September 23, 2012 by RG

The Mind Grows Heated

The Mind Grows Heated… Glass Works 22

The Color Red… Vitality—Courage—Strength

Red stirs our emotions, stimulates us to action, and fills us with energy.

The Mind Grows Heated is my tribute to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe is acknowledged as one of the true giants of creativity. I am inspired by his poem, Lose This Day Loitering. Specifically the lines…

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Only engage, and then the mind grows heated –

Begin it, and then the work will be completed!

In this image I see the mind conceiving ideas that glow red-hot, longing to complete the journey from thought to reality. Goethe’s legendary list of achievements are proof his ideas often completed the journey to fruition.

I for one wish I could find the discipline to follow his advice. I think of this image each time I’m tempted to “Lose this day loitering,” rather than to “Begin it, and then the work will be completed.”

The Mind Grows Heated is available as a 16×24 inch fine art print from SourceLightImages.

Here is Goethe’s complete poem…

Lose This Day Loitering

Lose this day loitering – ’twill be the same story

To-morrow – and the next more dilatory;

Each indecision brings its own delays,

And days are lost lamenting o’er lost days,

Are you in earnest? sieze this very minute –

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Only engage, and then the mind grows heated –

Begin it, and then the work will be completed!

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 – 1832)

Passage from Faust

Translated by John Anster

October 30, 2011 by RG

Happy Halloween!

Don’t forget to keep your camera handy for all the ghosts and goblins. Especially the four-legged variety.

November 13, 2010 by RG

Challenge Yourself!

Click To See Gallery

As photographers, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. You have a favorite lens, a favorite time or place to take photographs, a favorite way to light… you develop a comfort zone where you know you can capture a well composed, technically correct image.

If you’re not careful every image can start looking the same as you become more a photographic technician than an artist.

I recently took a short vacation to visit my daughter in Los Angeles. Of course I was going to pack camera gear, the question was how much.

Originally I planned to take assorted lenses, two dSLR bodies, speedlights, filters, the works. Then my wife calmly explained this was a trip to visit our daughter, not Randy’s photo safari. And of course there’s the baggage restrictions and security issues to deal with when flying.

I went from planning to take a ton of gear to saying the heck with it, and traveling with just a compact camera for snapshots.

That’s when a little voice came to me and said, “Compromise, take one body and one lens, dummy!”

In the end, I decided to challenge myself. Not only would I take just a single lens and body, but I would take my old six megapixel dinosaur Canon D60, and my original seldom been out-of-the-box Lensbaby lens. I would carry my compact camera for snapshots of our visit, and then challenge myself to find images to make with the old dSLR and that little “slinky” toy of a lens.

D60 and Lensbaby

Did I create a memory card full of fine art images? No. Were there times when I longed for my gadget bag full of gear? A few. Did I find myself challenged to find images as opposed to just snap, snap, snap in hopes I captured a few keepers? Most definitely. (Those of you familiar with Lensbabies know they are anything but rapid fire snapshot lenses.)

Did I have fun and rediscover a passion for photography? A resounding yes!

To see a few Lensbaby images click on the gallery photograph above. But more importantly, make a date with your camera to do something out of the norm. Select gear that forces you to capture images you would normally overlook.

Rediscover your passion… it’ll be good for your soul.