Looking All Around

A few days ago, I visited the Andre Kertesz exhibit entitled "On Reading" at The Carnegie Museum Of Art in Pittsburgh. It was a wonderful exhibit of Kertesz photographs, with the theme being people reading.

One of the ideas that caught my attention (besides that Kertesz had a wry sort of humor based on photos like this and this) was that life goes by without our realizing what is around us that is interesting to see. On that note, as I left the museum I found myself really looking all around me to see what was there. That is when I found this....which I took with my cell phone.

Reflections
Copyright Howard Grill

Looking For An Opinion

As people who read this blog may know from my prior posts, I have undertaken the rather hefty project of designing my own website rather than continuing to use my current on-line template model where I simply upload my images to a service.

I am currently deep into the project, which seems to be moving along at a faster pace than I thought it would (my self imposed deadline for going live is April).

I want to make the site a springboard that I can use to offer many types of media going forward, such as pdf format articles, e-books, maybe some video etc, but am also trying to figure out ways to make the traditional presentation of images more interesting. In this regard, I am looking for opinions and was hoping some blog readers might offer up theirs.

I am going to be presenting my portfolios/images in slideshow format with a full screen option as well as the option to choose individual slides rather than just let them play.

What I was considering was an option whereby clicking on a slideshow image would bring the viewer to a page with a large version of the image at the top as well as text describing the "Story Behind The Image", which could include items such as the location as well as the specifics about the situation that was occurring when I took the image such as what attracted me to the image, how difficult it was to access the site, what it was like to be there and the like.

Do you think this type of information helps establish a 'dialogue' with the viewer and allows them to become more involved with the image or is it simply personal information ("I did this or that") that a viewer would really not be all that interested in?

Opinions would really help me out......my inclination is that it would make the site a bit more different, but it would take extra work that I am willing to put in if it is a feature that viewers would be interested in as opposed to personal narrative that no one really cares about?

If you care to offer an opinion on this simply put it in the comment section or feel free to e-mail me directly.

"Digital Analogue" - A Short Film

This is a neat short film I ran across. I hesitate to say that it is 'about' antique cameras, because it really is more of a work of art than a film 'about' anything. It was constructed from over 6000 still images of analogue cameras, and the intriguing soundtrack is made entirely from sounds generated by these 'antique' cameras.

Enjoy "Digital Analogue" by ftjelly!

Too Much - Part II

In my last post I wrote about the proliferation of software, imaging modalities/techniques, and marketing methods which are now available and the fact that, while they offer innumerable opportunities that we never had before, they also can draw significant amounts of time away from actually working on trying to perfect the art itself.

This has become even more apparent to me as I undertake the project of designing and constructing my own website. I clearly see the large amount of time that is taking. One of my problems has been that I have found that I was interested by and wanted to participate in everything contained in the long laundry list I wrote about in my last post. But, the fact is that you really can't do all these things....at least not well and not if you also have a 'day job'. So it has become apparent to me that one has to pick and choose. I probably am still trying to do too much, but have decided that in order to try to excel at some things others must go.

So how does one approach all this? Well, I am sure there is no universal answer to that question since, as artists, we all have different interests, aptitudes, and abilities. While one photographer might be able to write HTML and use CSS in their sleep, another might find that to be a big yawn and not have the desire to learn it at all. The same goes for learning the other software I mentioned in the list.

I can, however, talk about how I approached the issue and what conclusions I came to. These conclusions, of course, only apply to me....but perhaps the thought process might be useful to others.

I started by asking myself several types of questions:

What do I like doing?
What would I like to learn to do/use?
What items from the list are likely to be most useful in developing an audience?
What have I done already that seems to be generating some success?
What have I done already that does not seem to be generating much interest or success?
When looking at the potential benefits of each item on the list, how much time is going to have to be invested to reap those benefits?
Which items, when I consider them, get me excited and interested? Which don't?

In a perfect world we would learn to excel at all the listed items, but, as we know, the world is far from perfect.

So how did I approach the list? First, just scanning the list, it was easy to pick out two items that I could easily give up. Flickr and Twitter. I know that many people have successfully used these sites to increase their audience, but they have seemed far less fruitful for me. Flickr can be quite time consuming and, frankly, there seems to be far too much back scratching and quid pro quo to get images seen....and the comments tend to be one liners that I do not really find all that helpful. The whole interface with awards etc also seems quite 'unprofessional' to me. I'm not saying there aren't good photographs or photographers there. Just the opposite, there is plenty of fantastic work. It just doesn't seem to me like the forum to accomplish my goals or present my work. I won't delete my account but will not actively use it. Time saved.

Same with Twitter. My 'tweets' seem to attract mostly other photographers and people trying to sell things. I totally enjoy talking to other photographers, but I'm not sure I love talking to them in 140 character bites! It's fun, but I just don't think it is all that worthwhile in that it doesn't seem to be doing for me what I was hoping. Thus, it is not an efficient use of my time. Again, I won't delete my account but simply will not direct new efforts to it.

So, as far as the Social Networking category goes, I will stick with blogging and Facebook. Come this mid January, I will have been writing this blog for 4 years. I enjoy it and it has been a longstanding effort which I want to continue! My Facebook Fan Page is a newer endeaver and is something that is also fun to do. In the few months I have been doing it there are now 119 folks who have 'liked' and follow the page and there also tends to be more comments there than here. So it seems worth the effort to continue!

I am going to continue my effort at coding a new website. Though that requires a heavy time commitment, I also think the 'payoff' of delivering my work to the world in a manner that I want is a big reward that merits the time spent.

Here is a real biggie that I have decided not to undertake....at least not for some time. Video and sound production. I know it's hot, but, frankly, it just isn't something that gets me particularly excited. I am intrigued by the ability of the still image to elicit an emotional response far more than the ability of video to do so. I am also a perfectionist and know that to learn how to do video production in a manner that I would be satisfied with would likely take up a huge amount of time (and ? money). So I am simply not going to pursue it.

One thing I would like to do is to try printing on canvas. It is easy for me to justify putting this off until the spring as it is cold here in the winter and I would want to coat the printed canvas outdoors (because of the chemical smell of the coating).

I would be interested to hear how other people have approached these issues and what conclusions they have come to.

