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Searching for the Creative Spark

What we're gonna do is talk about creativity, as you mentioned, we're going to show some slides, just a sort of references and some images and then really try to dig in these different topics, and I'm going to kind of lead the conversation a little bit just we have somewhere to go when talking to start off with julianne, tell us a little bit about who you are and also what you do and how that relates to this topic. Creativity ok, so my name's julien cost and I actually worked for adobe systems. I've worked for adobe since nineteen, ninety two, always with a photo shop team, a phenomenal team to work within the light room team I before that, I went to school for and I, you know, I have to tell you I'm super nervous, and the reason that I'm super nervous is because my mom and dad might be watching e I just had to get out there, so if you are high, I love you so s o I went to school for psychology, I wanted to be a sports therapist, but I also love photography and my parents had a dark ro...

om. When I was growing up so my mom's a silk screener and designer and so she needed the darkroom to expose the screens that she used for silk screening in my dad loves like mike photography so he is the dark room is a traditional darkroom so for me I seem tio I have come from this world that is such a great balance of both you know creativity and as well as as the technical signs so my mom super creative so is my dad and but my dad's an engineer so he's got the whole like logic side and and super smart my mom super smart too so it's just it's this great blending so so when I got out of school I decided I didn't want to do sports their piece I went back to school for on I got a degree in psychology and I got I mean in photography and I got a job and technical support at adobe in eighteen ninety two e I was there like ten dollars an hour I was a contractor I was attempt and but you know I got my foot in the door on at that time there were that was photo shopped to not like see us to just two but it was a lot easier to learn back then right so I could cut copy paste it was good to go so so I think what's what's interesting and what when I'd like to kind of offer as far as the creative portion of this is is really how do you stay creative in a corporate environment? You know, I have a job now where I travel a lot of the travel more than I stay home, so probably sixty, seventy percent of my time is on the road. So how do you stay creative when you are in an airport taking a cab in a hotel, going to a conference, getting back to the hotel, getting in a cab, going the airport? Like, how do you continue to try to see things differently? So hopefully I can offer that to I know there's a lot of folks in it, I don't really think it matters. You could be in a corporate environment or you could be a professional photographer full time, and you still sometimes given right? So hopefully what? We have to save the day and what we have to offer help people. Yeah, I agree. And what I love about hearing part of your story. I know that part of the story is that, you know, a lot of us, I think know you is this amazing photographer, person, teacher and all these things, but to realize that your path was in a straight line talk about a little bit later, but it was circuitous and that that release kind of heart of creativity and it's about how do you make the most with uranium in this environment? How can I make the most with that so it's fun to hear that so let me jump tio are I would like you to fill in a little bit more of you are sure? Sure history okay, so yeah, so mine in case a case we don't know each other but is I do a number of different things I'm a photographer and author and a teacher and I like to juggle those three three things a lot there kind of my passions and part of it for me how this relates to what we're talking about is the question I've been I've been kind of asking my whole life whether I have a camera in hand or in the classroom is how can I be more creative and lot and alive? And so those two things are like creativity how do I get more of that? I wrote a paper on that one fourth grade even, you know, and then and then and then life in good life and meaningful, deep rich life. So and so that's been my pursuit on dh part of my story, I think is well, it's kind of circuitous and that's the fun with how we get to that place where you get to do creative stuff is it's not abc it's more like a f e m z back today and you're like, wow, I found it. Um, so anyway, that's part of my story now I got this, okay, so, so anyway, the first slide is a couple of our pictures which creative life picked out to use, which we actually is really kind of fitting and with these going to maybe feed it to you a little bit, but this idea that creativity is combination of things and both of these images are different combos I'll start talking about mine and you talk about years. So minds this guy with a canoe in santa barbara where I live and that's what surfers who I do a lot with surfers, they hold surfboards behind them because they're so big you can't get fit the surfboard, the picture if they hold it sideways or something um for really long words, but I bought this canoe for fifty bucks went down the beach with my friend and he tried to stand in the canoe it tipped over. Then he was all wet and he came out and I said, well, just hold the canoe and got the picture anyway. The whole point of that is that creativity often is just taking something it's like a surf picture, but a canoe makes it different and einstein had this great way of talking about it, he said it was combinatorial play and that it's combination of unlikely things and that's where creativity of nights and it goes different places on dh then your picture, I think, has some similar things as far as a combination side so that you absolutely so one of the things that I do every year at least try to do every year is I try something new, so you know, when you work for a company for a so long as I have, the great thing about software is that it keeps changing, so I'm very, very grateful that there is change because that keeps things fresh, but in my personal life, I also feel like I don't want to get in a rut, and so I always want to try and do new things, so every year I pick up something new because it also really helps me I don't know, I'm I'm supposed to be an expert I don't know that anyone's an expert and photoshopped but you know, once you get labeled is that it's like, oh, I'm supposed to know everything about it and I want to be a beginner like I want to go ask questions I want to go learn new things because so one year I picked up gardening so that's why we have this image here and and that here you could see you can see it in your artwork you khun c your hobbies you can see what you do you can see the rest of your life in your heart and so it's really important that you expand the rest of your life I think yeah and this idea that we had talked about kind of preparing for us that creativity kind of wells up from within right? And so the more you have going on there the better it will be an often you know, kind of the first little thought is if you want to get more creative it's not necessarily bigger and better and huge it's small little steps like this picture for me I love it, you know, a good friend of mine but it was just it was swapping out a surfboard it's not that big of a deal, but often creativity is just that it's those little steps on dh so moving to our next one which are some are we going to talk more about playing later? We will talk about place way we could do it now though I mean let's hear some other images to see if julian's tell us about these photos and also your process like how you get to so these are all still lifes obviously and they're all things that I've collected around my house so a few years back I I acquired a craftsman house and get it and put it back to what it was when I built it, so I restored it more than renovated it and that was I loved it like that was the year I bought a miter saw no, it was great I've got a plane or and that's what I mean by kind of expanding no what you do in trying these new things and so all of these items are things that I found around the house and the one in the center I think was very significant to me because it is it's not been too wiring I don't know if you're familiar with that, but in the older homes you know that if they would take the electricity and they put it in a tube and then they run that tube through all the wood, but in order to do that they've got to put this the tube in there it's a ceramic to being so that obviously nothing catches on fire. So we just thought, you know, I was putting in the state of the art technology at the time and we were just ripping out all this old stuff and I thought wow in the early nineteen hundreds this was the state of the art technology, so to me there a little bit of a my trying to pay respect to so just everything that goes through our lives and then how do you I mean, obviously you like, say, the knob in two and you have the experience? How does that turn into image? You know, what happens in between? That would be the creative process, so I will say that I'm very much a compartmentalized, like, I like to compartmentalize things, so I kind of I feel that I take three kinds of photography I take, I go out and I look at things and I make an image based on what I see, so I see something and I can't make that image then there are these, which I have to set up, right? So these are a little bit more it's, not that the other ones don't take thought, but I'm thinking more about this subject here, as opposed to letting something else happen. So I would say I have a little bit more intent when I'm making these images because I want them to have a richer, deeper meaning. But do you have hope in their two? Yeah, absolutely, yeah, so, I mean, is you're starting, you're kind of like, hoping it's going to turn it because you don't know. Oh, no, I never know, yeah, no, and I have way more horrible images that you'll never see. That I have edited out then then the good ones but yes I definitely hoping and it just you start with intent but then things just come together sometimes I think that's it's the same when I do my digital illustrations of the best illustrations I make are the ones where I just kind of lose track of everything around me and get in that great place where things can happen which leads tio another another slide maybe I'm gonna skip to this one here which is thiss idea of how what world this technique play in your process because you talked about the city of getting lost in things and they get lost you have to um I think to get lost you really have to know your tools you have to know