will lead to a photograph you can be thankful of.

We enter into the external world overwhelmed by its beauty and ugliness. We enter this world with the intention to control nature for our own purpose. We enter this world intent on destroying this beauty to reflect our own inner darkness.

Our inability to co-exist with our natural landscape is man’s instinctive nature to transform the external world, the nature of beauty, to fit his terrifying fear of being present in a physical space he has no control of.

If we are to begin to change our own perception of this external world we must let go of our selfish ego and our selfish need to control something we can never control. Our existence in todays world is ego and power. The result of this illusion, that we are the gods of industry, is that the pollution causing climate change will set in motion billions of people forced into migration to find a plot of land that might save them from starvation and dying of thirst.

As a photographer it is your responsibility to walk lightly through nature connecting with your inner purpose to create a frame of nature that you truly physically and mentally connected with, an expression of your inner vision that was present for you through nature's gift.

September 27, 2019

Unique Expression

Eliot Deutsch, "Every deed that one performs has its effect in the world and forms within the doer a samskara or vasana (tendency) that becomes the basis for his future deeds."

Your unique perspective is your inner eye seeing the world through your own special vision. Your image is an expression of yourself, your personality, your inner life exposed to the world through your truth of being visually present in an environment in constant flux. 

Photographs are never perfect, never universally accepted, their perfection arises if you see your message contained in the image you created with purpose for yourself first and next for the viewer. We must remember each person is unique in this world and they will come to your image with a preconception of beauty and a sense of a truth being present but not fully grasping the significance of your perspective and subject matter.  

But they might let go of their distance from the subject and let go of their preconceptions so they could immerse themselves in the image you created and feel the honesty through your composition present, as a truth they can accept with passion and understanding.

Each image has your personality enclosed in the visual expression, you can't please everyone and you shouldn't try, your inner goal is to create through your internal expression objectified through an external composition of details that created your truth in your unique photographic composition. 

Your selection of certain details present in the scene became the foundation of your unique composition, these were the highlights of your inner awareness, after you slowed down, and explored the scene with an artist's vision. This process of studying the scene was your opening up to infinite choices presented which can overpower your sense of connection with the subject, but you were able to focus your attention and narrow your choices down, in this particular instance, to create a photograph that you felt connected with through composition,  light and your unique perspective. 

To make an image worthy of your talent, it doesn't need to have an exorbitant amount of details to bring out the force of your conscious intent.

Your composition in the scene, identified through your unique presence is your growing ability to explore the outer realm and feel connected with details of the scene and then arrange those details to compose your inner connection with those outside forces that are needed to express your inner revelations. 

Everyone gets overwhelmed in a scene of beauty and depth but one must not immediately jump to a short cut composition in order to move on to a new scene just around the bend anticipating the new environment will be the one to allow your  inner talents to shine. You shouldn't be concerned with natures omnipresence and mother nature's infinite ability to show you the myriad of choices when you are looking to connect with just one composition that expresses your unique interior self. Relax and enjoy the ride, through your intuitive vision you will begin to recognize the scene developing as you move around carefully positioning yourself for that magical perception that will best represent your natural, inner vision.  

 

September 25, 2019

What proof do we have that you were there, if you didn't dig deeper into the landscape of the scene in front of you? Why did you listen to your nervous energy demanding you take a quick snap shot and move on, nothing for you to see hear, if this was the case then we are relying on a statement from you about the picture, that you didn't feel the need to take your time and explore the scene with intuitive insights revealing details that could have begun your journey of composition, that would have lead you to a creation that reflected your character and nature's revealing relationship with you. A connection that goes deeper under the surface and gets you inside your ideas and purpose opening up to what mother nature is presenting to you, whether people or landscapes, we need to become connected with the wholeness of life in all its infinite components.

But in reality we have no proof you took the image. Where are you represented in the image created. What details will explain your vision that was missed because time once again hinders the purpose of composing your photographic vision.