Too Much - Part I

Brooks Jensen, in his podcasts, has frequently mentioned that this is one of the best times in history to be a photographer because of the many ways artists now have to get their work out into the world and because of the various imaging modalities and options that are now available. I agree with him. But, at times, I find myself wondering if the wide variety of options can become too much.....to the point where learning them or spending time with them can actually become a detriment to the art.

Let me be clear. I do not think the proliferation of options and modalities themselves are the problem. On the contrary, as Brooks suggests, these options open up opportunities that we have never had before. I think the problem, at least in my case, has become deciding what options to choose. Like a smorgasbord at a regal feast, eating everything can lead to.....well, you get the picture. I have finally reached the point where I think some choices may be in order.

Just to delineate what I am talking about, I would like to enumerate some of the choices that come to mind, and these are only the ones that come to my mind. I am sure there are others that I am missing.

PROCESSING AND PRINTING:

1) Lightroom/ Aperture etc
2) Photoshop or other image editing programs and their techniques
3) Plug Ins
4) HDR processing
5) Printing on paper
6) Printing on canvas, which necessitates learning how to coat and stretch/mount the prints
7) Standard Mounting and Framing

VIDEO
1) Learning To Shoot Video
2) Video Editing
3) Sound Management / Production

NON PRIMARY EDITING SOFTWARE

1) Adobe Acrobat (to make .pdf / e-books)
2) Dreamweaver (to construct your website)
3) Adobe InDesign to produce folios
4) Slideshow Production
5) ? Making Presentations i-Pad / Android Compatible

SOCIAL NETWORKING

1) Blogging
2) Newsletter Generation
3) Facebook Fan Pages
4) Twitter
5) Flickr

The choices can become overwhelming and time consuming. So what to do?

Continued in next post....

Abstract:Pure Light And Form

My recent post about abstract categories got me thinking about the fact that I don't usually make abstracts that fall into the "solely light and shape with no connection to reality" category. So, when I was photographing at Phipps Conservatory this weekend, I was determined to make one.

"Roots"
Copyright Howard Grill

What is it? Well, given the abstract category, it doesn't really matter in terms of viewing the photograph. But, if you are curious....there was a display of plants (I neglected to note what kind) with large and long roots hanging down from the ceiling. The image is of these hanging roots with the camera being moved up and down during the exposure.

Quick Quotes: Henry David Thoreau

"The question is not what you look at, but what you see."

Henry David Thoreau

Can a thought be any more apropos to photography than that?

Abstract Categories

I enjoy abstract photography, but what exactly makes a photograph abstract in nature? I find myself thinking about this from time to time.....like when I am keywording images in Lightroom and deciding whether to apply the abstract tag.

To me, there seems to be several types of abstract images:

1) Images that appear to consist solely of light and shape with no seeming connection to 'reality', so that the viewer has no ability to tell what the image is a 'picture of'. Here is an example I found on Flickr by photographer Stephen Tuck.

2) Images that consist of light and shape but do have a connection to 'reality'. An example of this would be this image I posted a few weeks back which utilized camera motion to make a grove of trees into an abstract. Though the photo clearly seems abstract to me, it is also pretty clear that trees are the subject.

3) Images that consist of concrete shape and form but, because of extreme magnification, the origin of that concrete shape and form remains obscure. An example of this would be a greater than 1x macro photograph of an insect's eye.

4) Finally, there is the type of abstract image that I like best, even if some might quibble with its being characterized as abstract. These are images where the object being photographed is not rendered uncertain by extreme magnification, but the image itself is not 'about' the object being photographed. An example of this would be my photo below entitled 'Buds'. While it is clear that the image is composed of plant buds, the image is really not about the buds at all but, rather, is about the repetitive shapes and forms they make.

"Buds"
Copyright Howard Grill

There are likely other types of abstracts as well, but these are the ones that come to my mind. If you can think of other categories, please feel free to share them in the comments section!

Photography Changes Everything

It has been a while since I posted about interesting photography websites.....and recovering from the Thanksgiving holiday definitely seems a good time for a short post.

So here is a site that is quite interesting and offers photography essays on a wide variety of subjects and is definitely worth a trip through. Part of the Smithsonian's Photography Initiative, it is entitled "click! Photography Changes Everything".

Enjoy!

Website Planning II

I almost gave up. On constructing my own website that is. I mentioned in a prior post that I would intermittently write about my thoughts and progress regarding constructing my own website, as opposed to continuing to use a template type service (albeit with multiple customizable options) with Visual Server at www.howardgrill.com.

Why almost give up? Because I want to do it right.....and if you are not familiar with html, CSS, and Dreamweaver (let alone programming in general) it just isn't that easy. Sure, there isn't much to opening a new html document, naming it index.html and typing away. But if you really want to do it correctly in order that it be durable and easily customizable with functionality into the future, it really needs to be done with templates and CSS. Not easy if you don't know how.

Time consuming, that's what it is. And one could strongly argue that it would be much more efficient to stick with what I have and use the time to process images, print, and build portfolios. And that thought really stuck with me to the point where I was about to give up. This led to a side project of looking at the available options for on-line services similar to Visual Server in order to see if any came closer to what I was looking for. As to what is wrong with Visual Server.....well, nothing really....except for the fact that their vision of portfolio presentation doesn't match mine, as well as the lack of ability to upload any type of files other than text or images.

So I looked around. Livebooks really came the closest to what I was after, but the templates (of which there are many nice ones) have limited ability to be more than minimally customized (unless you go with their more expensive custom design team), and if you wish to change something after your site is live there are fees. Thus, once you go live it becomes more expensive to tweak the allowed changes and, even then, the changes allowed without invoking the design team are minimal. Finally, the Livebooks design is totally flash based. They have the search engine 'thing' worked out whereby the site has a pure html 'sister' site that is not visible but available to the search engines for indexing (items inside flash are not indexable). But while I don't personally mind some flash in a site, I am personally not a fan of waiting for the home page to load the flash content.

So I came back to the idea that the best results for me would be had by constructing my own site. But what about the issue of time spent and the other things one could be doing with that time, particularly when time is a limited and very valuable commodity? Well, in the end, I overrided that internal objection by invoking the idea that one's website is truly the presentation of their work to the world. Imagine all the prep time it takes to make an exhibit. Hours of printing, matting, framing, etc. And all that to show one's work to maybe a few hundred people (if you're lucky) for a week or two (if you're lucky). Well, the website presents work to potentially billions (if you can get them there) of people 24/7. So isn't it worth it? I decide it was and re-undertook the project.