your tools so well that they become invisible so I don't know if you have one of the stereotypical grandma's out there that never wrote down a single recipe but always knew exactly how much of everything to add like I want to be like that with my camera and with photo shop and the fact that you guys are here at creative live and you're learning all these techniques about photoshopping light room it's fantastic because it could be very frustrating because when you're a beginner you're like all right so I have this picture and I need to add a mask now which panel was that on and then you have to find the mask and you have to look at the mask and you have to figure out where the paint brushes and what color to paint with, and you paint with a wrong color. Nothing happens, and then you're on the wrong layer, and eventually, what happens is you do it enough that it just becomes totally natural you're probably better with the cameras than I am, so, you know, I still have to think, like, ok, it's the shutter speed and have stopped, and I, esso and what's the relationship between them once that becomes natural and just intuitive, you don't have to think about that, and then you can just think completely about the content of what it is you're creating. And I may be just picking up on that that I've known for years and years talk college students and when things that I've found is people get overwhelmed with the tools, which is part of our week, we're talking about, you know, it's, photoshopped, weak and the trick with that number, I said, creativity is thinking are starting small, what I would say just we'll just use a couple of the tools you don't get lost in those in the challenge, I think, with all of this is sometimes or even let's say back to those composites and not not to belittle them but I don't know if there were that complex to create and I'll talk about my own work so it's like that was easy, you know? But that doesn't mean it's not it's, not good on dso I think finding those little starting points is so important and being sort of being where you are but then trying to push your skill really, really hard so that eventually it's that natural flow. Yeah, I would never take offense to that because there is no reason that anyone in this room can't make the composites that I make. I do nothing difficult for my composites and that's why I'm never afraid to share what I do because no one has my eye right? We're all different. We all have different nature and nurture right our environments or different or experiences they're different, so sharing technology for me has never been an issue whatsoever because I mean that's just going to benefit someone else. And how great is not to think that you might tell someone something that changes their life and impacts the way they communicate visually and the way they do their storytelling in their visual narrative that super exciting but let's get back to tonight I'm gonna come backto play there yeah tell me how big are there things that you do too to play so that that help you learn yeah definitely you know, maybe that goes back to there's one of my favorite quotes is by theodore roosevelt and he said that comparison is the thief of joy and so what I find with that is that if I'm comparing myself to someone else let's think I'm just going to say someone else to say we're talking photoshopped say jeremy cowart you know we all know you know and all of his kissing stuff is so amazing if I'm like I'm not as good as he is then that kind of kills my play my creativity so giving myself some of that breathing room to create and you know, the other day I was trying to create something and photoshopped expressing this idea and it just flopped but saying that's ok, so I think that's huge and same thing with the camera you know, having that high goal but also giving yourself a little breathing room what I found at least in my own zone is really important and I think I think the key is the play part right like not to take it seriously when you're learning so if you like the time to install a new version of photo shop is not friday at three when you have a four o'clock deadline right? I'm surprised like when people call me they're always in a panic well I just installed something you like but really now it's what it's like fifteen minutes ago still so a friend of line way often give each other just words and when way have something we want to learn we're like ok here's a word use puppet warp you're like what like ok, but the great thing is there's no consequences what if it turns out terrible it doesn't matter is not a client as a friend it's a very safe environment and that's the best way to learn the other way to learn so I'm a horrible speller just it's I tutor and third grade I never got I mean my mom and dad should get their money back because I'm never ever progressed right? And so that's one thing that's really difficult for me, so but the odd thing is I can tell you every proposition in the english language let's hear what? Because because they taught it as a song so it's like if I'm like about above across after against among around before behind decide between beyond enduring except for from into like a buffet over pastor sincere towards until upon we know our propositions it's all about what school I know you're like oh, she should definitely quit and get a singing career don't you think so, but that's why I like when I wanted to learn all the keyboard circuits and voter shop I did the same thing in like a memory of a past selectees for the brush tool so you'll give you crossing andy is for your foot colors and so that we can't just have to you have to make it fun you know island so you have to embrace your inner geek a little bit well hey there's a lot of inner geek but I just think it's so important tio not take it quite seriously as I tend to to make it and I mean that to kind of buy the geek side of it and I love you know, photography worlds kind of photo nerds and we all can a nerd out about things but what that does is when I was in high school my brother was in college and he was really cool he was in a fraternity and you know he's just, you know, kind of I always looked up to him and he told me he said chris, you know, being cool takes a lot of work and it isn't as much fun as not being cool and I thought that's really true and it's true for creatives you know that we kind of have to like, live up tio yeah, we have to let go of that sometimes and sing a silly song or whatever and embrace that and that's what kids do obviously you know I have three young daughters and I'll visit their classes and when I do occasional asked them he's good for questions and a lot of times I say how many of you guys can draw on every kid of course raises their hand how many of you can sing every kid? And when they you asking that question, the younger kids especially will raise their hand and start singing, which is fun, but if I would ask you guys or my college students tell me if you could draw one brave personal raises her hand or seeing usually one on one hand, I saw it on because what we hear is adults is how many of you can draw well or comparatively and that's that theodore roosevelt comparisons, that thief of joy so we lost the play on dh kids I think they have that they haven't learned that yet so we have to do is kind of cut off our modifier, you know, like, ok, I can't do this well, that's ok and story and I'll play with play and have fun with it, so all right I'm going to go to another slide just because this is fine let's keep the conversation going a little bit start for both julian and I appreciate and a good friend of mine in mentors keith carter, he once said this this quote to me that I believe in wonder and I look for every day and his photographs are full of kind of this imagination in this beauty and so the question kind of stemming from that is to you julian how does belief affect creativity? I thought you were going to start with this one you know? I'm giving it tio put you on the spot you are I'm not sure what do you need my belief, chris? I'm not sure yeah right well, I mean, I I conserve this one I mean, what I mean by this is that what I found is that if you have belief you find things that you otherwise wouldn't have found let me give it a kind of a coup for example, so if my sister lost her wedding ring at the beach and I believe that it was there like I knew it was there, that was my belief when I went with a metal detector I would probably find it there was a greater chance versus a few years went out there and you're like swinging the metal detector around and you're like, well, maybe I don't know there might be something here and so I think photographers especially have that they're like there's something here, you know, especially when I create a portrait for me I'm which is a big thing I'm like there's some beauty or strength or truth on dh for me truth and a portrait a lot of times is this idea that was ian forrester who said good literature can make us feel two things at the same time so it can be both beautiful and sad or can be happy and more you know I don't know you know I mean there's this duality so I'm looking for that I believe that's their if someone's very um I don't know I'm kind of going off but maybe I photograph this one surfer guy world champion the guy's handsome chiseled he's a legend but his son had died that year and so what I wanted to do was to capture portrait that showed how he lived life on his strength but also the sadness I was gonna pander the sadness and say you know tell me about your son or you know or whatever but I was I believe that so my belief I think helped me create a photograph so that's what I ok so I'll take it a little different direction and that is that that I um I believe that there are yes that there are photographs everywhere so I will just throw it out there because I travel a lot right so it's very easy for me to sit up here and say well you know you should you should always keep a fresh eye of course I'm always somewhere new right so it's easy for me to say but I believe that and we talked a little bit about this last night was that you know you should be able to make a photograph anywhere there are so many things like my one of my biggest joys when I first I'll never figure this is the first time I ever I ever remember making images was with my parents at a ghost town in california your body it zago sound all are here doing I'm not sure if I've ever told my parents or not all I wanted to do was make a picture that they didn't see I'm a little competitive right? So I was just like I have to do something that they don't see and that has actually served me quite well because it makes me look at something and then look at it again and then for the last time like two and a half years or so I've been trying to post on