My Genisis Photo - Bloody Gum - Royal National Park (Sun 28 Jan 2001)

Bloody Gum - Royal National Park (Sun 28 Jan 2001)
Chris Rainier (*) writes (*):

In every [photographer's] genesis (*) there is a point - an image - that we can look back on with the realisation that the photograph taken was a defining moment of internal creative clarity. My first image ...

... was the one above which I wrote about (*) just over three years ago (time does fly). It came from nowhere and was totally unexpected when I looked at it later on my monitor. It was at this point that I realised that photography was not only about capturing memories (*), which I have focused on a bit here lately. I learnt it could be about creating art, or at least creating something to look at and admire from out the ordinary and mundane. I love it and what photography can do a persons self worth and purpose. It has got me though some great times and more importantly some really hard times.

On Museums - Kirk Tuck (Fri 30 May 2014)

Jenny's (in pink top) moment in front of the Mona Lisa - Louvre / Paris (Aug 2005)
Kirk Tuck (*) writes:

The past (*) is interesting in some regard because it is littered with treasures (*). Those who have never taken time to savor those treasures (*) are condemned to working without good boundaries and, to a certain extent, without inspiration (*).

via A visit to the museum is rejuvenating for the eyes and the mind. Also, how art taught me to stop caring about sharpness. (*) by Kirk Tuck (*).

On Light - Rinzi Ruiz (Feb 2013)

The Wall - Berlin (Tue 09 Aug 2005)
Rinzi Ruiz (*) writes On Light (*):

Light (*) is essential to photography (*). [..]

I purposefully (*) and consciously see the light and chase it. [..]

It brought depth and mood to my images. It brought out the vivid colors (to some), and added shapes and geometry to my images. I search for light and also look for the shapes the shadows (*) make. [..]

I love (*) how light (*) reveals and how shadow (*) hides elements in the photograph.

via Chasing Light (*) by Rinzi Ruiz (*).

I have come to the same conclusion a long time ago. A great and passionate post about photography.

On Memories, The Past and Moving Forward - Claire Monneraye / Hiromi Tango (Sat May 17 Aug 2014)

Untitled - Alexandria (Wed 28 May 2014)
Claire Monneraye (*) writes On Memories (*) and Moving Forward (*):

emotion (*) and pain (*) and memories (*) can’t be put aside, [..] But new memories can be created by reusing and rebuilding the past (*). [..]

Hiromi Tango (*) adds:

Art has helped me to recover from certain times when I was having difficulties and has helped me cope with memories and emotions,

via Hiromi Tango finds relief from postnatal depression in her craft (*) by Andrew Taylor (*).

On Sharing Dreams - Do What You Love (Tue 27 May 2014)

Untitled - King Street / Newtown (Sun 25 May 2014)
Do What You Love (*) writes On Dreams (*):

Sharing your dreams (*) can be scary. It can make you feel vulnerable and afraid. But if you share them with the right people, you might just get more help and support (*) than you could have hoped for. And then maybe those dreams will actually come true…

via Why I gave a busker ten times more than I normally would (*) by Do What You Love (*).

On Asking ‘what if’ - The Story of Telling (Mon 26 May 2014)

Red Balloon - Erskineville (Nov 2013)
The Story of Telling (*) writes On Wondering (*):

Asking ‘what if’ (*) feels risky because it means you might have to acknowledge that what you’ve worked hard to put in place might not be the best solution. But if we don’t have the courage to question our assumptions we’re choosing to stagnate by default.

via The Value Of Asking What If (*) by The Story of Telling (*).

Obviously could not go past this one without making an effort to find a quote and photo.

On Light - Jorg Colberg (Thu 22 May 2014)

The Constellation of Vela (*) - Sydney Observatory (Mon 05 May 2014)
Jorg Colberg (*) writes On Portrait Photography (*):

clearly [it] remind us of what photography is, what photography needs: light. Without light, there is darkness. Without light, there are no photographs.

via Into the Light: Khalik Allah (*) by Jorg Colberg (*).

The bright star is Jenny's Star. We were pleased that Amanda (*), who presented us with this Gift (*) [can't believe I wrote that page almost five years ago] from the 2009 Australian Dragon Boat, was there to share the experience of our annual viewing the Star, which is 1400 light years away.