So how to get started? Books. Kelby Training videos. Taking Adobe up on the 30 day free trial to Lynda.com for registering CS5. And time. But I have finally reached the point where I feel I have a very basic understanding of how it all goes together and have started the coding process using Dreamweaver. That's not to say it is all smooth sailing....there is still a good bit of trial and error and research into various topics. Plus, even when I think I get it after the video, I still find myself going into Dreamweaver and saying "now how did they do that in the video again?"

And all this doesn't even touch on the non-technical aspect of a site, namely the actual design. I thought that would be easy as well. It isn't. The specifics of where elements should be placed, what color they should be, etc. is also a daunting task once you actually sit down to start making a template.

But I am moving forward. I am also giving myself a deadline, as this is theoretically a project that could go on and on. April. That's when I want to 'go live'. We will see how close I come to meeting that goal and whether I think the final result is attractive enough to have me want to use it to serve my work up to the world.

B&W Magazine Award

I am quite proud to have been awarded a "Bronze Award" in this years B&W Magazine Single Image Issue! I have posted the image before, though the submission to B&W obviously required a conversion to black and white.

"Stairwell"
Copyright Howard Grill

In addition, friend (though we have never actually met....one of the wonders of the internet) and fellow photography blogger Andy Ilachinski had not one, but two images published in that same issue! Check out his thought provoking and exceedingly well written blog here. It is a regular on my reading list.

Murals

I have previously posted about the fact that I like taking photos of interesting wall murals. I recently had the opportunity to make this photo of a terrific mural in Braddock, PA. I love the way the city scene becomes the woman.

City And Woman
Copyright Howard Grill

Quick Quotes: David DuChemin

"Remember that technical perfection rarely moves the soul."

David DuChemin

A quote today from David DuChemin's new Lightroom book (which I have reviewed in a prior post). Not that DuChemin is eschewing technical excellence....in fact just the opposite is true. The quote, when taken in context, refers to the fact that technical excellence alone is not enough to allow an image to elicit a meaningful response.

More Fall Abstracts

Back in October, I wrote about a desire to make some abstract images related to the fall season and posted an example. I did have a chance to pursue this to some extent and scattered throughout the next few weeks thought I would share a few examples. Here is the first of these type of images that I thought was successful.

Fall Impressions II
Copyright Howard Grill

Needless to say, with these abstracts (this one being made by having the camera on a tripod but moving the comera downwards during a long exposure) there is a lot of trial and error until obtaining a photograph that seems 'right' and expresses a feeling that you would like to convey.

Fallen Leaf

This is the first image that I have processed since reading David DuChemin's Lightroom book that I reviewed in my last post. In doing so, I took a lot of his suggestions to heart. For example, in this image I first asked myself what drew my eye to the scene and used that information to help direct me through the image processing.

Leaf And Wooden Door
Copyright Howard Grill

Here, I was drawn to the way the wood of the door as well as the metal of the rusted hinge had an old and deep wrinkled texture that was similar to that of the leaf. In addition, I liked the way the yellow of the old paint on the door echoed the yellow in the leaf and the way the orange of the rusted hinge echoed the red of the leaf. Finally, I was intrigued that the green paint of the door symbolized the color of the leaf before its turning color and that the yellow paint was coming from underneath the green paint. Lots of echoing and symbolism going on here.

So, based on those thoughts, I knew that I wanted to emphasis the texture of the wood, leaf, and rusted metal in post-processing. I also wanted the colors saturated, though not so much that they appeared unnatural and, since the main point for the viewer's eye to be drawn towards was the leaf, I wanted the saturation of the paint to be somewhat less than that of the leaf.

I also used these thoughts to guide my cropping. Given that I wanted to display the leaf in the setting of the old door and for viewers to compare the inanimate to the living, I left enough of the door in the image so that it became a recognizable portion of it and not simply a backdrop onto which the leaf could be displayed.

Going through these thought processes are quite helpful in directing one's self down a specific route or two as opposed to the endless possibilities that exist when first opening a RAW file.

Vision And Voice

There are many books on Lightroom 'out there' and though some are better than others they are, for the most part, pretty similar. This slider is for this, that slider is for that, be careful pushing slider x above 70 etc. Not that such books aren't useful....they surely are for people who are unfamiliar with the software or are beginners in how to develop an image from RAW format.

But recently there appeared on the scene a totally different type of Lightroom book entitled Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (Voices That Matter) by David DuChemin. DuChemin's purpose in writing the book is not to show the reader how to use Lightroom but, rather, to demonstrate how Lightroom can be used to express one's photographic vision.

The book starts out with a discussion about artistic vision and it's expression, moves on to a discussion about how to use Lightroom as interpretive software to give voice to one's vision, and then uses 20 photographs to demonstrate 'real-life' examples of the prior discussion (the RAW files are also available for download to more carefully follow their development). To be clear, this is not a book of recipes or presets, it is a book that aims at nothing short of starting the reader off on a journey to think more carefully about what they are trying to express with their photography and to enable them to translate that expression into the final print.

This book is quite different from any other Photoshop or Lightroom books that I have read and I highly recommend it as a 'must have'. (Truth in advertising.....as an Amazon associate I get a few cents credited to my account if you click on the above link and end up purchasing the book).

Website Planning

It goes without saying that a photographer needs a website to share his or her work with the world. Many years ago, I had coded a website using a program called Namo Web Editor. It was, in my opinion, a reasonable site for that era but was a bit difficult to update and I found myself not adding to it as much as I would have liked.

Some years later, I purchased a template for an artist's website with plans to build my site based on that template. However, I found that the template contained so many options that I was going into the code to eliminate or change these options and that I was likewise changing code to allow more images to be posted to the galleries. The exercise became frustrating and I abandoned it.

I ended up moving my website over to Visual Server with one of their online artist's templates, forcing my vision into their options. This has served reasonably well, but I still find myself wanting more from a website and have been thinking about building my own, from scratch, by learning how to use Dreamweaver.

I know that, given time limitations, it might take awhile to complete the project and thought that I would, intermittently, write some posts about the process. My initial step is to think carefully about what I want out of a website and what is not being provided by my current host, while trying to incorporate 'best practices' for a new site.

Here are some of the thoughts that I had regarding the 'big picture' planning of the site:

1) First and foremost, I believe it is important to keep it simple and clean looking. Flashy with lots of bells and whistles might be useful for some type of sites, but I believe that for a photo site the images, and not the platter on which they are served up, should be what speak . Additionally, a lot of fancy add-ons don't necessarily function well on all platforms.