We listen to you because you used words that depicted the scene and suggested your presence behind the camera but we still have no means of truly saying you took that picture. Your true picture was missed by your ignoring the relationship you needed to build with the scene in order to get closer to the truth of the physical space you should have been immersed in, another words a true connection with a subject that was demanding your attention if only you were open to the beauty being presented.

Without a description of your process to uncover your personal expression in the turmoil of so many details that burdened your visual senses, that seemed to spur you to hurry up and just snap a pic and then move on, isn't this the definition of a surface life ignoring the depth of existence surrounding all of us at ever level of our interaction with the external world. We can skim along the surface reflections of our visual senses disregarding waves of details and ignoring our truth, our purpose visual purpose, so why even have a camera in the first place, if we are not going to connect on a deeper level with the scene and create a personal intimate image of our inner beauty externalized why just go through the motions.

Without depth of feeling, a lucky punch so to speak, is all you get credit for if as you passed a scene of interest you just happened to snap a pic without thinking but did capture a moment of intimacy that was begging you to stop and really look deeper into the details being presented. 

Without a description of your vision's process or an understanding of why you grabbed that image, maybe your intuition recognized a link between you and the subject, a dance of a visual stimulus, a setting for a compassionate relationship between nature and you, being presented with the potentiality of creating a photograph that could have a purpose, your inner voice speaking. 

A good photograph represents a deep connection with the subject and your intuitive eye must be present for the photographer to feel in the scene presented a relationship building, a connection felt, being reciprocated by nature, welcoming your visual senses to open up and explore, and partake in the universal beauty in your own mind being externalized in the scene before you with your growing ability to identify with the contours and imaginative visual elements presented that will eventually make up the foundation for an image you and your subject will make together.

We can claim to have seen the landscape on a surface level and our picture represented a general feeling of being there but it doesn't constitute a connection that needs to be made for the image to have a personal, insightful relationship with your intuitive vision and others viewing your photograph. To walk through scenes without stopping and looking at the connections, details demanding to be part of the image's potential success you begin to lose your visual confidence and become careless and disappointed in your inability to go deeper  under the surface of subjects being presented. 

An image made without a true connection with the scene presented is not a necessary confirmation that you were the photographer present but a mind absent when the image was taken. Your physical presence was there, your outer facade was posing but you were not present in any deeper mode of understanding or compassion for the subject being presented. Both of you, the scene before you and your shallow presence in taking a quick shot separated you from a deeper exploration of a potential creation that could have allowed you to find the necessary details of your subject that would have been the foundation of creating your personal image, an image with your unique vision present, rather than just snapping ordinary details of a subject without a thought process of understanding a deeper composition that was being offered.

You were not present in the environment of composition and settled for a fast shutter, a click and a souvenir and you moved on. You were a tourist not seeking a relationship with the scene but only a physical representation of where you were that would unable you to brag about the beauty surrounding your snap shot and the beauty that was present just outside your visual frame that was waiting for your individual attention. Hoping that you would look more intensely on what was being presented to you but you ignored it.

Just being physically there and not interacting on a deeper level  with the scene before you stifles your ability to create a connection that could have lead to a powerful image via your inner vision that was patiently trying to interact with you suggesting views that could have been meaningful, nudging you to see beyond the shallow surface reflections in the scene and look for a deeper image to be revealed, your individual expression. 

Deep immersement into the landscape of photography is needed in order to create photographs that will express your individuality.

September 8, 2019

Everything has the ability to become a great photograph if the photographer is willing to connect with the subject on an intuitive level.

I have always been impressed with how being present in your inner intuition makes a photographer understand more quickly why this particular subject has a deeper message for him than say what another photographer’s external vision and then the intuitive photographer understands his inner sights attraction so he lingers and observes the landscape waiting for his revelation, exploring the visual stimulus he has been given.

A photograph is a means of descriptive character, a visual novel in one simple frame of exposure. A photographer has an intense need to see himself reflected in the images he creates. But not to the point that would be distracting to the visual experience of the viewer.