instagram three photographs of the same subject that I actually took with my iphone now this this year I decided well, you can only do the same thing for so long so I'm kind of breaking away from that but my point of shooting trip ticks was you get the grab shot and then one can you take that same subject and photograph it in two different ways and then have all three of those work together so I guess my belief would be more that we all see something and then what can we uniquely see differently about that same subject I think I think I'm very pragmatic so I'm I'm a huge look I'm a huge list person I'm checking off the topics that is we cover them to make sure I don't miss anything but but that has served me well and so I think that yeah so I'll just leave it at that yeah, well no I mean I think it is an interesting topic it's not really talked about much in creativity but I'm of the opinion that but if you have this belief for faith or hope that something is possible you could make it possible so one thing we're having this meeting last night with the producer and it was my turn to talk and so julian was just sitting there kind of stuck and she brought out her drawing supplies and she had these pens and she just started to draw you know, to like, make the most of your time I have to clarify I was coloring color was not drawing just drying comes next year this year's coloring yeah, yeah yeah, but I think you know if your belief is like I'm stuff there's nothing I can do you know then you kind of are but for like, well, yeah, I kind of have this gift of time I'm going to bring something along and even if it's just color and it was beautiful coloring, by the way amazing coloring like you've never seen but you could do that and so anyway is that you know that yeah, there there's something that could take place here you know and there's more that can be that could make more with what I have in this moment all right let's go teo another one pat to creativity obviously is not a straight line and how cool photograph is this that you and I is that amazing? I think this is really described the creative path I don't can you guys relate to that that again? It's not necessarily you know a b and c but it's you do this and then this and then all of a sudden you created something when you look backwards, it makes sense um and so for your own process you know, how does that work? And then also tagging onto that this idea of if it is a curvy line or it isn't, you know, clear cut how do you deal with the complexity or the clutter that can come up when we're creating so it's never it's never been a straight line for me I'm always amazed hindsight's twenty twenty right? But I'm always amazed when I looked back and just see how well things is connected like it's so easy for me to look back and go wow if I hadn't done a I wouldn't have gotten to be if I hadn't done be I wouldn't get to see so if I hadn't taken that job in tech support I wouldn't have worked for adobe you know if I didn't live in this in that area I wouldn't have worked because I'm down in the bay area for me this this photograph I think it's a good example of that the fact that I'm totally afraid to fly so and I yeah I know so I fly every week and it's terrifying ok and don't like I know I know you're trying to you're going to try to help me with this but it's just a fear right it's like some people are afraid of spiders so for me it's I think it's lack of control right? Like I'm not driving the bus so and I don't know who was driving the bus right? So so there was were commercial airlines so what did I do? So I wasn't finding a lot of creativity at one point was taking pictures of like rugs like carpets in yeah, I know in convention centers because I was like I have to photograph something and so then I was flying home one time I was looking out the window and is like how fortunate and lucky am I that I can sit and look out this window and so I picked up the camera I put the camera between me and the thirty thousand feet below on all of a sudden I was an observer I could just sit there and watch the world go by it was relaxing it was calming I still think out with turbulence but or when we turn or when we take off or when we land I am better I tried to get it I was going to say so now this is evolved into this whole thing like I published a book on it I book my flights based on you know what side of the plane I want to sit on is like when it where the sun is going to be and what time of day and everything I know and all flight when I fly home if I come from you're a person like I want the flight where is light the whole time and because it's so cool that fly over the ice and everything and so they're not involved into actually renting a house qatar and now renting a plane and and I love it I love it I'm still afraid but you know you never know what this journey of life is going to take you on and so you just need to some opportunity comes up you just have to take it because you never know how it's going to reflect back later yeah question yeah well chris I just for both of you I have a question to this because hi I want to know how fear plays into that not straight line on dh just for me sometimes I get because I don't know how I'm going to get from a to z I don't even want to take that first step for that getting over that fear of not knowing which can block creativity so does do encounter that or how does fear playing too getting over creator and being creative question do you want it you want take first other ways to go first go okay all right because we differ on this so this would be a good thing so I mentioned the name task driven so for me it's all about laying down a project I'm gonna do it I've got an intent I am make of a decision to do something like I'm going to do that and then I so its goal setting right making the intent setting a goal so here's the problem with goals people set goals and then they're not quantifiable so they're big goals you have huge life goals right? So I have big goals and I said it was a list person so I must have you know I have thirty lists and evernote I've got a list for what I have to do for work would have to do around the house what I want to do just all these different lists and then I break them down those so my list for today for my for like adobe to do today is what do I have to do today what do I have to do this week? What do I have to do next week? What do I need to get back to me? And I've already gotten something out there to someone and they need to volley it back to me so those are things that I don't want to keep in my brain because I only have a little no space up here in my brain I can't keep all these things, I write it all down that relieves my brain from having to be like I forgot tio, you know, I got listed say, like, you got empty the garbage and you've got to turn, you know, turn off the heater before you leave the house, right? Because when I travel, I don't want to have to remember all that stuff, so I write down everything I can I make these goals, and then I I just sub divide them into these little daily chunks that I can then check off, so I always feel like I'm moving forward otherwise it's like I'm going tio let's use an analogy like I'm going to make a book, okay, let's, define it a little, you know, like what kind of book? When are you going to publish this book? Okay, let's say, june let's, count back from that, you know, like that would require how many pages to be written per day and I try to get which I'm really bad at but I tried to get a realistic expectation so for me it's all about not only and this is where this is where the difference really comes is if I make that I make that public with someone a friend I don't usually do it to social media that's too much pressure but for me, being accountable with someone else really really helps me to take that because it's you got to take baby steps right? Otherwise you can't get up to the top of the mountain in one jump all right, you gotta go up one step at a time yeah no, I think and then maybe tad onto it is julien's lists make me afraid but uh but uh I'm or kind of trying to find something that gets me too jump in the water and go for it. And so hawaii last year family vacation I got this waterproof case for my iphone and so I jumped in the water was so excited and I was out there snorkeling and you know, is having fun office and I saw a shark and my instinct was to go right towards it get a picture and then I was down there and was like, what am I doing? You know? And it wasn't smart steps they were world but what I what I love about a camera is that it gives the courage, and I'm always looking for these things that do that, you know, that might not have been but same thing with, like people, you know, and you have a camera and you're going to try to capture that portrait? Um, the camera can be a kind of a passport into these experiences into meeting people in the doing things that you otherwise wouldn't have, so I think for the fear kind of overcoming the fear I'm I do like having things written down and ideas, but I'm a little bit more of, well, let me try this, and I'm also maybe a little bit more private in my trying, like, if I say to a friend, um, I'm goingto do something that takes a little bit of steam out of my sails or whatever and so but I do think fear is huge I mean, I think you're hitting on that that's the one thing that holds us back from being more creative, right? Because we're afraid that what if it doesn't turn out what it's always two time? What if what if it's embarrassing? I who knows what you know and that's where I think of creativity is and it's more? How can I make the most with what I have and how can I do these small steps? And I think of things like ben and jerry's ice cream is anyone like that when they invented chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream good, they had vanilla, you know, they made a good vanilla, and they said, well, what if we put cookie doing it? It wasn't that far of a lead, but it was was these little steps that wasn't like, well, let's invent a lollipop that tastes like, you know that, and I think that's sometimes what we think we need to do, you know, we're like, we need to dress up like a clown, a beacon it's like, no, no, we don't need to do that. We need to do these small steps and and that helps me overcome the fear, I think more so I was like, great go to how you you khun, like some of you might relate to the list thing, and you might relate to something else, and so that creativity is not a straight path. It's not like we didn't come here to nancy, you do these five things, you will be the most creative person on earth. Yeah, right? Yeah, always different. I will say, if you if you avoid taking any risks at all u you're hurting yourself so I think it's also it's the fear