The viewing of The Constellation of Vela (*) - Sydney Observatory (Mon 05 May 2014)

On Abstraction - Vivek Haldar (Tue 20 May 2014)

Untitled - Hampstead Heath / London (Sun 18 Aug 2013)
Vivek Haldar (*) writes On Absrtaction (*):

It is telling that one of the central activities in programming is abstraction. Abstraction is nothing but taking a jumble of intricate detail, putting it in a tightly sealed box, and then poking very small, well-defined holes in the box to interact with that jumble. So clean! So much better!

But every abstraction is leaky. Ints carry the baggage of their bit-width. In a perfect world, every int would be a BigInt with unlimited range. But we live in a world where it matters whether ints fit in a hardware register or not. Networks carry the baggage of not being perfect links. In a perfect world, a link between two machines would be an immutable, always-available channel for sending messages between them. But we live in a world where wires break.

via Why technologists want to secede (*) by Vivek Haldar (*).

I like to abstract (*), but it is hard because of the imperfect world Vivek (*) describes and abstracts so well above.

On Memory - Melting Asphalt (Tue 20 May 2014)

Hold Out - Barcelona (Wed 07 Aug 2013)
Melting Asphalt (*) writes On Memory (*):

[..] memories don’t seem to live ‘in’ the photographs. Instead, each photo is like a key, which triggers or accesses a memory (*) that actually lives in your mind. But without the photo to act as a key, there may be no other way to access the memory (*). What then? If a memory (*) is rendered inaccessible, it’s lost. Sometimes you lose memories by synaptic degradation; other times, by misplacing a photo.

via Your Oddly-Shaped Mind (*) by Melting Asphalt (*).

On Taking Aim - The Story of Telling (Wed 21 May 2014)

Taking Aim - Copenhagen (Fri 23 Aug 2013)
The Story of Telling (*) writes On Taking Aim (*):

[..] we hit targets (*) not because we continually focus (*) on them, we know the target (*) is there but the target is not the focus. The focus is on how we aim (*), on doing the right thing today and then doing it over and over again.

Your target is not some distant outcome or a metric of tomorrow, your target is how you’re aiming right now.

via How To Hit Your Target (*) by The Story of Telling (*).

On Writing - Max Sebald / Richard Skinner (Mon 14 Jan 2013)

Signs - Hvar (Wed 31 Jul 2013)
Richard Skinner (*) writes On Writing (*):

A tight structural form opens possibilities. Take a pattern, an established model or sub-genre, and write to it. In writing, limitation (*) gives freedom (*).

via Max Sebald's Writing Tips (*) by Richard Skinner (*) [via Conscientious Redux (*)].

On Pioneering - Story of Telling (Sun 18 May 2014)

Why not go first? - Barcelona (Tue 06 Aug 2013)
Story of Telling (*) writes (*):

Following in their [pioneers] footsteps might seem like a shortcut, the irony being that pioneers mostly succeed (*) by being pioneers—by doing what others don’t dare to do, because it isn’t obvious or easy.

Our biggest learnings (*) and successes (*) come from going first.

via Why Not Go First? (*) by Story of Telling (*).

On Creativity - Spencer Lum / Ground Glass (Thu 15 May 2015)

Shoulder - Oxford Street / London (Sat 17 Aug 2013)
Spencer Lum (*) writes On Creativity (*):

Success (*) can be so much worse than failure (*). Failure (*) hurts, but it pushes us to keep exploring. Success (*), on the other hand, limits us. It tells us to keep doing the same.

via How we Kill Creativity (*) by Spencer Lum (*).

On Perceptions (7 years on) - Drew Ginn (Thu 03 Apr 2014)

Untitled - Amsterdam (Tue 20 Aug 2014)
Drew Ginn (*) writes On Perceptions (*):

Simply results (*) and perceptions (*) of performances (*) stick.. Good or bad ones last and seem to require more contrasting ones to change.

via twitter (*) by Drew Ginn (*).

I know exactly about this - one perceived bad performance (*), without understanding (*) the why (*), will never be recovered from. The good ones are never noticed (*) or acknowledged (*) or are dismissed as luck (*) or a fluke (*).

Just some of my experiences over the years. But, that is what makes it character building and one the reasons I keep doing what I do. Failure (*) drives success (*), if you are tenacious (*) and can forgive (*). The journey continues no matter what ...