2) Easy navigation. I dislike when I get to some sites and I can't figure out what to do next.

3) Set it up so that it will look good on multiple platforms and screen resolutions, to the extent that this is possible.

4) Able to be easily updated.

5) Because of the frequency and consistency of my blog posting, my blog has more visits and has higher Alexa rankings than my website. I would like to be able to integrate my blog into my website. I am not certain if this is still easier to do with WordPress than Blogger, though I know this used to be the case.

6) Have the ability to make PDF files available for download.

7) Have the ability to add on audio and video files should I wish to make these available in the future.

8) I believe that telling 'the story' behind the photograph helps viewers to become involved with an image and would like to have an opportunity to present 'the stories', in brief, along with the images.

This is likely going to be a slow moving and long term undertaking. I would certainly appreciate any comments, tips, ideas etc from those that have already worked through this type of website building project!

Exposure Bracketing With Canon Cameras

This post is going to be a bit on the technical side and specific to Canon cameras, which I am sure will interest some readers but give others a big yawn. Nonetheless, here we go.

In a past post, I reviewed the Promote Control device which can be used for HDR exposure bracketing since Canon cameras are (seemingly purposefully) hindered by the limitation of only being able to do a three exposure auto-bracket. In addition, if one is bracketing by 1 EV then the most you can auto-bracket is up to +/- 3 EV. In order to bracket to +/- 4 EV you must bracket in 2 EV increments. All in all, it makes HDR bracketing inordinately and unnecessarily complex. In my review, I mentioned that the Promote Control simply did not fit very well into my workflow and for that reason I had returned my unit.

Another partial solution for Canon users has been to use 'Custom Settings', of which three are able to be pre-programmed into the camera. When using these, you could, for example, pre-program +/- 4EV bracketing into the camera and save the setting so that by simply turning a knob on top of the camera the +/- 4EV autobracket is set.

By setting one Custom setting like this and another at o,-1, -2 EV one could conceivably take an autobracket at +1, +2, +3 then switch the custom setting knob to do 0, -1, -2, then switch again to do -4, 0, +4 and then take one image at -3.....well, you get the point. If one wants a series of 1 EV bracketed images to +/- 4 it gets far too complicated.

It gets a bit easier if you want to go with 2EV units and shoot -2, 0 +2 and then 0, +4, -4 but even then you have to use at least one Custom Setting or go back into the menu. In experimenting with the Custom Settings, I have found that the white balance, ISO, aperture etc that the Custom Setting installs are the ones that were there when the Custom Setting was saved, as opposed to drawing these values from the otherwise current camera settings. For someone like me, who not infrequently screws up a setting by not being careful, this is a recipe for disaster. I am sure that I would inevitably end up with a useless autobracketed series with different apertures, ISO etc than my original bracket settings.

All in all, despite the fact that I really enjoy using my Canon gear, I feel that Canon has really left those of us that use many of their models with a mess when it comes to HDR imaging. And the mess, I would think, is easily fixable in firmware if Canon did not want to cripple their non-1 series dSLRs in this way. With Nikon making so many gains and competing with Canon so well, I really am surprised that they have not fixed this. Were I currently purchasing a digital system, I would have to seriously consider going with Nikon for this reason alone.

Quick Quotes: Ansel Adams

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs"

Ansel Adams

Though it is an 'old' and frequently used quote, this one seems quite timely given my last post about making fall abstract photographs. It can be both enjoyable and productive to break the rules. Of course, first you have to learn the rules so that you know what it is you are breaking. The more you know about what you are breaking the more likely you are to emerge with something interestingly different!

Fall Abstracts

One of the things I would like to try to do this fall season is to make some unusual and abstract fall images along with some of the more straightforward ones. This particular abstract was made by moving the camera back and forth at an angle during the exposure while it was still mounted on the tripod.

"Fall Abstract I"
Copyright Howard Grill

These types of abstracts are really quite easy and fun to make. And with digital you can make tons of images and pick out the one from the many that seems to have come out 'just right'.

Quick Quotes: Bob Dylan

Beauty walks a razor's edge.

Bob Dylan
Lyric From "Shelter From The Storm"

I was listening to Bob Dylan's "Shelter From The Storm" (that happens when you were a kid in the 60's and early 70's) and was drawn to this line from the song. I guess it is open to a bit of interpretation, but I find it very apropos to photography and the the arts in general. It speaks to me regarding one's appreciation of various forms of art. The more I think about, it the more I find different meanings in the words.

Get The Hell Outta' Bed III

I have previously written two posts about dragging one's self out of bed to make early morning sunrise photographs. Those prior two posts can be read here and here. I mentioned I would occasionally post some more images from that one morning.

"Gone Fishing"
Copyright Howard Grill

It is amazing how productive some trips out are (and, of course, how unproductive....but always enjoyable....they can sometimes be in terms of coming away with good images).

15 Composition Tips

A short post today with a link to some inspirational thoughts about composition.

Here are 15 great tips for photographic composition by photographer Alain Briot that are definitely worth reading.

History Around Us

No matter where one lives, there are historical artifacts to be found. As many may know, Pittsburgh was once a major center of steel production. While the majority of the steel mills are now closed, their artifacts remain.

Some of these closed historic manufacturing facilities are difficult to get into to photograph. However, there are some remnants of the industrial age that have easy access for photography. One of the older mills land was sold off to make a shopping center near my home, but the mills' chimneys were not taken down. Rather, they were kept as an artifact of that age and stand as an aesthetic focal point of the mall.

Let me be clear that I am not at all a fan of building malls, nor a fan of steel mills and the pollution they produce. As a matter of fact, I find myself lamenting the fact that every large city in the US is starting to look the same with essentially identical malls and chain stores. Nonetheless, I am glad that in this instance it was decided to at least preserve the remnant of what once stood in this place.

Chimney Builders
Copyright Howard Grill

The photograph above is the door of one of the remnant chimneys. The color image was converted to black and white and then sepia toned.

Photographing local historical sites could potentially make for an interesting photographic project.

More Outta' Bed

Back in the beginning of the month, I wrote a post about the benefits to be had by dragging one's self out of bed to photograph in the early morning and how those benefits outweigh the pain of getting out of bed at relatively ungodly hours. The early morning photography from that day motivated me to write that post, which can be read here.

