Monthly Archives: October 2011

Put Down Your Phone. Enjoy Your Life.

I really like the idea behind this video out of Thailand (from a phone company, no less). It plays nicely with the blog post from Jon Acuff a few weeks back titled “How to be a better parent in 4 seconds”, which you can read here and his more recent post “How to improve your marriage instantly”, which you can read here.

Resist the urge to always be “connected”, put down your phone, and really connect with the people around you. Your spouse. Your kids. Your friends. The cashier. The dry cleaner. The waiter….

Video via Musea.

Counting to 100 in French (in English)

One of my newest excursions in to the French Language is counting beyond 10, since my two year old son was at the same level as me. I turns out, every word sounding like another word, even though it is spelled entirely different, is not the only quirk with the French language. They have a thing about numbers, too..

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

So far, so good.

eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, ten seven, ten eight, ten nine, twenty.

I dig it. Ten seven instead of seventeen. Other languages do something similar. Let’s keep going…

twenty and one, twenty two, twenty three, twenty four, twenty five, twenty size, twenty seven, twenty eight, twenty nine, thirty.

OK, I’ve this this mastered. Let’s keep going through the 50s…

thirty and one, thirty two, thirty three, thirty four, thirty five, thirty six, thirty seven, thirty eight, thirty nine, forty.

forty and one, forty two, forty three, forty four, forty five, forty six, forty seven, forty eight, forty nine, fifty.

fifty and one, fifty two, fifty three, fifty four, fifty five, fifty six, fifty seven, fifty eight, fifty nine, sixty.

And now, the 60s…

sixty and one, sixty two, sixty three, sixty four, sixty five, sixty six, sixty seven, sixty eight, sixty nine, sixty ten.

Wait, what?

sixty eleven, sixty twelve, sixty thirteen, sixty fourteen, sixty fifteen, sixty sixteen, sixty ten seven, sixty ten eight, sixty ten nine, four twenties.

Four twenties? I was told there would be no math…

four twenties one, four twenties two, four twenties three, four twenties four, four twenties five, four twenties six, four twenties seven, four twenties eight, four twenties nine, four twenties ten.

Four, times twenty, plus..carry the one…

four twenties eleven, four twenties twelve, four twenties thirteen,four twenties fourteen, four twenties fifteen, four twenties sixteen, four twenties ten seven, four twenties ten eight, four twenties ten nine, one hundred.

Rinse. Repeat.

First, master the fundmentals…

I dig Seth Godin. More often than not, his insights on his blog have a much broader reach than the world of marketing, and his analogies translate well to the creative arts.

Today’s post, First, make rice, speaks to the importance of learning the fundamental building blocks before skipping ahead to the good stuff.

Too often, we quickly jump ahead to the new thing, failing to get good enough at the important thing.

Modern cameras come with so many bells and whistles that it’s easy to focus on these amazing features instead of focusing on the basics of photography, such as exposure and composition. It’s great that your new camera does in-camera HDR, but without knowing how to compose a shot, you wind up with neat effect but a poor image. Just like sushi without properly cooked rice, the result is less art and more of a hot mess.

Photographers fall in to this trap easily. The hardware is getting cheaper. The software is getting cheaper. More social-media-savvy photographers are making their brand by exploiting new techniques and distributing it to the masses, luring neophyte’s in to what is popular instead of what is important. The result is a lot of people making a lot of horrible images using the technique en vogue. Bad sushi.

I’m not saying you can’t buy the latest gear, or spend time experimenting with the latest techniques. It’s fun, and you might create some amazing images in the process. But if truly want to master photography, and to deliberately instead of accidentally create art, you’re going to need to spend a lot of time just making rice.