and I think fear of its the risk taking which is probably the same same word but sometimes it's nice to hear things with different words because you can relate to them differently. Quote from aristotle on one of julian's composites I'll read the quotes you want to see it very well but the aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things but they're inward significance so you're composites to me have this deaths to them sort of that deep side of creativity and I would love to hear maybe I'll go to the next one what do these mean and also again how do you get there? Is this another good one? Sure okay um you a little revealing but good so my composites I would say are the third part of that photography when I mentioned that I kind of take three different kinds or make three different kinds of images, this would be the these these take the most mental work for me I took a class in college called altered states of consciousness figure we'll get a few giggles out of that one yeah it's probably not what you're thinking so one of the things we did though is we we had a dream journal and we wrote down all of our dreams and then we tried to, you know, dream because most people dream in black and white, then you try to dream in color and then once you can dream in color, then you try to step into your dream and then you try to control your dreams it was really, really fascinating, and I'm a very vivid dreamers of the other, like I was telling you the other night was so great, it was like this and I remember them all and I so when I wake up, I will still write down my dreams if I can remember, but I'm pretty good at remembering him, and so, you know, the dreams where you're somewhere and you know, you've been there, but it's, not where you're you've been it's like you're at your grandma's house, but then you turn around and it's, not your grandma's house, but you know, you're at your grandma's house, so I was at the speech that I've been to before that had this interesting waterway, and I wanted to take photographs, and I'm thinking, no, probably cause I was coming to seattle and I wanted to cotton candy water, and then I turned around and there the snakes and like their huge snakes like they're white and akon is they're huge and they start coming, and then they double back, and they braved themselves almost like, what are those doughnuts that, uh there's a twist we had, like the french twists, right? So they're doing that, and then I realized that they can get up and whatever they look at, they mimic. All right? So now we've got these white on the condos, and they're coming up in their mimicking whatever that it was awesome. So and I love that. So I get a ton of ideas from from dreams so let's, talk about other, maybe places of inspiration for these words. I loved to read, I read all the time I loved to read and I have a journal, right? That I have written down all of these quotes on denny, just something from it just for the fun of it. I will. Okay, but I opened this page, so I will read it while it takes two people to create a relationship. It only takes one to end it, but what? I usually you know, everything that went on these are these are not things that I've written, okay, so here we go. This is a good one. I know who you are, you are what you choose to be. You can change yourself any time, but a lot of these and I'm sorry that I'm not choosing one just at random, but a lot of them, I have visuals. Look at this one ask if you'd be willing to just turn it around so we can see at home sure, what your because I can see a little bit from the side, you can't get ahead while you're getting even. That was a good one. So so what it is is it's ah it's a it's a journal, right? And then it's got all the pictures that I run across that I love. None of this is my artwork, it's just it's just images that that I like and that trigger some kind of emotional response. And this is the exact same thing. When I go out and photograph a lot of times, I will photograph anything that evokes some kind of emotional response in me, whether it's good or bad, it could be a texture, it could be an object that could be the tree that looks like a boat, anything like that, and I make these big image libraries, so I have things to pull from. So I have my journals to pull from, which have visuals in them. You know, there are other people's words, this's. Ok, so here I'll do one more, so losing him was like being cleft down the middle. I mean, does that not bring a vision to your mind so any time that I in looking for inspiration, I will come to one of these and I probably have at least half a dozen of these books and then I will start making something based on whatever that that images that comes to mind and then the interesting thing that always happens the twist is that when I am done with these images and I look back on them, it is so obvious what they're about for me personally so that's this one with the background psychology I can tell you I'll just tell you that I did this when I was having some issues with social media many my own personal, my conflicts like inner conflicts, you know, if you can't say some well, there's that quote, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all my thing would be like if you can't say something constructive, don't say anything at all, right? Because I don't need you to always say you're so good you're so great, but you can tell me like, hey, I really think the person should be over to the left a little more hey, a little more color would be interesting because of blah, blah, blah I wanted to be constructive criticism because criticism isn't always bad, so this I was just I had posted some stuff and people are so weird like, do you have a scratchy voice you're welcome for your free education someone posted like you know this is not the most creative photo I've ever seen and I'm like that's not the most you know constructive comment I've ever write s o just tonight it's not worth I just acknowledge and ignore but you could get one hundred accolades and it's not one person that just brings me down so I was pretty down and so a lot of the times the figures in my image they they're missing their heads because because I want people to be able to relate to them so if this is obviously a woman with straight hair then people who are women with curly hair might not relate that's why I like in modeling and in advertisement you see very symmetrical faces there's no distinguishing characteristics that says well I'm not like that instead if there's no distinguishing characteristics you say oh I'm like that huh that's interesting maybe that would work from being and so I tried to send my character's apart so that they have no real distinguishing features so that you can actually you might be able to temporarily suspend your disbelief of this composite and actually enter into that world so this was all about social media cause lookit I'm over there and then there's this vast giant city that I can't reach but then of course I had to put the vultures on the city side not my son I'll take a question one second, but I want to kind of pull it take away from this one, at least for me in the takeaway there's probably a few, but one is the most creative people I know I've had a chance interact with a lot of, like really, really creative people, they find inspiration in the most unlikely sources, and what they do is, you know, this kind of thing when I think you should publish this when that finding it's not that they're like, well, yeah, I looked at three, you know, one photographer and I'm you know, that's what I'm following, well, that's important it's the dream or the you know, the little thing you noticed or the quote or the intensity of the quote or the you know, the debt or whatever it is, and so trying to find what those things are and then also kind of going back, at least for me, is this whole idea of combination and a quick story. One of my friends, neil, is one of the guys who helped start the company gopro, you know, the best selling camera the world right now, and when they when they got that coming off the ground, their goal was to combine who's as if apple and red bull got together and had a baby and that's true that's what the product is right it's a little more red golden apple but they've been working on that you know and they're getting a lot closer but it's just this like simple combination you know? And so they found inspiration in these really unlikely camera company you know you wouldn't think of oh yeah red bull and now you know but they did that so anyway, if you want to get more creative unlikely sources and then figure out some way to capture the content obviously phones air good analog good writing it's good you know, whatever it is songs or good or what but that is so huge, so huge go right okay, if you wanted to I wanted to go back tio social media yes, because people are asking great great questions in our chat rooms and this one had the most votes will vote so people are very curious about about this is from job look, do you think sharing your work every day and social groups like on facebook will spark your creativity or sink it many groups out there critique in a very bad way and sometimes make one wonder if we're really getting better or not should we care should we be online so you can talk a little bit to that a little bit more sure okay, so I think that social media can be so uplifting and absolutely soul crushing it can be both I think the most important thing if I had any piece of advice with social media is you have to know whose opinion matters to you think about that for a minute, right? There's there's a joke where there's a there's a story where you know a pianist gives a recital and he knows he doesn't do that well but the whole audience gives him a standing ovation except for his teacher, right? So I just think it's so great to get, you know, one hundred likes on an image or something, but, um but a lot of times and I go and I look at it like, wow, I've never met these people I really appreciate that that they like it, but I don't know them necessarily. And so for me on I know if you're goingto there's there's different reasons to use social media, right? So but as a as a way that I can improve my own artwork, I'm finding that I would prefer a smaller circle with deeper ties, then a really large circle who I who I don't have time to connect with because you don't have time to connect with twenty thousand thirty thousand people, but I have time I feel like I can afford the time and and it's a valuable use of my time to look at what a smaller group of people are saying yeah, maybe I'll pick up from there and I'm sure you guys would have stuff to say I mean, this is one of those topics I think we all have something to say about but related to how do we become more creative