I thought that over several scattered posts I would offer some more images from that inspiring morning.

I also forgot to mention one additional benefit of going out to photograph with friends in the early morning. In addition to having to show up to meet the others, there is also the benefit of a great breakfast with camaraderie following the sunrise....you just have to have friends that know which of the local restaurants are the right ones to go to (thanks Bob).

Fishing Heaven
Copyright Howard Grill

Promote Control: Doesn't Fit My Workflow

In my last post, I discussed my discovery of the Promote Control for taking bracketed HDR exposures . It was with great enthusiasm that I awaited the arrival of the device. However, despite its apparent utility and the glowing reviews it received in the links I provided in my original post, I have found that the device simply doesn't fit into my photographic process very well.

That is not to say that it doesn't work or do what it says it will.....just that it doesn't work the way I do. It might mesh quite well with the way you photograph and so I don't mean to dissuade anyone from giving it a try. But, let me describe why it doesn't fit my workflow and perhaps that will provide some incite as to whether it will fit yours.

I tend to shoot using Live View with the camera in Aperture priority mode. However, in order to use the Promote Control, the camera must be set to Manual mode. There is a setting on the device that allows it to set the camera to Manual mode if the operator forgets to, though the manual states that this won't work on all cameras and it didn't seem to work properly on mine. However, if I accidentally left the camera in Aperture Priority mode, the Promote Control would shoot off a ton of images before stopping. So, accidentally leaving the camera in Aperture mode can get the Promote Control to do some pretty unusual stuff.

In addition, the manufacturers website FAQ states that the device can be used in Live View mode. Nonetheless, using the device in Live View, even with the camera set to Manual mode, gave me very inconsistent results, with not all the bracketed exposures being taken. By doing nothing else to the camera but turning off Live View, all the exposures were taken properly. I am not the only person to find this as an issue, as one of the reviews linked to in my initial post also notes this as a problem.

Finally, even when the camera is properly set to Manual mode the metered shutter speed needs to be entered into the Promote Control manually, or at least it wouldn't pick it up from my 5D MKII

For me, though the device could potentially solve a significant problem, it just requires too much 'futzing around' with. If it was tough for me to get it to work properly in my home, I suspect it would generate a good deal of frustration out in the field and I might potentially miss photo opportunities simply trying to get things set up properly. I thought about just getting used to always using the device as a trigger, as it can also be used as a single shot cable release. However, the need to connect it to the camera with two cables (to get the fastest response time) and its bulk (small, but still much larger than a regular cable release) just makes it inconvenient to use routinely.

I suspect that using the device would take away some of the joy of photographing and thus it is simply not something that I want to use. I have returned it and will go with my usual routine of simply resetting the auto-bracketing in camera....a pain that requires touching the camera before the full set of exposures are taken, but one that still requires far less 'futzing' than the Promote Control.

So there you have it.....a very different opinion from the ones that I was able to find on the internet. Just to reiterate.....the issue for me was the way the device failed to fit into my workflow. Your workflow might well be different.

I would be interested to find out if any readers have had experience with this device and if their experience was similar to or different from mine.

Promote Control

When it comes to bracketed exposures utilized for HDR, us Canon users definitely take a back seat to those with Nikon cameras. Most Canon (? all....I don't keep up with every model) cameras are only able to auto-bracket three exposures, which is less than ideal for many situations. Nikon cameras are much more functional in this regard and, depending on the model, are able to auto bracket more exposures. In the past this difference might have been relatively unimportant, but in the HDR era it really is of significance and, frankly, it seems inexcusable to me that Canon has hampered their cameras in this way. It would at least appear on the surface that this could likely be fixed with a firmware update. (The other situation in which Canon lags is in the ability to make in-camera multiple exposures......but that is another discussion).

Whenever there is a void and a need, someone will fill it! Enter a device called "Promote Control". This device connects to the camera (including Canon models) via USB and a shutter release and takes over the control of exposure sequences, overriding the ability to take only 3 bracketed exposures. There are some caveats, the main one of which is that the camera must be set in manual mode and the midpoint exposure's shutter speed needs to be set manually on the Promote Control device.

Rather than write in detail about it before I receive the one I ordered, let me refer anyone interested in this to the following reviews:

Review #1 by Brian Matiash

Another review here

And a review on youtube located here.

Finally, the manufacturer's website.

And so I will report back on my experience with the device once it arrives.

Digital Indecision

Generally speaking, the advantages of digital capture are now obvious to most people. Once you have memory cards you can shoot all day, every day, for free (well, lets not count the camera upgrades, computer upgrades, storage drives, software etc.). You can check your exposure via histogram and your composition via LCD and gain immediate feedback. You can work on images, molding them into your vision, without the wet darkroom 'mess'. Once the image has been processed it is easy to output as many identical copies as you want.

But what about the downside? There is one downside that seems to always haunt me, and that is that there can be too many possibilities!

What do I mean by that? Because it is easy to make so many digital photographs, I think I actually make too many of them. When I am out shooting, I now tend to take many more frames of an image than I did when using film. I find myself altering the composition ever so slightly and reshooting, making images where the point of focus is a bit different, shooting with different apertures, and refocusing manually just to make sure I get the sharpest focus possible. At the end of the day I might have so many frames of essentially the same composition that it makes picking the 'best' one to process frustratingly difficult. And the 'fear' of not picking the 'best' frame may well lead to not picking a frame at all, leaving the endeavor to 'later'.

This isn't to say that I don't have a specific vision when making a photograph.....I do. It is just that with digital it can sometimes be too easy to doubt whether that vision might be 'optimal' and to try to examine every possibility. In speaking to some of my photography friends, it turns out that I am not alone with this issue. Maybe I need to trust myself to the original vision I had when first approaching the shot or, alternatively, being happy when I find a frame I took that expresses that vision, as opposed to feeling obligated to examine each and every frame and comparing them to each other in order to find the perfect one to use.

Get The Hell Outta' Bed

Lets face it....it is really tough to get out of bed at 6AM on a work day, let alone at 5AM on the precious weekend, even if it is to go out and photograph. Sometimes it is just plain impossible to get up. Nonetheless, every time I force myself up, even if it turns out that there were no interesting photographs to be had, it always ends up just feeling good to have been up before the rest of the world to watch the new day dawn.