The image capture is one of focused intention on the details that bring forth in the image that your personal presence begins to visualize a composition that can give meaning to your visual concentration. What can you see that links your inner intuition with the scene in front of your view screen? Are you aware of your surroundings? Are you in a focused concentration on the landscape being presented and are you willing to take your time in focused purpose, searching the infinite visual space presented for those details that will express your inner feeling that are demanding your full attention in a composition that reflects your inner character.

Photographers are obsessed with the very idea of capturing something, anything in their viewfinder. The necessity of coming away from the scene with any kind of an image is very powerful in the mind of the snap shooter. But the confusion for someone that isn't mentally prepared, hasn't spent the time looking within himself to discover his unique perspective is a surface facade of the deeper subject that was missed. If the person just spent more time emerging himself in the scene than his image creation could have been insightful. 

As a photographer you need to empty your mind of the stresses putting pressure on your visual focus. You must let go of the world's demands looking for a common center of interest the scene is revealing to you and focus your visual attention on the subject that is demanding you to stop and observe the beauty of nature in this present moment.

One of the limiting forces of our physical reality is our dependence on time. The beginning, a visual perception of a scene before you. The middle, your awareness begins to dim as you have other pressing things to worry about. The ending, your visual adventure is wasting valuable time, so pack your gear and ignore the beauty present in the scene and leave behind a piece of your artistic skill because time was calling the shots and you were not present in your moments to ignore the force of duration that accuses you of a lazy attitude by being still in nature, waiting for that special moment to arrive. 

We are slaves to money and time. We count each hour, each day as wasted by asking ourselves what did I accomplish that was mine, my own unique expression. My life is not owned by me because we are not able to use our time for our own unique expressions. 

By allowing external forces to deprive us of our inner vision is the corruption of our freedom to pursue our original voice, silenced by corporations and wealth using an economic system intended to keep the population struggling to keep up with the increasing deprivations that have been strategically imposed on us to keep us from expressing our inner truths, by a structure made to control our lives and unique visions. Because of our structured existence our lives becoming more barren, the status quo is our normality and we suffer in our inability to see beauty inside ourselves and externally. We are not physical objects, things, we are human beings with insights into our own realities that can open us up to new worlds of beauty if we only could break free from the structure of instant gratification. A means of control in our lives creating distractions from our inner visual senses.

We are not our true selves in this corporate, destructive alienation we live in but pawns in the hectic pace of industrial and technological dominance over our lives where we have no time to get in touch with our inner intuitions and release the years of stagnant thoughts of insights abandoned but now starting to rise up within us, creating an openness and acceptance of all humanity and natures gifts that we have ignored for decades, giving us a strength, an openness of our being present fully and intensely aware, seeking the opportunities of our unique visual possibilities just waiting to be expressed in our own personal way.  

August 1, 2019

How does one keep up the pace creating imagery as you get closer to the end of your visual sensitivity?  

Will your closing moments become your last unique focused attempt to create an image worthy of your visual talent? 

Or will your ending be one of what if's and excuses for not allowing your intuitive self to guide you through your photographic compositions when you were younger, allowing you the freedom to practice your inner vision by an external realization, rearranging the scene to fit your visual intuition with a subject accepting of your presence.

This constant battle with inhibition, the relunctance to step out of ourselves and begin living a full life, bursting with ideas and subjects that are calling to us to open ourselves to them and join them with our inner compositions which enhance our ability to see details, others can't see, through our focused, heightened awareness of our inner connection with outer details that gives a special unique touch to the composition. And that is the basis for creating a great image that give and take between subject and photographer. 

You must lose your fear of our images being shown to the outside world. The more we inhibit our lives, the less we will accomplish. Live in your beautiful awareness, bursting outward with your inner talent. You can always find negativity surrounding you and your artistic talents. Perseverance to continue your inner quest for artistic expression, giving you strength in your abilities to fight for your individuality.

Fears enhance our feelings of inadequacy, allowing the intellect to restrict our mental outlook, which then tries to dictate to you, your visual future and your place in this framework of a structured reality. This concrete reality insists on the conformity of your mind and body to follow the orders of someone or something (social media) you think is superior to you when in fact we are all equal and live under the same sun until we get conditioned to ignore our inner feeling and our fresh perspectives, whereby we retreat to the herd instincts of society, by keeping our head down and with fear in our hearts we do what they tell us to do. What kind of existence is this?  