because that's kind of that the thing here I think you know, obviously it's amazing to get feedback it's amazing you've got to get your work out there, you've got to take that risk and you have to be doing those things but then back to you know, how do you maybe get better? And how does how does that affect the journey? What I found was my tradition or my background comes from traditional school teaching a college level what I saw where I saw students get better was critique image goes up and we talked about it and you had this kind of stand up with your image versus I think online and social media is a little bit anonymous, you know, even like a comment good or bad it's I mean, you could know those people but it's a different and so I'm always encouraging people tio look for those chances for for getting other types of feedback because if that's the on ly feedback you're getting, you're not gonna grow a fast on maybe a quick story the one I was talking about for me I went to a workshop um and it was ronnie smith this guy really admire a mentor and friend and he was reviewing my portfolio and you looked at my pictures and he said to me in the whole group, you know, I was really nervous because you know when you and if you have experience when there's someone you really admire and you really care what they think and your, uh you know, you put so much into it anyway so he looks at my work patiently calmly and then he says, you know, chris, when I see your images first I think they're good but then I think again and I think maybe not and I'm like on then he goes and he says what I seen your photographs and these reports he says you're really connected with the people you're photographing and I can see that connection I can see a really committed to the people on your you know, these images have this deep, resonant full connection, he said, but you aren't committed to the frame and it was his way to say I needed to work on composition. And he said because you're not committed to the frame, you're letting that person down and when he said that it hurt but awful also was a relief because I knew it already you know these things you know, but it takes someone else to say for you to really really know it and to get more creative I think we need that you know we need the boost people say like no this is good to do that do go in that way mind that dig there but then we also need those people who help us refine and so with that conversation on if it totally answers it but is to just make sure we have a more balanced diet every guards to our own growth creatively I also will just mentioned with the social media that for me I'm a little more old fashioned lee I like to live with my work so I very rarely post work in progress I typically post work that that I'm very content with anything I don't know I don't know that I don't know that there's any judgment on that it just tends to be what I dio um I need to live I need to live with my work and then one thing on what you said is an so you've got this great feed bank and then it's how you react to that because I think we probably all have a story in our life where you know when I was graduating and I got my review for my portfolio they lose quote was there they're pretty images and they'll never get you anywhere and I thought wow what I go through this program how you know but the reality of it wass is you know, there was some truth in that, but I am so I'm a little competitive with myself. I was like, oh, oh, you just wait, wait, how you take that scene back, right? If I mean that could've been soul crushing for me, I could've been, like, fine, I'm going to go be a therapist after my soul is crushed, probably not a great idea for humanity, but how you take what you're given in life and I think you're just a great example and I really admire you for it is is you take things and then, you know, figure out a way to make them positive. Yeah, that was a big question that had come through as well was for beginners how do you utilize what can feel like harsh criticism? And how do you have that fuel you forward instead of crying or is crying good? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and I think I think just that and then trying to find my mind and I've said this other places we all need trash can friends so there's plenty of stories, but this story of, um his name is steve. Can't you hear it? It's steve he was a high school english teacher hated his job, um here's writing his first novel you know, imagine being in that class, by the way, with the english teacher didn't want to be there but anyway, and it was typing it manuscript through course way done throws his trash can his wife was living in trailers why it's taking up trailer trash about to dump it? It's really heavy just like what's the deal pulls out husbands manuscript reads it goes back to him and says, you have to finish this it's stephen king and that's how we started so I think we all need one or two of those people who can say, you know, when we're crushed could help us dust off and, you know, it's a julian, someone like that for me and we need to find those people because otherwise you can't make it alone. I don't think you can get through that by yourself or that my story about my mentor, we had trust and relationship and I knew he had my best interest, and because of that, he was willing to say that he wasn't just out, you know, to set your pictures are bad, but he actually and we talk through how what I could do next, and it was this huge drive, so I think having that those two things are really it's really important to have someone who has your back and they're different people for different back watching right so like, you know it doesn't your your life partner doesn't have to be the person that you do all your creative work with just like you might not play sports with those people like you need people and and support in all areas of your life I'm so we were talking about inspiration earlier and maybe I'm jumping ahead or falling behind I'm not sure which, but um I am not a straight path it's not a straight now I'm totally inspired by people who do great things regardless of the industry like people who are true to themselves, they pursue whatever it is like relentlessly, it is so inspiring to me and with that said with the social media, so I follow a lot of these people and I think I think what you said earlier because one of the one of people's that inspires me I'll bring up jeremy again he's he is so inspirational on so many levels to me um and so I follow him and I follow national geographic and they follow and I follow I follow, I follow and then I started looking at people like, well, this person doesn't make real good, so I did this huge purge of like that person doesn't make me feel good on social media, I don't phone I'm done acknowledging ignore like I want positive things and I'm gonna put positive things out there and if megan, if things keep going back, then I don't want to hang out with those things so I want the inspirational people, but I don't all I don't want them all to be in photography I do not want the montana photography, so even if you just wanna get your feet wet like, go to be hands and I know I work for adobe says is like it's, not a shameless plug, it was like, you know, I was like, well, I was on five hundred p x and I really like, I'm like looking all those pictures and then all of a sudden you start looking at typography and I started looking at design and I started looking at illustration and you know how we all have these? You know what else is really good? Modern day instead of these kind of journals is start collect making collections? It could be it could be on pinterest pinterest yes pinches like I'm not a d why I person normally but make your own board oh, the collect things that inspire you collect things that you you can learn a ton about yourself, you want to learn about yourself, collect, I could look through here and be like, wow, julian g I think I know your color palette every single photograph is the same like muted color palette it's what I'm attracted to I can learn about my life, the lighting that I like and images I can learn a lot about the mood I did the instagram project every year at the end of the year I made a book of the instagram images in order to try to see the relationship between where I was, how I was feeling how I photograph when I'm in those moods what do I like to photograph I mean reflecting like knowing yourself is totally critical for me to get the most out of my life I need to know I need to know that my first instinct is no ask me any question can you no no and then someday someone pointed out to me was like, wow, I d'oh that's awful every time I say no so that's now a conscientious let me think about that I'm an introvert I'll we'll take that information go down to my basement and I will be back in thirty minutes with perhaps so yes it's really important to know yourself so sorry way couple yeah we have ah in the second row back there go ahead so from my experience with social media I definitely was going to save a similar thing that best thing I discovered was that I had to know myself and what I could tolerate so I we went on this rampage and started joining all of these photography groups and makeup artists and all these things that are all kind of interwoven into what I do, and some of them are real, snarky and mean straight up and down, and then others were like, no brings share your work, we'll all work together. Well, I'll talk about it, you just you don't want the other people. What I found is that social media can be helpful, but then there is also the place where you have to know how much you can tolerate from and what your filter level is, as far as how much input you want to hear from certain people in the way they speak to you or or write their comments, because that really does make a big difference. I agree you should be up here. Yeah, I'm just going to kind of pick up on that, teo, part of this whole thing is, creativity is going to happen if you just sit still, right? We have to get involved in that. We have to make these decisions, who are what matters, and all this kind of stuff, and with social media, the other thing I would see happen a lot with my students, I would see these students who pay a lot of money for education or really, really good education some would soar and somewhat sink and I was always trying to figure out why was that and the ones who would consume too much content which we can easily do on social media would almost always sink so is like the thanksgiving dinner you know, two weeks in a row every night you know and they're just like weren't doing anything and so the trick is for me too is there's times when you have to say let's limit this may because the voices like you're saying or you know I