However, some days the early awakening is associated with great photos, either because conditions are just right or because the muse speaks. Some days, well, not so much! But it is never predictable........so had I slept in two weekends ago I would have missed this beautiful sunrise over Lake Arthur.

Sunrise Over Lake Arthur
Copyright Howard Grill

One way that I make sure that I don't roll back over in bed is that I have a group of two or three other photographers that I go out with on Sundays. We have a pre-arranged meeting time and place that we have committed to, which makes it much harder to roll over and go back to sleep. I don't always use that strategy, but it sure helps.

So don't just roll over. Get your ass out of bed and see what you've been missing!

ELP - Way Off Topic

Int my last post entitled "Coincidence?", I compared the style of a portrait of keyboardist Keith Emerson (from Emerson, Lake, and Palmer) to that of the famous portrait of Igor Stravinsky taken by Newman. That post can be read here. I received a few comments, both on this blog as well as on my Facebook photography page.

I had mentioned that since ELP was at their prime in the seventies, some readers might not be familiar with them. Even though it is off topic (hey, it's my blog), I thought that I would post a few YouTube links to ELP performing so that anyone that is not familiar with them might have a look (the sound quality isn't perfect given that the recordings were made in the 1970's):

Here they are performing an acoustic version of Lake's "Lucky Man" in concert in Japan:




And here playing a small portion of their amazing piece entitled "Tarkus", also in concert in Japan:




And finally, playing a portion of their rendition of Russian composer Mussorgsky's classic "Pictures At An Exhibition":




Enjoy!

Coincidence?

I was born in the late 1950's and thus, not too surprisingly, my musical taste leans towards 60's-80's rock. I also tend to go through phases where I really enjoy listening to a particular artist or group.

Lately, I have been going through an Emerson, Lake, and Palmer phase. For those who might be reading this that are too young to have heard of them, they are generally considered one of the earliest 'progressive rock' supergroups. If you haven't heard of them you really owe it to yourself to have a listen. Try "Lucky Man" for a more conventional 'over the radio' song, but if you really want to try something different give "Tarkus" a try.

But what has any of this to do with photography? Well, I recently was rounding out my ELP collection and ordered the album entitled "Works Volume 1". Ok, it isn't their most renowned music but I was completing my collection by purchasing albums I was missing. At any rate, I bought the CD (for essentially the same price as an i-Tunes download why not have an uncompressed hard copy as well?) and looked at the album insert. I was very surprised to find in the pamphlet this photograph of Keith Emerson taken by David Montgomery in the 1970's (the reproduction is somewhat poor as I had to scan an image that was already reproduced for the insert).

Photo Of Keith Emerson From Works Volume 1 Album
Copyright David Montgomery

The first thing that ran through my mind was 'Whoa, I've seen that before!'. To me it looked like essentially the same image as the iconic photograph of Igor Stravinsky taken by Harold Newman in the mid 1940's. For those not familiar with that photo, I have copied it below.

Copyright Harold Newman

I thought the similarity was clear. I would be curious as to whether Montgomery thought that the Newman image was so well known that people would realize that it was a copy of the idea and that it was almost a 'spoof' on the image or if it was a situation where Newman's image was not well known at the time. Not that it makes much difference at this point, I suppose. It is just that I was taken aback by the similarity between the two photos. Coincidence? I doubt it. Spoof....I don't know!

Quick Quotes: Peter Adams

"Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field."

Peter Adams

I thought this quote was particularly pertinent following my last posting "Everything's Been Done". Been done, yes, but with a different depth of feeling applied than the one you will use. Your depth of feeling may not be any 'better' or 'worse'.....just different. And as Andy and Colin pointed out in the comments section of that post, that is what makes each photograph unique, even when the subject has been photographed many times before.

Everything's Been Done

When I was in a bit of a nature photography rut recently, I found myself wondering how many more pictures of waterfalls, flowers, fall foliage, and mountains the world really needed. But as I began to think about it more carefully, I realized that one could ask the same thing of almost any subject. How many more images of abandoned buildings, cityscapes, smiling people from other cultures, and portraits of people we don't know does the world really need?

Interesting questions! But if the answer is none......than what we are left with is to go out and photograph simply because whatever the subject is has not been photographed very much in the past. That might lead to some interesting images, but my guess is that those interesting shots would be lost amidst millions of inane photos with little artistic merit that were taken simply because of the novelty. We have all seen plenty of those already.

My conclusion is that the vast majority of what I am going to photograph in my life has already been photographed before.....and quite frequently. BUT, the issue is not has it been photographed before but has it been portrayed the way I see it? In the end, I realize that one's audience isn't simply interested in your image of a waterfall because they haven't seen a waterfall before but, rather, that IF they are interested in your photograph it is because they want to see the waterfall the way you see it....through your eyes.

I think the answer, for me, always comes back to making photographs of the subjects that I am interested in and have a passion for. If you don't have a real desire to make images of the subject you are photographing it is unlikely that many people will want to see that subject through your eyes.

So, I am going to shoot what I love......but what I love to shoot is open to change from time to time based on interest, but never simply based on novelty!

Experimentation

For the last week, I have been on a family vacation in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. This was a family outing and so the opportunities for serious photography were somewhat limited. Nonetheless, I did get out to photograph early on two or three mornings, before the rest of the family got up. In coming posts I will show some of these images. But today, I wanted to write about experimentation because I think it is one of the most creative and overlooked aspects of photography.... and the digital age makes experimentation easy.

Most people know how to make abstracts by moving the camera during exposures. This, and just about any other 'experiment' with motion, shutter speed, and aperture can be easily accomplished and the results seen immediately on the LCD screen of a digital camera. Although I don't suggest that immediate editing decisions regarding any images be made 'on the spot' (I think more deliberate editing is better done with a larger image on the computer screen), the immediate feedback of digital can help guide you on a course. In the case of camera movement during an exposure, the LCD can give important feedback as to whether the degree and speed of camera motion is giving you the type of results you were hoping for and suggest changes that can then be used to achieve the look you want.

One afternoon, while waiting for my kids to get ready to go out for dinner, I was walking through the garden in back of the condo where we stayed. There was a plethora of orange lilies growing and I had a few minutes to spare, so I got my camera out. I didn't want to spend time taking the types of flower photos that I might typically take at home, so I decided to experiment a bit and took a series of images using camera motion. I was hoping that the resultant abstract blur might express the essence of these beautiful, but common, orange flowers in a different sort of way.