We need to become free of our mental chains and we must express our inner passions, our photographic perceptions openly with confidence in order to feel alive and part of something bigger than just us. 

We see through our photography the beauty in nature and the wonderful atmosphere of creating a meaningful, unique image.

Physical space is overwhelming our senses. It hampers our ability to be ourselves in a world of look alike minds of conformity and the inability to think for themselves, which creates a dependency on another that could determine who you don't want to become. 

Each day that passes moves us further away from your intuitive self. Changes do not happen overnight it will be a struggle to explore your inner world and bring those insights into the

external expressions in your life.

We all must realize that we are being monitored on social media by trolls working for advertisers and they are not really interested in what you post because that isn't where their money making interest lie, you are being monitored for what you click on and what interests you appear to have. Nothing you do and say on social media goes unnoticed and eventually it will get partnered with an advertiser that will begin posting ads on your sight to get you to buy their product. 

Social media monitors your clicks and through this spies on your so called personal life, now exposed to the world, and is able to generalize your personality traits and find products that might tempt you to purchase. If you want to know the truth, none of these sites care that much about your personal life or your artistic skills. All they want to do is sell you something!   

Everything on social media is money driven. Everything on social media is a distraction from living your life as an individual. The herd moves to the corral to be texted, by the new and greatest products that you don't need! 

You need to be living your life through your own insights not by the constant bombardment of ads demanding you shop until your broke. What kind of a life are we trying to live? In truth we aren't living unless we are free to be our unique selves by creating our inner perceptions and then externalizing them through our art. The feeling of being connected to something bigger than ourselves, which will take a lifetime to understand, is what living for your unique perspective is all about.

Look deeper into your conscious mine and begin to sort out what influenced you to be on the path you now walk. If you are not sure just begin the process of looking at the world differently. Put alittle joy in your presence here on earth and enjoy your future journeys without overthinking every little step.  

We know that to stick to one path all your life is foolish. There will be many side paths that will excite and demand your full artistic skills but that is what living freely is all about. Multiple opportunities and your ability to adapt to new circumstances will challenge you to become more than who you once were. Be proud of your accomplishments.

Find that spark of imagination and the will power that can focus your attention on your individual feelings and your unique inner visual expressions.

You need to pursue with concentration and stamina your visual individuality and unique perspective as you begin to develop your own unique style in your image creation.

Coalescence, uniting mind and physical space, this interaction through inner perception understood as an intuitive insight whereby the mind and body unite in seeing the landscape present before you as an expression of your inner feeling in that moment, which intensifies the need for the unique composition that you are moving toward.

In today's hyper escalation of image taking we are bombarded with the bad and the ugly on a constant basis. If you look at imagery enough you could become jaded because you think everything has already been captured, so why should I try and create my own images, won't that just be adding to the trillions of images already circulating that have a clone like look to them? 

But you are not a run and gun snap shooter! You have an intense need, an intense vision that needs to be expressed. You are an individual that doesn't feel the need to take pics of his or her life exposing the minutia of details without purpose. Your image creation is focused through understanding your unique perspective and these images give the viewer a visual revelation taking place.

   

This is why you need to get started now with developing your own original, personal vision. And that is the main point to remember, you have the talent waiting to be explored and your photographic eye is beginning to see an innovative, self realized composition in the scene and you will be able to use your imagination more frequently to go beyond the stereotypes of commonality that is portrayed over and over in this world of selfies, without depth of character, to making an image interesting enough to be studied. 

Open up your mind to the infinite possibilities surrounding you as you begin your journey creating personal images with unique characteristics that only you can express. And don't forget to have fun creating your individual expressions.