don't know it's not uplifting to me or other times I need to go on like act on this I don't need to just sit and watch you know, like the best thing that could happen from our talk is you do something not that you walk away and I like I like I thought about creativity the best thing if we can do anything did you do something? It doesn't matter what it isthe even if right now you just draw a little stick figure that would be great because that balancing your consumption to your creation is really, really important especially social media space, right? Yeah, we'll take one question and then we'll keep because I get through it's related to social media but also just how we reacted to just creating in general is I was just wondering if you had certain techniques for dealing with your negative voices is faras pushing through the resistance of creation is a great question, julian, I do it with these time based goals, I really find that they're super helpful. The other thing is I need a safe place to create, and I don't want that to sound like a copout, but I'm I really loved have my environment set up the way I want it on it. I think that creative creativity comes from within, so I think that there are other aspects of your life that need to be balanced. I don't know what you do. I have a friend who always puts on a different top, like she puts on a specific top, and that is a top that she wears when she is painting. So, like that's, it like her friends if it sends a signal not only to her, but also to her family like I'm doing this right now, I decided this year, I'm trying something new because what I was finding as I have two computers in my studio, which isn't really a studio, I always say a studio in people probably think I it's a great studio it's the extra bedroom, right, like in the house, and I'll call it the library, but it makes it sound better so in my library. I have a I have a long table it's, a nine foot table and there's two computers on it and what I was finding is I was coming home and then I would get sucked back into work, right? So I decided this year if I need to do work at night, which still is going to happen and I often dio but I have to take my computer, my laptop and I have to put it in the dining room and I worked on the dining room table that says this is not note to self you were not being creative right now this does not count as your creative studio time you want to go in the studio and create you need to drop this because these are two separate independent things because in my life the world the world's really do collide I mean, they overlap a lot I'm working with software all day I'm working on demo files I come home at night I'm like I'm on the computer more at night so so separating my physical location really helps and you want to talk a little bit about clutter? Sure, yeah, why don't you go for you? Soak letter? I'll have a rule I have empty drawers in my in my house just to let you know um it's really important that I don't have a cluttered space for me this is this is it's not star quite like we were talking about it's not that there's nothing in my house, there were a few things that triggered at one. I thought, well, how can you make more money? And I thought, well, I can either make more money or I can spend less money, so wouldn't it just be easier if I spent less money? Okay, well, do I spend money on staff? Well, wouldn't it be nice if I just said, you know what? I have enough stuff. So what if I make a rule that says any staff that comes into my house, not groceries and stuff like that, like anything's, any object that I want something else has to go out so that I'm not accumulating all the stuff that there needs to be dusted and thought about and cared for and, you know, like I can't I can't deal with that eye. I don't have enough time. Anyone who says they're bored drives me crazy because I don't have enough time in my life like if you're bored, give me your time. I'll take your time. I don't have nearly enough time. I want to focus on and you were talking about limitations earlier, like I want to focus. On this narrow slice of the pie that is my life and what is meaningful to me and how I can enrich it and how I can be more creative and in order to do that I need to not focus on all the rest of the staff I don't watch tv so I have narrowed down my consumption of entertainment because it is just I think a lot of times tv I mean there's educational programs but for the most part tv is education is sorry is just the consumption of entertainment just to be entertained so I thought well I'm not going get rid of it totally what if I make a deal with myself and the only time that I can watch it is if I'm on the treadmill so I'm just trying to like limit and make my life like super streamline and protected like I'm always wearing black and people always give me like oh you're always wearing black you know easy it is like I would be paralyzed every morning like if I had the match colors and then match jewelry and and put something in my hair I don't think about that because that's not that's not what drives my life and my creativity now if I'm a fashion designer of course I'm going to do that but that's that's not where I'm going to focus my energy I mean my takeaway I mean you guys may have different ones is is there a way the question is for you guys? Is there a way to craft your life so that you can be more creative? Which I think julian is talking about how she does that and also deal with those the fears on but I think there are ways, you know, even having tools maybe that are more accessible than less or for me what I do with the fears this will sound really strange, but when I'm really like kind of beat down and whatnot, I go for a walk in a cemetery because a lot of the reason I do what I do was when I was in graduate school, I volunteered in a hospital I to do this practical work and I was assigned the cancer floor I spent time with people were dying and so when you spend time with people are dying and teach you a lot about life. And so for me the camera has become this way to save her life and it's it's gratitude for her life and so that's really easy to forget. And so sometimes I need to go back to that or surround myself with people or things you know, that I represent I don't know kind of people who have overcome the fears may be, you know, I think that's really important to kind of have those sort of like a poster on your wall, but but sort of your heroes or your patron saints you know, I think that the museum here was designed by frank gary wasn't the one in town on dh er when he was a freshman usc in his first architecture class he failed so bad his teacher said um drop out of major don't ever take architecture class again and that made a mad and so he did took it again and got an a but anyway, the point of that is I'm gonna photograph that building when I'm here because of that you know and that that picture is going to remind me, you know, that toe overcome you know, to push past that and so I think you'll figure out how do you craft your life? What are those things either that you removed from your life you know? Or maybe you add to your life to add to it I said I think mine's more of simplifying my life and I was going to mention one of their thing oh yeah so I don't come up with any of these ideas just so you know, like all of these I get from reading so why reinvent the wheel when other people can offer great advice like I would say, you know, zero in box or there's so many books out there that can help you there are people that are masters at organizing our people that are masters at just suggesting all these different ways of living like I just finished a book called thrive which is you know you don't have to take away everything from the book but the one thing I started doing this hey you know what would have been meeting my manager? We're going to start going for a walk or what she gave to me was hey, I just read this book where when you're in conference calls and you're not like actively doing something for that call the draw and so that's why I mean I mean it's pretty cool that I have a manager that would like finding a coloring book and you know what they say go do this this will help your creativity so it's not like I'm coming up with these ideas I'm just looking for them and I'm looking tio to try to better my life by absorbing all of these different things he should definitely get off this life we're going to get off the slide were on this slide for a while I keep going past the go past that um no no the next one I'll talk about see I can see the next one that did it throw quote out here but then I'll go to the next one it's uh oh that's a really good shot close who said he's an artist who said in first inspirations for amateurs the rest of us get to work and we'll go to the next slide and with this one is this idea of getting to work and how it where do you begin your process and how do you just get to that point of making making it happen so this one's easy for me because this is a music lyrics so regina specter to birds on the wire and that's I know there's no wire there but those are my two birds and so I started with that thought and sometimes the images actually do in the looking quite a bit like how I think they would I will just say like I sketch a lot but I'm horrible and really, really bad but it saves me so much time because lou in computer what happens is people get into the details like have you ever spent like an hour getting I don't if you work with type but you know you're you just have this one word and you you're looking at the spacing between h characters and you're deciding what font and what effect and then you've worked on it for an hour and it's the wrong word right? So you got in way too deep before you actually create something so I would just say that you know the computer it can really take a lot of time and it allows you to do pixel by pixel you can make changes so for me it's really, really useful too stay out of the computer for a wee bit make a bunch of sketches even though I'm in horrible drawer drawer but um but that saves me a lot of time but that wasn't really the question that you know it got started I mean we're going to win with it with the song and so I think the question back to you guys is to come up with an answer yourself where do you begin? Where do you start how do you start that starts the toughest part right once you're going it's really easy because you're like oh there it is and it's all happening but those little start and so trying to come up with what helps me start and our start won't help you but your start will and so trying to come up with different ways tio make that happen so where do you get your moment? Yeah I think literature is really big for me because writers create pictures without pictures