Tag Archives: Inspiration

My Active Mind

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As I lay here in bed, my mind wont let me sleep
so much running between these two ears
Its incredible to think about where we are these days

What did we do before google?
Before youtube?
Before the internet in general?
How did we learn anything?

I feel like we have the world at our fingertips
and I also feel that’s a major part of what keeps me up at night
the idea of knowing I can learn anything
I can do anything

I ask one question and it leads to two more
which then multiplies even further
I have an incredible thirst for knowledge

I wonder if minds where this active years ago?
Did people feel as empowered as we feel these days

With so many resources at the touch of a button
Most of which are available on the devices we carry in our pockets
Excuses are especially invalid these days
There’s no reason for people not to be pursuing their passion and dreams

Its an excitingly possible world out there
Which ironically makes it even more impossible for me to fall asleep

Photographic Inspiration :: Peter Hurley

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Its been a bit since I’ve posted a Inspiring Photographer for y’all to check out. As a result I have an entire bookmark folder, full of creatives to share with you guys that I will slowly but surely sift through to bring you the best of the best.

Peter Hurley is a photographer I came across earlier this month as he was featured on Kelby Media’s weekly video podcast The Grid, which if you haven’t checked out yet be sure to do so, as its a completely free talk show all about the latest and greatest in the world of photography!! Continue reading →

Quotography Inspiration

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There is no trick to Quotography, but as I’m sure many of you can attest, there are some quotes that are easier to put into images than others. We have decided to tell you a little bit about our process in the hopes that you, our fellow collaborators, can get something out of it! Remember, our way of doing it is not “the right” way to go about it…it’s just a discussion to get your wheels turning and the creativity flowing.

The best way to do this, I think, will be with some examples.

“In the end, it’s not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away” – Shing Xiong

Shannon’s Thoughts:

The first thing I do with most quotes is look for the obvious, tangible items in it. In this case, I could try to do something with breath…maybe frosty breath on a cold morning…something along those lines. However, I don’t think that would really illustrate the message Shing Xiong is trying to convey. Instead, I would focus on the ‘moments’ portion of the quote.

‘Moments’ could be something with clocks or watches. Maybe a clock involved in an image of something I value. A watch on a couple holding hands or kissing?

However, to me, this quote is special enough that I would want to do better than a first obvious thought. If this were my quote, I would be inclined to do a photo involving other photos of special moments. Maybe a photo of polaroids spread out on a table? Or a photo of a scrapbook. Photos are my favorite way to remember important moments, so it would be an ideal way to both illustrate the quote while still communicating my personal values.

Nick’s Thoughts: Continue reading →

It’s about that time

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Holy Cats!!! Its already mid April, can you believe it?!? Were only a third of the way into the year, and yet so much has happened already! To some this means many good things, I myself have enjoyed the process of growth from my daily project so far, as well as the growing community and excitement yet to come! However, “so much has happened” could be a sore subject for some people with some instances where we feel like we are already so far into the “New” year, yet so far away from our initial “resolutions”.

Yea remember those things? The “stuff” you said you were going to do or not do starting at the beginning of the year?! How’s it going?

First of all, Im calling you out but not calling you out at the same time. The truth is… LIFE happens! Sometimes things just tend to creep up on you and get in the way of whats important. My only goal for this post is to get you thinking about one of two things. How to get back on track if somehow you wondered off the initial path, and second how to stay on track if you’ve been successful so far at following through.

Some quick tips: Continue reading →

Guest Post : Kris Mathis : Until

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There’s Power In The Word UNTIL…

I have a question for you. How long should a baby try to walk before you tell them to give up trying? Think about that for a second. How long would you give a baby to learn to walk before you tell them enough is enough! Just give up trying!

Now some of the mothers out there are probably reading this and thinking to themselves, “Is this guy crazy!! I would never tell my baby to give up trying! He/she will keep trying to walk UNTIL they walk!” And I agree with you mothers. We should never tell our children to give up. But we should also never tell ourselves to give up either.