  

  

  

July 3, 2019 

Picture taking feeds the ego and any image no matter the content brings to the image taker a since of power over the external world. We are trapped physically in this reality but a photograph takes from the scene a conduit to self praise and awareness.  A photograph conquers the infinite details overwhelming the person behind the camera, by reducing your visual sense to a fragment of the scene that caught your eye and the hunt is on for you to capture it not with your own intuitive abilities but with the ability to reproduce a duplicate of the scene that caught your eye through the technology of the camera. 

This gives one a sense of power and control over his selective nature and allows him an excuse, by over studying a scene he could become intimidated, this would tie up to much time to untangle his desire for an image that actually reflected his inner being. 

But because the majority of people take pictures as a means of enhancing memories they are not immersing themselves in the scene looking for that detail, that composition that reflects their inner artistic vision. 

What is it that demands we take pictures of our lives, is it a means to document ourselves, our family, our friends, our lifestyle, our reflections, our ego and its since of demanding exterior attention, we are full of self importance, by manipulations of our outer facade that we become addicted to promote, by taking pictures of everything we do, no matter how trivial, just to showboat and promote ourselves on social media. 

If you really new yourself and the gifts present in your private world you wouldn't need to exploit your physical body to the greedy eyes of the masses.

This addiction of becoming anything and everything is undermining your ability to think for yourself, to be present in your mind and not a fashion show that ends abruptly with the next best and greatest ever promotions of a new fad.

Where is your uniqueness if you are creating a facade, a personality that isn't you? This persona is an imitation, an excuse, a deflection because of self doubt, not trusting your inner being. You are afraid to be just you, so you try and create movement away from your fears of self discovery and swim in shallow water's surface glitter. 

When you go out in public are you present in your moments.  Are you aware of yourself and not the movement of time, as you begin to construct an inner perception that is worth exploring. You are not in the external world to entertain your ego with flighty poses and smiling teeth. You are there to create an image from your inner being that will be a revelation to you once you have studied the scene beginning to unfold through your concentrated effort and unique perspective.  

You are not there to get your picture taken. You are there to express an intuition through a visual artistic skill that is unique only to you.

You were there but were you present in your inner unique perspective? Or did you lose interest in the external world's possibilities because the intellect that has trained us to be aware of the importance of time and to be aware of our duties to conform to the world's repetitive moments of our herded instincts made you feel overwhelmed and self conscious with the worlds external facades, so you packed up your inner talent and followed the cattle with their heads down marching in step into societies corral.

Don't allow fear of self revelations in the public arena stop you from being yourself, expressing your inner talents.

You must open yourself up visually, listening to your inner instincts, that is drawing you toward your subject.  You must be patient and observant taking in every detail that intrigues you and stimulates your intuitive force to pursue the image just beginning to form in your mind.

I sometimes feel like a trained animal going to all the same city views that I have photographed for decades.

I still have to demand my intuitive force to direct me to new subjects and new perspectives of the same old themes.  

We have been trained to ignore the infinite possibilities present for image creation and focus only on the mundane, the ordinary. This physical space that we move through doesn't care about your art, or your unique perspective.  

You need to have your awareness heightened and your vision looking past the facades of our external structured existence by seeing deeper into the subject that is present and allow your visual interaction with the scene begin to reveal a connecting force between you and details that are beginning to form in your mind's image.

The call to the narrow myth of conformity is created by the powers that control our lives. They want a uniformed approach to controlling the public view and a person's inner talents. 

We seek to become the stereotypical reflection in the cameras eye rather than becoming our inner truth through a unique inner vision of the reality we think is always stable. It is anything but stable and is always changing and creates in the photographer a vital significance that needs exploring without prejudices, for if we want to create great images we must be open in our minds eye and in our hearts emotional source, to seek all the subjects that instill in us a universal acceptance of human beings and nature.

A photograph is a message to ourselves that we were present in the photograph even though we weren't seen.  But our presence is insinuated by the image that we created.  We can describe the image through the lens that framed the picture. Proof is our recollection of the events that led up to scene being captured.  

Can we really state we were there just by a picture that doesn't expose your presence? Photography is more than just being present behind the viewer. Photography is interacting with your subject, it is immersing yourself in the scene looking for artifacts in this physical space that you are connecting with, that will bond your instinctive understanding of the scene with the subject and the creation of an image that is a reflection of your inner being. 