On Perception - Drew Ginn (Tue 01 May 2007)

Den lille Havfrue (*) - The Little Mermaid - Copenhagen (Fri 23 Aug 2013)
Drew Ginn (*) writes On Perception (*):

It’s a fine line between success (*) and failure (*). In fact I could even argue that they are one in the same. That really the difference between experiences (*) that we judge as successful or as failure comes down to our perception (*).

via G get t THe g GLIDE R riGht (*) by Drew Ginn (*).

Just over seven years ago since Drew's posted this one. Could relate to it from the paddling point of view and it would take some time to fully understand all of what he was saying back then. Experiences (*) bring a lot to what you learn (*) and retain. Miss his blog posts (*) now, though he does post (*) on twitter a bit.

On Seeing - Sergio Larrain / Leicaphilia (Tue 29 Apr 2014)

Glasses - Madrid (Sat 10 Aug 2013)
Sergio Larrain (*) writes On Seeing (*):

By looking, you will learn to see. [..]

it takes time to see, but the secret will slowly reveal itself, and eventually you will see what is good and the essence of everything.

via How to Become a Photographer (*) by Leicaphilia (*).

On What is Seen - Michael David Murphy (Mon 12 May 2014)

Untitled - Oxford Street (Sat 17 Aug 2013)
Michael David Murphy (*) writes On What is Seen (*):

how we see is less important than what is seen. The former are questions for a machine: which lens? Which film? Which speed? The latter includes the most severe and gut-wrenching choices for a dedicated, free-thinking artist.

via Michael David Murphy on The Americans (*) by Michael David Murphy (*).

On Intention - The Eye, Heart and Mind - StreetShooter (Thu 08 May 2014)

eljeiffel House (*) - Alexandria (Sun 04 May 2014)
StreetShooter (*) writes On Intent (*):

it’s very easy to adapt (*) the frame (*) to make a photo by moving but it’s more important to be where you are supposed to be and be using what you are supposed to be using because you want what your INTENT (*) wants to be as true to the EYE, HEART and MIND (*) as possible.

via May 8th, 2014 … Fuji X-Pro1 and 23mm May Be as Good as it Gets (*) by StreetShooter (*).

There was a rainbow (*) on the wall of the soon to be lounge room. I placed the camera on the wall and captured the photo above. I was interested to see how it came out. Must have placed the camera in the yellow part of the rainbow. Will experiment a bit more later ..

On the Journey - Seth Godin (Fri 02 May 2014)

Pacific Dragons - 2014 AusDBF Dragon Boat Nationals - Kawana (Fri 18 Apr 2014)
Seth Godin (*) writes On Giving (*):

In the infinite game (*), though, something completely different is going on. In the infinite game, the point is to keep playing, not to win (*). In the infinite game, the journey (*) is all there is. And so, players in an infinite game never stop giving so they can take. [..]

You certainly know people who play this game, you may well have been touched (*) by them, inspired (*) by them and taught (*) by them. The wrong question to ask is, "but how do they win?" The right way to understand it is, "but is it worth playing?"

via The short game, the long game and the infinite game (*) by Seth Godin (*).

I see people like this in my club (*) and as is always the case, Seth is ever so right in his observations on life. And I know, by these experiences in my club (*), exactly what he means.

On Photography - Imply vs Declare - fototazo (Fri 02 May 2014)

Street Portrait - Sagrada Familia (*) - Barcelona (Thu 08 Aug 2013)
fototazo (*) writes On Photography (*):

Photography frequently works at it's most powerful when it's allowed to imply instead of being asked to declare

via Photobook Review: "Suburban Dreams" by Beth Yarnelle Edwards (*) by fototazo (*).

Did not know I had this photo, until I looked back just now. That's an intense look .. but it was just an unknown fleeting moment (*).

On the Humanities - Robert Heinlein / AthanasiusKircher / Slashdot (Fri 02 May 2014)

Street Portrait - Barcelona (Tue 06 Aug 2013)
Robert Heinlein (*) is quoted (*):

Whatever our calling, whether we are scientists, engineers, poets, public servants, or parents, we all live in a complex, and ever-changing world, and all of us deserve what's in this toolbox: critical thinking skills; knowledge (*) of the past (*) and other cultures (*); an ability to work with and interpret numbers and statistics; access to the insights of great writers and artists; a willingness to experiment, to open up to change (*); and the ability to navigate ambiguity (*).

via An MIT Dean's Defense of the Humanities (*) by AthanasiusKircher (*).