Lily Abstract
Copyright Howard Grill

I can understand how some might say the image is little more than a blurry flower photo, but to me it communicates a bit more....

Quick Quotes: Anthony Barboza

"You are putting on paper, in print, what you sense and feel in your mind"

Anthony Barboza

I have written many times about The Candid Frame podcast. For a short period of time there were no new episodes.....well, that time is over and there is a new podcast available now. The latest interview is with photographer Anthony Barboza, which can be heard here.

The interview really brought out Barboza's personality and thoughts about art and photography. I particularly enjoyed the quote I have reproduced above, as it really puts into words a deep and emotional feeling that I have about the photographic process.

Mill Via Pinhole

I was looking over some of my older images and ran across this one, which is from a time when I was experimenting with pinhole photography using film. I could be wrong, but I don't believe I have posted it before.

McConnell's Mill
Pinhole Photo On Film
Copyright Howard Grill

I did enjoy photographing this way, but it became quite cumbersome to develop the film in my basement and then scan the film even before bringing the image into Photoshop. However, I became quite pleased a year or so ago when I found that I could once again do some pinhole imaging using the new LensBaby with drop in optics!

With the drop in pinhole / zone plate optic one can now do pinhole and zone plate imaging digitally, without film. Some might call this heresy.....but when you have limited time you do what is practical.

We Are Not Alone

A bit of a surprise link today....with no clue as to what you get. Suffice it to say that it is reassuring that creative lapses happen to everybody....even the 'greats' . Here it is put into words far better than I could ever have hoped to!

Daniel Stainer

Every so often you run across someone who seems to be similar to yourself. And so it is with Daniel Stainer. I ran across his blog entitled "Illuminations" and noticed that we share many of the same philosophies and tend to photograph in many similar ways.

I actually e-mailed him and, as it turns out, we only live about an hour or so from each other and had briefly met under non-photographic circumstances eight or nine years ago, though I hadn't initially recalled that. So we decided to go out photographing together and had a great outing at a place called Frew's Mill. The light wasn't all that great by the time we got there, but we still enjoyed the experience of photographing nonetheless. Below is one of Daniel's moody images taken when the lighting was more conducive to making photographs.

Frew's Mill
Copyright Daniel Stainer

So check out his blog and his image gallery as well. There are some inspirational images and writing to be seen and read!

Show Themes

I am a bit befuddled about themes. Most juried art and photography shows have submission themes. Knowing that such themes are usually loosely interpreted, I nonetheless try to have my submissions demonstrate a clear relationship to the requested theme. While some shows seem to stick to the stated topic, there are still many where I am frequently surprised that, at least in my opinion, many of the accepted submissions don't seem even remotely associated with the submission theme, even with what I view as its loosest interpretation.

This leads to me wonder.... how important are statements of show themes? How important is trying to think of a construct wherein your submission would fit into the stated theme? Is it the artists or the judges job to understand how a submission fits into a stated theme?

No answers here. Just some rambling thoughts .......

Pittsburgh Architecture

Those folks who have been following my Facebook page (just click the icon in the sidebar or click here) know that recently I have been doing a bit of urban architectural photography. In fact, I have been shooting in downtown Pittsburgh for the last several weekends along with two friends and have been enjoying it very much.

I find that I approach city shooting in much the same way that I approach nature and landscape photography, which is to say that I find myself attracted to graphic lines and shapes and generally simple compositions. I can easily see this becoming a small project, so I thought I would offer up two recent images from our outing to Union Station, which was built between 1898 and 1903 by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham.

Union Station II
Copyright Howard Grill

Union Station I
Copyright Howard Grill

I will likely post more images of Pittsburgh architecture as I slowly process my favorite shots from these weekend forays.

The Camera With You

One more post about my new Droid smartphone. I had mentioned in the past that while many people are able to have a camera with them at all times, I have found working in that way to be very difficult. I have also previously written about Chase Jarvis's The Best Camera Is The One That's With You: iPhone Photography by Chase Jarvis (Voices That Matter) and his website about the same subject called The Best Camera.

Well, I can now attest to the fact that it is fun to have a camera with you all the time....now that it is light and not something that I wouldn't otherwise be carrying. And I find it useful, not so much for trying to make a serious photo, but, rather, to exercise one's vision and to keep in practice.

So I might, from time to time, post some of these spontaneous photographic exercises that I do on the Droid X phone. This one involved trying to make a few creative images from the window of my office, something I never would have lugged my regular photo gear around to try.

"Triangles"
Copyright Howard Grill

"Floating Cloud"
Copyright Howard Grill

Way Off Topic: Smartphones

On some occasions I allow myself to go off topic on this blog.....and this is one of those occasions. I have never owned a 'smartphone' in the past....I never thought I needed one and, frankly, wasn't sure how I would use one. However, my cell phone contract was over last week and I thought I would give a smartphone a go. I was originally planning on an iPhone, but the ATT coverage where I live isn't all that good, at least all I hear is complaints from those that use ATT around where I live. In addition, the iPhone 4 has gotten some bad press and, finally, my family already has 4 cellphones on a Verizon plan. It was time to try out a Droid.

So, last week I got myself the most recent Droid incarnation, the Droid X. I have to say...I love it. After just a few days I can see that it will be very useful and is far more like a computer on which you can make phone calls than a phone on which you can do other things.

The apps are amazing. Sure, a good many of them are just cool or for fun, but many are extremely useful as well. I have to say, I am very pleased with the purchase. My only concern is that it does use up the battery much faster than a regular cellphone. However, my iPhone friends say that the same is true of their device as well.

So how can I make this somewhat relevant to a photography blog? Well, it doss have an 8 megapixel camera...and one that will always be with you and ready to take a picture (see my older post The Best Camera). And there are some very interesting photo apps as well. Here are my four favorite photography apps so far:

Photo Tools :A great set of tools for multiple types of photographic calculations. This app is really a favorite because it can be helpful for photography in general and not just allow you to be creative with the phone's built-in camera like the next three. This app allows you to calculate reciprocal exposure values, tells you sunrise/sunset time based on your GPS coordinates, lets you calculate hyperfocal distance etc.

Vignette: Add all sorts of film and border effects to photos taken with the cameraphone.

FX: More camera effects.

And of course...Photoshop.com Mobile

Book Of Birds

Book of what? Book Of Birds!