A good photograph has a deep connection with the subject presented and with the internal eye looking through the view finder. We must be present in the scene through our ability to identify with the contours and imaginative visual elements that will eventually make up the foundation for an image we will make.

Your inner world presented through external expression.

                       

June 17, 2019

Photographs created with purpose becoming your truth, your visual relation with the outside world, our external playground where one finds a growing distance between himself and the subject, something breaking apart the intuitive vision and demanding one bend a knee to a reality someone else formed but not yours to know with certainty, the props already present at birth and corridors of the mind blocked from entering doors of your future reality.

Changing surfaces, a transition of light within boundaries. A natural flow of your imagination. 

With a true understanding of your personal, revealing vision you begin to understand not the external world but your own relationship with it. 

How does one translate light into an image? Does one seek the mood of the subject before the image is created? Will, willing something to happen begin ones journey of your independent visual journey? 

Who decides the right moment to interrelate with the subject you have chosen? Do you care, is your inner sight focused enough to look deeper into the details that begin to form a possible image, trying to understand or know on a more personal, a deeper level the scene before you?   

We seek the surface reflections that don’t cost us any time, that limits our addiction to self gratification and this brings to your soul a nagging suspicion that you are missing an important truth by pushing forward without a direction, addicted to the pleasures of being someone else rather than our true nature.

We think human beings are above the natural law.  We are superior to all creatures big and small and we control nature to bend to our egos and our lust for extravagant material gains, we think owning things brings us closer to the godlike idols, spoken of in myths and stories of great deeds done for humankind that gave one a feeling of absolute control over the earth and its people. 

We all know this is just a mental illusion of people scared of their environment and in order to relate and adapt to the impossible world present before them, created myths to counteract their terror of death.

We have no control over ourselves or mother nature. We limit our actions by controlling our emotions. We have learned through generation of redundant behavioral patterns which one works best and which ones work even better. To break the behavioral foundation of repetitive, dutiful actions we seek wealth to break free from our caste system. For as you move higher on the ladder of greed you find that your behavior becomes less about control but more about pleasure and gluttony. 

One thing is missing from this egocentric need to be more than anyone else and that is love of self and the ability to seek within yourself your visual connection with the outside world and in this connection you will be able to create your artistic expression. Being a human doesn’t mean avarice, being human is being present in your moments, taking a ride with those moments and express your image creation through your inner perspective, your unique vision that is yours only.

Your inner vision is the path you must follow.  All else is hallow doing someone else’s thoughts. You must be independent and listen to you inner motives before you can compose a scene that is worthy of your intuitive vision.

Changing surfaces, like changing imagery creates a desire to move beyond you're limiting age and societal control. Life is constantly evolving and changing but is it really changing or is that the illusion the wealthy want you to believe. For all the moneyed interests want is a buying public with a new toy to admire and purchase.

Have we really changed that much over the centuries? I don’t think so! We are still dependent on something we perceive outside ourselves something we have been conditioned to believe is higher than us on the evolutionary scale of deceit.  An outer force that demands we worship it. Call it a god or call it capitalism it means the same thing. You pay to go  church and you pay to live in a controlled conformity entangled in dull status quo like herded cattle being corralled waiting for the prepackaged emotions and thoughts being instilled in you making you conforming to the menial job of hiding behind a facade of someone else created. Your inner mind is your visual journey you must travel alone. 

There is no solid representation of our reality to make. It is in constant flux, changing not for our good but for the powers that be. In order to break free of redundant illusions you respect and acknowledge you must become an independent self capable of creating your own perceptions and your inner art externalized through image creation.

In knowing yourself as a separate being from the masses is your first step toward your inner freedom and external control.  Through image creation you express through your visual senses a concept, a word, a presence visually seen through your independent perspective, your inner self reflected in the chosen landscape. You are no longer isolated from your freedom of choice but you are becoming this freedom to choose a subject that is calling to you whereby in the past you ignored the calling, out of fear and conditioning to be obedient servants of the ones in power.  