and so that to me is amazing andi I admire that deeply my kids are a huge part there's a lot of you know, a lot of different kind of fuel I have um for those things and then a diversity of inspiration sources photographers, poets you know ceramics whatever it's all those kind of things do you find that there's something where is there a space that you go to? Is there something you do what do you yeah, which maybe you know we're going to talk about later but a little bit I have to start quiets not with like loud music on or whatever, so I'm kind of a quiet and I can't have anyone looking over my shoulder, so even my closest friends even if I'm working on a photograph and it isn't that important, I can have someone watching me, so for some reason I need that space and I think you know what you have to do is figure that out for yourself who wrote uh, scrooge who's, the author of that charles dickens thank you keep in his studio he had two doors, we had one door and then he installed another one because he could only write in silence and great artists take these extreme measures to craft their space. It doesn't mean that silence maybe is yours, but if it is find a quiet spot or if you like working noise and coffee shops, you need to go to that thing to do your start there. And when I found out my students is the ones who can start to identify you're like, well, I'm fresh in the morning to your creative stuff there I'm good in the evenings do that and don't waste that special time or that special space on dh really protect that because the start is the hardest thing it won't if you can't get past that it doesn't happen well how how do you find time? Yeah um again I think you know back to maybe your list is structure, you know, for me that works as well so it doesn't miraculously appear but I have tio carve it out I think that's true for everyone I think that's a really important point that it doesn't it doesn't I actually I have a twenty six hour day so that's what I just did I just created more our is it something like not watching tv does for me? Because before you know if I if I even even a movie I'm thinking a movie two hours, two hours of my life now you get inspiration from it, you can relax you can, you know there's there's a lot of benefit and I'm not saying, you know and and cinematography amin and lighting and ideas like that I think with books when I read the words that I create my own visual. So sometimes I think the books work better for my inspiration, but it is carving out that time and just committing to it and having someone else around you like saying, hey, you know, I'm gonna pretend like I'm in school tuesday thursday nights for two hours and I can't be bothered I'm just gonna have to install a second door I was thinking it was like a door on the other side, but I think what it is like a door and in the door it was like complete quiet, you know, be cool is to put like those doors that they had in the old dark room so that as you entered your space you'd be like and you would world around the door and you would step in near space and then your outfit would automatically like batman who's the best superhero because I someone just told me the day like he's is he actually has no like extreme powers, right? We can't he can't he has no x ray vision or anything, but he still always wins so tip money for you guys carve out time, figure out what that means and, uh prioritized that because creativity is this juice it's the secret sauce it's it makes so much happen in life and then it won't happen on its own never does mean that you have to really do something with it through this next one. Maybe I'll just blazer a few of these, but just a quote too is thinking through who you are. This is a mark twain quote, the two most important days of your life, the day you're born and the day you find out why and so part of creativity comes from that why wells up from within why am I here? What am I doing? You know and maybe going to a friend of mine matt laskowski great guy you know he was here earlier this week and that was interesting he did all kinds of photography but then he found out was landscapes that was his wife you know in that space and there's deeper wise too but when you find that thing you really go for it and in asking that question I'm just going to keep bouncing if you're okay and to get your fume or this one we want to talk about this idea of getting a different perspective on your work or critique which we already kind of mentioned right with getting getting an outsider in but I love this view because the helicopter perspective or julian shots from above that you need someone who's close enough to you but also can get above you a little bit you know, some people are too close to you in there like everything you do is greater that's nice and you know what kind of mom you know he loves everything um but we need someone who can get us a little bit out above and that's the only way you refine social media is great for mo mentum and push but you got to get out above with me nothing I just we'll just say really quickly I always want to hang out with people that are better than me I don't want to be like the best whatever it is in the group because then I'm not going to push me like I'm the best no way me and I want people better than me so I'm like, oh, I aspire for that yeah and that's critical because it gives you something you know? They're adding teo and this one is mo mentum you want to talk about momentum? I think we talked a little bit about it already about how to how to get started do you want to go? Do you want to go into it more may give you one thought of momentum I love surfing so this is a famous surfer guy connor, but has anyone served out there? You guys try to catch away so the thing the thing was surfing isn't just right in the way but catching it you paddle paddle, paddle hard you can so that you're trying to move as fast as the way before hits you because if you're sitting there the way just goes past you so it's somewhere to trying to jump on a freight train I'm sure number was done but you run alongside the train and you jump on you never just stand there like grab a hold of it right? Creativity is the same way there's got to be this momentous there's gotta be a start, you've got to like it roll and you got to try something and and surfing the interesting about it's the guys who can paddle the best get the most waves and ride the waves the best but most people think it's right in the wave it isn't it's the paddle strength that your shoulders it's all of that so again mo mentum and figure out ways to get that going I would just add habits thanks people think oh creatives need to get you to break all their habits not really like their habit is being creative that's pretty good habit tohave right? So if you can set aside time to be creative and build that habit and want to have it takes thirty days or something yeah so which fits into this one which is kind of fitness to you need to have that creative fitness you know, so that when when it's happening you know you're you're already part of that you know you're not just kind of jumping in the ocean and hoping you khun battle for four hours that's actually why I started the instagram was because I knew that I wasn't photographing enough and I knew that by posting something every day it was like, you know, I played them volleyball in college and so I thought well I exercise and work out every day so if I'm going to become a better photographer I need to exercise my visual you know my eye every day oh, but practice what is it there's a great quote uh some people practice until they get it right other people practice until they can't get it wrong I want to be the person that practices till they can't get it wrong. Wow take three watch this one edison famous quote genius is one percent inspiration ninety nine perspiration and then jack lennon's version of that you have to go after creativity of the club I think this whole I think we're saying we're searching for it is that it's not going to just happen it's not going to knock on your door it's not going to fall from the sky but there is this tenacity that you have to have and the people are most creative they may seem kind of nice and calm and everything like julian but she is a fighter I mean and and having that fight and that drive and even her composite she has four year you know? So so it's it's saying like, well, this is what I'm doing this is the definition and how I'm getting there do you want to talk about tenacity all to add to that? Sure, yeah um so we said we had a little discussion about outliers like the ten thousand hour thing because we both had really different takes on it which I thought was really interesting because this was a little bit more negative pleasure and I think mine was wasn't it's not about once you do something ten thousand times you'll be good at it it was it just takes a lot of practice to get good at something because we were saying that it's not you won't do terrible stuff for you know nine thousand nine hundred ninety nine hours you will have little stepping stones where you will make beautiful images but it just takes a lot to do two to define what I'll say is your style and that's really overused but for me style is like if we all wore the same outfit today we would all be wearing the same outfit right but it's how we wear it as unique individual that is the style it is the same thing with our photography it's why I don't care I will tell anyone any technique that I use I'm hoping that will make them better and what they do and because they're never gonna have my style because we're all different so with tenacity uh I will I love talking about creativity and everything but it's way more important to act on it right it's like our our intentions great we can stand around to talk about it all we want but our actions are going to speak so much louder than words and that's a quote that I mean my parents used to tell me when I was young and I was like actions yeah actions louder yet louder got it actions but if you really think about it it's not it's not these you know with once a month we go off and do this one thing that's not who makes us who we are it's what we do every day on a consistent basis that's what makes us who we are that's what makes us a creative being that's able to tap into our creativity because why? Because we do it every day because we've made the time we've elevated we said that is more important to me t have time for myself toe learn about myself to be created to put something out there it is it is a noble endeavor creativity always gets like oh that's so cute or low creative like a patch on the head although creative good girl sit in the corner you know no way man creative creativity drives everything in life it drives who you are it drives