Sunday, February 20, 2011

A Day of Finding Gold

Yesterday was an amazing, albeit exhausting day. It started with my arrival at the Studio at 11:30 AM where I made myself a peanutbutter and jelly sandwhich and photographed a few series of images for a workshop I am developing with Joel Zak. Then Jonathan, one of my business partners, came into the Studio and we went for a walk downtown. We stopped in at various shops and stores looking at various products and tools to aid in our success, but I was simply looking for gold; photographic gold. Jonathan and I walked in the alleys, I was feeling very uninspired by my familiar surroundings. There was no gold in this alley for me. I asked Jonathan to walk with me. He sheepishly agreed. 

During our walk I came across a message that was written just for me. "I Am The Wall". An epiphany for me. Gold was all around me, I just had to get see through the wall I had built. How do I look through a wall? I have to tear it down. Sometimes, demolition is the path to creativity. Sometimes it is painful to tear down those walls. Sometimes it is refreshing. But reagrdless of emotion, tearing down those walls is healthy for the soul. Anything that is healthy for the soul is food for creativity. 

It took a while of walking, but after a half an hour I found my gold. I found a new project idea. I found a new alley to shoot in for the photography group and I found a little bit of myself. Hmmm. How could this day get any better? Food! Lunch/Dinner (or Linner) at Venti's got Jonathan and I talking about future studio projects; shoots, ideas, concepts, all gold. An hour later we are back at the studio, a few blocks away. It is time for me to get ready for the shoot with the group.

At 4:50 PM I head over to the rendevue point and we head out to the little piece of gold I found earlier that day.

Layers of gold laid in wait in this previously undiscovered alley and I harvested it for all I could while I was there. I  could have stayed there for another couple of hours, and may return there soon to harvest some more. But the group was ready to move on, so I led them down a path of new opportunities.

The same view with different eyes. I have led many groups through this little stretch of alley, but I saw it differently this time.

Then it off to the carousel and shooting some traffic lights. After this, everyone was done. But Terry wanted to walk some more, so I tagged along with him, and we chatted quite a bit while he shot a few things. At 8:00, I arrived back at the studio. I went downstairs to Clockworks and picked up a fantastic sandwich, Caprese Melt. I went back up to the studio, and began processing the images I had captured all day while I ate my yummy food. 

At 9:00 the show down in Clockworks kicked off. I went down, listened to two bands, Focus Focus and Pretty Things. Amazing show from both of them. I actually bought a CD from Focus Focus. At 10:30 I headed back upstairs to the studio. Finished up a photo and packed up and went home. 

Exhausted, I collapsed on the couch, watched the last three episodes of Criminal Minds Season 5, then headed to bed at 2:00 AM. What a day. It was a day of pure creativity, pure relaxation and pure gold. Inspiration same at me from all angles, but it was until after I realized that I Am The Wall. So I want to thank the randon graffitti artist or artists that put that message on the wall for me.