The mindful representations of your inner perceptions, your inner world anticipates the calling of your truth that is present all around you in nature if you are strong enough to focus your intuitive insight into the external realm of falsity, seeking your own true unique vision.

You uniquely see how controlled you were previously, your vision succumbed to the prevailing redundant stereotypes until you began to express an independent voice and a sharp visual sense of your newly acquired inner freedom to choose your own subjects.  Not only choose your subjects but to relate to them, empathize with them gaining a deeper understanding of the lost years you spent in a narrow vision of this preposterous reality that we call real.

The herd will roam together for their narrow truths, lies ingrained in them from birth but until they break free from the crowded holding pen there is no hope for independence but rather a redundant vision that is sold to them repeatedly, shamefully, in order to control their inner spirit, caged and afraid to break away from the manipulative forces of pervasive ideas that don't free someone but instills in a person fear of change. For change is a natural propensity to evolve and develop new perceptions without the herd, just being yourself with a visionary plan. 

Images of lasting value must be made by your full participation in the act of creating them. This process of visual understanding doesn’t happen overnight but evolves through related visual emotions until you have found yourself being present in your moments and seeing for the first time the external worlds beauty and immaculate grace. And once a visual sense is understood than you will be on an evolutionary trajectory to become your inner voice through image creation.

An example of surface pictures is of course the Family Album. These albums are filled with snap shots that do not dig deeper under the surface of family relationships but only gives the viewer a shallow representation of the families relatives, not allowing them to be themselves but must be posed in order to depict the family in such away that a viewer will come away from the image not knowing anything about the personalities photographed.

This family album syndrome is alive and well in today’s fast paste lifestyles where no one it seems has time to slow time down and focus their visual intentions on the scene but instead looks for a surface facade that gives a minor feeling of what the image creator's intent was.

In order to touch someone visually you must go beneath the fabric of appearances and dive deeper into the undercurrents of the scene that are present, if you have the courage to create your visual study.

To have depth in your image creation you must have that deeper understanding of light and subject, which creates its own relationship as an exterior potentiality and all you need is patience, be visually alive in your moments, understanding that the real momentum is about to happen in your caring connection with the developing scene through your intuitive insight.

Expressing your inner sight through image creation gives one an understanding of the connection between the inner world and the outer world. Each subject has a potential to be a great image revealing your inner being but you must be diligent in finding the correct subject to photograph.  I have always made images of subjects that caught my eye and I have forced myself to look deeper into some subjects that didn't until the image was present in me. 

As always we must be on guard not to shoot randomly, hoping one of the image you took represents the subject in its originality.

  

Even though luck sometimes plays a role in image creation it rarely can take the place of a concentrated visual effort to look deeper into the landscape and through intuitive intensity begin to separate the formal structure of the scene from the main subject you are beginning to discover.

The goal of all great photographs is to find the image present in your reflection, present in the scene, your truth of vision mastered in a personal image revealed.

June 5, 2019

Control

What is the future plan for stock imagery?  What will the future look like for the photographers trying to make a good living creating images for the stock mega companies?

The photographer is a relic of the past. His importance has been wiped clean with the new age of see something, anything and click without a personal vision in the new era of everything needs to be photographed because everything in the modern age has an importance, a newness to the eyes of the young photographers doing their best to copy each other without a unique vision for themselves.

The new photographic vision is contained.  For who wants to think and perceive an image when in this fast paced life we live, who has the time to think, compose and reflect before entering the stage of making an image, a powerful external vision of your thoughts at the moment of exposure.

The run and gun model of image taking and then moving on as quickly as you can without understanding your present moments undermines the connectivity to the elements that are being seen and diminishes your ability to create a unique expression.

Without reaching a connection with the scene exposes the inherent detachment of the new generation of photographers with their external vision on high alert and denying their unique perspective their intuitive vision. 