Book Of Birds is a British band that is led by musician and songwriter Robert McCracken. Their music has already been intermittently played in the US, but they have not had a formal album release until now.

I will be honest with you......I hadn't heard of them either. But having now heard their music, I am a fan. The style is wide ranging from alternative rock to almost ballad-like. Their first album, which was just released, is now on my iPod.

Well, what does all that have to do with a photography blog, you might ask. I am very pleased that during the summer I was contacted by Rob McCracken to see if I would be interested in selling the non-exclusive rights to my photo "The Burning Bush" for use as the cover art for their first CD release. McCracken felt that the image conveyed the mood of his music and was hoping to be able to use it. So there it is: my 'Burning Bush' image is now the cover art for the 'Book Of Birds' first CD entitled "Luthiern Lullabies".

"The Burning Bush"
Copyright Howard Grill

So, check it out. Here is the band's website with a shot of the CD cover and an option to by the release. Want to listen first.....check out the band's My Space page or Facbook page, both with audio samples. Or, for a more complete sampling, wait until August 2nd, which is when I understand they will be debuting their music on iTunes. So go ahead, why not buy an album :>)

Oh, and I get absolutely no royalties or payment.

EOS Documentation Project

I recently lost the instruction manual for my Canon TC-80N3 Tiner/Remote Controller and could not recall how to use some of the functions. I might have been looking in the wrong place on the Canon USA website, but I could not find a copy of the instruction manual there either. After some Googling, however, I found the EOS Documentation Project, a website that makes available instruction manuals for all things related to Canon EOS. Well, maybe not all things, as the site seems not to have been updated in a while. For instance, there is no information on the 5D MKII, thought the 5D is there. The 1Ds MKIII and 1D MKIII is listed, but not the 1D MKIV.

However, the manuals for newer Canon items can be downloaded from the Canon website. The EOS Documentation Project, on the other hand, seems to be a good resource for older Canon items. It helped me and perhaps it might come in handy for you too. Check it out here.

As to why this post is written in bold text.....blogger seems to have an issue and I can't get it to come out any other way.

Chris Friel

Having recently acquired a Canon tilt-shift lens, I have been avidly trying to learn how to best use it. This includes using the shift mechanism to avoid converging lines for architectural photography as well as using the tilt mechanism for altering the plane of focus to allow front to back sharpness while making landscape images.

But I was also interested in other creative ways in which to use the lens. And that is when I ran across Chris Friel's work.Chris uses the tilt-shift mechanism to create images with selective planes of focus. Rather than utilize tilt to try to bring everything into sharp focus, he often uses it to make most of the image, save a small area, out of focus. In addition to the use of tilt-shift lenses, much of his work is abstract and involves hand holding long exposures (sometimes in conjunction with tilt-shift lenses). His photographs are very powerful, pulling the viewer in and really making them think about the image.

Copyright Chris Friel
Taken With 24mm Tilt-Shift Lens

Copyright Chris Friel
Long Exposure With Camera Movement

Chris's Flickr stream can be found here. His formal website can be found here. Spend some time...these are remarkable images.

photoMICS At Manchester Craftsmen's Guild

I am very pleased to announce that "Two Trees", on of the images from my "Scene In Stone" portfolio, has been juried into an exhibit co-sponsored by the Associated Artist's of Pittsburgh and the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild.

The exhibit entitled "photoMICS" will be displayed in the Guild's Connie Kerr Gallery from July 16-September 3. The theme of the show was to incorporate photographic and/or ceramic elements which convey the bridge between the world's of art and science.

Two Trees
Copyright Howard Grill

This image is an abstract photograph of the cut surface of a slice of stone and was taken using cross-polarized light, which removes all glare and allows one to see the color and texture of the underlying rock surface. And therein lies the science connection.

Deleted Images

Where do deleted images go? Well, if they are truly deleted they are pretty much gone. But there is an alternative.....a deleted image purgatory, if you will. A place where they are gone from your possession but can still 'live on'. See them here. Some deleted images are actually quite compelling, to others if not to the original photographer. Images like this.

However, some deleted images really do deserve to be deleted :>)

Mischief

These gargoyle images are slowly becoming a collection. I am starting to think that each one can be named as an emotion, similar to the seven dwarfs in Snow White! The expression on this one said "mischievous" to me....like a young child getting caught doing something he shouldn't have been doing.

"Mischievous"
Copyright Howard Grill

Quick Quotes: Andy Warhol

"An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to have..."

Andy Warhol

This one makes me smile...has that Andy Warhol 'edge' to it!

The War Of Art

I am frequently on the lookout for books about art and creativity and especially for books about art AND creativity. I have previously written a fairly extensive post about the book entitled Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by Bayles and Orland here, here, and here . In my mind, this is the standard to which all books regarding art, creativity and the harnessing of creative energy should be compared. Art and Fear is a five star book if ever there was one and if you are interested in the arts, or in producing art, you should definitely get a copy.

Recently, I began reading another book dealing with the same type of issues of creativity and the production of artwork entitled The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield. Mr. Pressfield’s thesis is that there are an innumerable number of hindrances that one can find to inhibit the production of their artwork. He lumps them together as so called Resistances. The ability to identify these Resistances is an important first step in overcoming them, and overcoming them we must if we are to live a creative life and produce work that lives up to our inner potential. In fact, we can, by understanding these Resistances, learn to work through the things that would normally keep us from moving forward.

Overall, I feel there are some excellent and thought provoking ideas discussed in the book. At times I feel that Pressfield goes just a bit overboard but, nonetheless, after reading the book I do feel that I have a better understanding of how to get myself to move forward artistically and for that reason alone would recommend the book to anyone interested in these types of issues. Just understand that you might not agree with all Pressman’s ideas and conclusions (ie I found myself disagreeing with the premise that only when doing something professionally can you be fully committed to it). However, I guarantee that you will find many useful insights in this relatively short and quick read.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Pressfield's little gem of a book:

In regards to self-doubt about one's ability...

"Self-doubt can be an ally. This is because it serves as an indicator of aspiration. It reflects love, love of something we dream of doing, and desire, desire to do it. If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are.

The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death."

In regards to fear...

"Are you paralyzed with fear? That's a good sign.

Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do."

In regards to rejection....

"The professional keeps his eye on the doughnut and not on the hole. He reminds himself it's better to be in the arena, getting stomped by the bull, than to be up in the stands or out in the parking lot"

Definitely a worthwhile book....I give it 4/5 stars.