how you think it it makes you think like yesterday oh our stock here on the road you know like no let's turn a different way right like it get your mind thinking and doing and wanting tio just express yourself and experience more things blah blah blah, blah love my follow up to that this kind of a self portrait I didn't push the shutter release button but is tio with that fight you just can't we can never give up and part of the never giving up is you never know when someone's going to throw you a line and that's what happens? I think in these creative things back to that story of steve his wife saving the manuscript or having friends come along with us and part of this is saying yeah, we're going to keep working at it and you gotta wait and hope and you never know I think when someone's gonna going to pull you through sometimes that surprise you well two sometimes it's just stepped back like don't quit whatever you're doing just say hey, you know what? I'm gonna put this on hold I need to stop this for a day I need to come back to this tomorrow but don't get so frustrated that you get burn out because just just stop like I have images that I might composites I probably twenty composites that they're halfway through can't cannot get over because they're not meaningful to me right now so it's not clicking there's something missing in them right there's there's whatever it is whatever reason that I went down that path it's just not the right time with it's and sometimes we make art that is way ahead of ourselves, right? We make stuff and then then a year later two years later we come back and go oh I totally get it now so don't always think like this isn't this I'm really smart I do conscientious artwork no creativity is letting go of all that for me personally, yeah, it is and that there are perhaps you know, with that their times in our own creative journeys where we may create something that's ahead of ourselves or we may not be ready for something so julian shoots with till shift lenses, you know, does this fun stuff and I tried it earlier in my career is photographer and I couldn't do it, but I finally got one now and I'm ready for it now, but I wasn't then you know, and I'm sure you've experienced that as well, right there's certain things where you just weren't quite ready for getting into that, you just got to see it through and I thought, you know what I've worked with a lot of students is and you guys in here and I mean this you're more creative than you realize and what you have to do it is say ok, but let me go with that where does that go? I'm not going quite throw in the towel it and work through that and I think part of that to another thing is is becoming a beginner this is a tree I used to climate a kid in my backyard in northern california all the time and that there's this great quote by shooters suzuki, who says you said that in the beginner's mind there many possibilities and the experts there are a few back to their common about gaining expertise? The trick is, we think, like, once I'm an expert or is a photographer, once I've like gotten to this level, you know, well, you have to keep doing is keep undoing that because what got you there was being a beginner, and so you have to almost constantly undo that and go back to that childhood playfulness for that usefulness and that approach you have anything you wanted to add toe becoming a beginner, I know you do that you are going to make remarkable images with the till chitlins. I just first say that I know that's going to happen I just think that you know, that you're my mentor in that it takes a lot to be come a beginner when people think you're an expert yeah, a couple more slides for you guys um, and to go to this one, this one was kind of alluding back to our conversation about this idea of social social media and then creating an isolation or creating in groups, sometimes people I think their creativity is fired up when they take a workshop and there were ten other photographers and they're really going some other people it's an isolation, you know, we've sort of talked about that what I found is with the people who end up being really creative as they have that self awareness and so start to reflect on yourself. Well, when is it that I am most creative? And does that happen in isolation? Or does that happen in groups or maybe a mix? And then be sure that you're doing those things, because for me, for example, I said, I'm kind of isolated guy, you know? But I find that I only get so far by myself, and so I have to come to things like this and hang out with all these people who are here, and that just gets me going in a different way, I think it's really interesting how working in a corporate environment, there are all sorts of people, one of the one of the most interesting things that I've had done in meetings is that there's always people who are very vocal and outspoken, and then there are the quieter types, like I barely ever say anything in the meeting, and I'm actually an introvert beside the point, so what I've had one of my managers do is when there are questions she wants to ask the whole group, she has everyone write them down, and she chooses the people that she wants to to talk and it is it is quite interesting and it just showed me how different everyone is. So just because I just want to reiterate that just because we're suggesting things today, you're not going to do all of them and not everything that we dio will work for you just because it works for us I think there were probably I have, like three things yeah, just slide we want to end with this okay, how do we ignite this part you were chasing? How did we get it going? What's something we can actually do? I mean, you probably take aways, but I want julianne to kind of wrap it up for us. It was something that we can try to see if we can get this going. There were three things that so three exercises that I've done it have been super helpful. So just if you if you just do these, I think maybe one of them will help you. So one of them is I have a lot of self limiting beliefs, all right? And so I have a girlfriend who, you know, she asked me, why can't you do that night? And I would tell her why and she's like, oh she's like, have you ever written that down like no, just like we'll write it down and then let's talk tomorrow and she's like like so what do you think about those three reasons why you can't do that? And I said I think that I have told myself I can't do those things so many times that I started believing that that's why I couldn't do them so it was not a belief it wasn't someone else saying you can't do this it was me saying well I I can't do that I don't have time I don't have this I can't can't they can to can't when really I could so that might be something that some people try just you know what night I usually try to think of the positive things that have happened during the day you know that gratitude a lot of people say five grateful things before they go to bed I'm might try writing down just hey you know what's what's something that I think I can't do and why and write that down and see if there's not why isn't really your own why you can't do it thie other game that I play with friends that's really good but you really have to know your friends this is this is something that you want to do in a close safe environment it really works well if there's three people talking and at the end of the discussion you just say ok, so I'm gonna leave now but I'm not really but I want you guys to pretend like I'm gone ok, so what would be the one thing that you would say about me to each other that you wish I could hear but I'm not listening you know what I mean when years three people in one person walks away and you're like ah, you know, chris is so creative I wish he would just get that till shift lens it would be incredible if I was you know, I just want to say that but you won't so you wait till personally is not well, you know that chris, if he just had that till shift land that's what I want to know because people will see that to your face so you can get some really interesting feedback doing that and then the third thing, this is what I would do and I've done this for a number of years and it's really helped so you write down three things that you love about your life three things that you absolutely love about your life writing down like one, two, three they're really easy and then you say, ok, so now I want you to write down three things that maybe you don't like so much maybe they're things that you spin your wheels on like that you spend a lot of energy on and you've been doing it for years and they still drive you crazy and then pick one of those three things and solve it this year period become tenacious that's my rap name by the way tenacious jay well, if I become a rapper that's what is going to be right so pick I think someone called me today she is and I was like that is such a compliment I love it pick one thing and fix it think about this if you fix one if you fix the worst thing the thing you spend the most time on every year that's just wasted time and you fix one thing every year in ten years where would you be? Yeah, wouldn't it be incredible? What if this year you like you know what I waste time thinking that I should be more creative so you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to set fifteen minutes when I get up and get out of the shower I'm gonna go in and I'm gonna spend fifteen minutes I'm put the timer on in the kitchen there's like when I used to play the piano as a kid I had to go in a different room, put the time run and go do that for fifteen minutes. Whatever it is, it just takes it we can talk about it all you want, but man, you just gotta do it wonderful let me summarize little bit creativity will not happen on its own we've got to get out there and do something, some great ideas. They probably have some others. If anything kind of caught your interest, take a step. You know what? Whatever that is. And then I think our last little slides or just to highlight julianne stuff is that jay cost dot com lots of tutorials and training and inspiration. My stuff, a couple different places, just my name chris or dot com. You can see some more. My stuff there. I'm also starting this little side project, which is carpe adm supply cone, it's all about. How can we be more creative and alive? And it's kind of trained in that space in more than anything, though. Thank you. We we really appreciate it. It's a huge honor to get teo, you know, share some thoughts with you. And I think our deepest hope is that this will kind of ignite something in you and help you become more creative, more live, more vibrance and, um, create better stuff in your lives. Make it a priority. It is. It is noble. It is something we should all be doing more of.