If you missed the exceptional image tough cookies the next quickly composed image will be worth it. This rushing around with our sight blinded by misconceptions of visual selection imposes on the shooter a time limit on how he will approach the subject and in thinking about how to approach the subject the person gets bored and assumes that nothing is worthy of his presence here in this landscape and waiting is not an option and it is not what a photographer does, for he is a new breed of photographer attacking his subject, creating a scene without content. 

His method of seeing, being anonymous to himself and the scene in front of him climaxes the existential experience of seeing the world as a physical presence only and not a means of your personal expression. 

Surface reflections will do just fine for he doesn't even identify with the subject present and why should he spend time looking for a subject within the subject when he can grasp the entire field with one click of the shutter and then move on to the next straggling moments without understanding his infinite physical world and the means to overcome the external props that distract and ultimately through perseverance find in the reality you live in an image with purpose that expresses something that you find meaningful through your inner senses.

Instead of a connection of just a cold surface taken with narrow eyes unwilling to explore the external world through your inner visual intuition.

Snap shots have the ability to present themselves as authentic when in fact the photographer never even reflected on his subject but instead used a mechanical devise to exploit the burgeoning scene before him by creating a shallow performance of himself dulled by thoughts without focus in the scene that had potential if studied in depth by the photographer instead the photographer decided to take a few images casual anyhow and his only motivation was to hurry up and get them posted on social media. 

We are not living our lives we are running through our lives without grasping the corner stone of living in our unique present moments in the now of life. 

Image creation is a personal expression of your inner intuitive consciousness and when respecting your inner vision you want to be present in the scene, connecting with the changing light and interpreting the scene and it's details to become more than just a picture, it becomes your individual expression of this present moment.

What a gift photography can be to you as a means to express yourself without having to follow anothers vision but your own.

 

If you are at first not feeling a connection with a scene, why stop exploring it, look deeper into yourself, and find what is visually attracting your attention.  Look for new compositions that create a unique perspective, that might have the potential you were seeking to express. Don't leave a scene until you have at least explored its potential and captured some of what made you stop and look in the first place.

Stop ignoring your presence in the world. Stop just living without a purpose, just living as you passerby those unique moments of revelation.

The explosiveness of the snapshot, the ability to take images of anything has undermined and created a vast wasteland of surface perceptions that deceive the populace into thinking they are creating art when in fact they are creating a reflection of their shallow connection of exploitation. For without understanding the external world and its illusive character we are imprisoned into believing that this world is a unique expression of everybody when in fact it is the expression determined by a few to control the populace into believing they are free and are perceiving the world in their truth.  When in  fact they are experiencing an others world and their own inner uniqueness is imprisoned in someone eleses con-game.

There is too much activity for the mind to focus on and that is the intended purpose of social media.  We are being taken from our internal lives and being forced to play in the fast paste deception of a reality controlled by corporate media as a means to pull a bait and switch scam on people by keeping them distracted by an overwhelming amount of details that aren't worth anything but a means of misdirecting people from their truth and the truth of their exploitation by the hands of the accumulated wealth of a few, distracting people from the con game they are pulling each hour of each day.

The image world, a monopoly game controlled by the hands of a few major business, controlling the pricing of our image creation to suit their profit margins for their investors. We are the low man on the totem pole and will never be able to explore our abilities to create great images under the pressure of lessened value and without a means to make a living at what we must do in order to feel complete and that is create images from our inner being and express these images in an openness to willingly share our inner world with others.

The photo industry has lost its integrity and purpose.  The explosive accumulations of image creation has exploded and been detrimental for photographers thinking they can make a good living out of shooting stock photography.

The con-game guarantees that you will see a diminishing return from your unique efforts not just your image creation but also your written words. I remember decades ago when the photo agencies started to dabble in Royalty Free and tried to sell it to their photographers on its potential as a great way to sell their hard earned work. The truth is that RF is cheap and it destroys income for the full time photographers and the winners of this rat race are the buyers and the photo agencies that can automate their buying systems and cut more jobs and leave the photographers with pennies on the dollar!

The photo agencies I worked for in the 80's and into the 1990's had their priorities correct, protect their photographers making sure they were paid fairly for the effort they had to go through in order create a beautiful expression of their inner landscape.