You see, there’s something special about that word ‘UNTIL.’ And this one word carries more power than we give it credit. We must remember the power of this word while on our journey towards our goals and dreams.

Promise yourself that you will keep going UNTIL you reach your goals and dreams! You must keep reading books UNTIL you develop your skills! You will keep listening UNTIL it makes sense! You will keep practicing UNTIL you’re good at it! You must keep going UNTIL you make it no matter how long it takes! You will go step-by-step and day-by-day UNTIL it happens for you!! Continue reading →

The Treasure Folder

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INSPIRATION

As creatives we often find ourselves reaching out in hopes of finding this wonderful word. Personally I love surrounding myself with as much inspiration as possible for every aspect of life. Above my desk I have a bulletin board and a white board filled with all sorts of inspiring pictures, quotes, articles and other randomness to remind myself to keep moving forward.

Just this week one of my absolute best friends, an EXTRAORDINARY photographer/artist/creative, and I shared our inspiration folders with each other. As she pointed out, it was like getting to look into each others minds and see the bits that make our creative section tic. I realized what we are inspired by says a lot about our direction in which we are heading both creatively and in general with the other inspirations we acquire. However, at the same time we often miss the many treasures that are within these powerful inspirations.

If your anything like I have been in the past, and have acquired a folder full of inspiring pictures (over 6,000 in my inspiration folders right now), it either just sits there collecting virtual dust or you look through it from time to time and get a stagnate inspiration more often than not, where your inspired but have no clue where to start to put any of it into action. Often at most we get an idea of a subject to shoot or create, yet our folders hold so much more than just these simple ideas. Continue reading →

Photographic Inspiration: Joe McNally

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Im pretty confident that a decent hand full of you will know of this Outstanding photographer. However I continuously run into conversations with other photogs where Joe’s name gets brought up and I get the equivalent of a blank stare back across our cyber conversation.

Joe McNally has been in the game with over 30 years under his batman-esque belt. Working for big name companies like Nikon, TIME, Fortune, New York Times, Men’s Journal, Sports Illustrated, an extraordinary 23 years with National Geographic, and a list that continues miles down the road. To say Joe know’s his stuff would be grossly understated! When you peruse through Joe’s work its undeniably obvious he is an absolute master of lighting and color, and truly wrote the book on using Small Flashes like the Nikon Speedlight series. With an outstanding personality that matches his extraordinary skill, its no wonder he’s one of the top trainers on sites like KelbyTraining.com .

Joe is also known for his work on raising money (2 million dollars to be exactish) for the relief effort after the tragic happenings of 9/11. He headed up a project called Faces of Ground Zero, using the world’s ONLY LIFE-SIZE Polaroid camera (Literally the size of a 2 stall garage). The project is considered by many to be one of the most important and influential art endeavors to evolve from the 9/11 tragedy.

Joe’s Blog is one I frequent often to get my fix of pure inspiration. At times it’s difficult to not want to set your camera down and call it quits in fear you would never reach his level of talent, knowledge and sheer Bad Assnessness…ness (Thats right I said it). But to paraphrase Joe’s Humble words, 30 years in the trenches will lead to similar awesomeness. So yea.. we’ve got that to look forward too. In the mean time take a cautious look at his work. I say proceed with extreme caution as there is a good chance your mind will either melt or explode… hey Im just sayin, Im looking out for your safety! Continue reading →

Guest Post: Betsy Crouch Part 2

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Creativity + Money = ??

I was walking down the street the other night pondering the relationship between creativity and money.  I walked past an art gallery and looking at the art displayed in the windows, and “poof!” there it was, a large green painting with big white dollar sign in the middle.  Huh, there it is, creativity and money.

What do we all want?  Inner contentedness, a sense of well-being, connection, and love.  Ultimately, we all want to thrive.

When you think of creativity and money, what comes to mind?

I think of disconnection.

I think of “starving artists.”

I think of the power we have to create abundance. Continue reading →

Guest Post : Kris Mathis Part 2

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Im excited to say our two previous Guest Bloggers have offered up some follow up posts this week for our audience here at Nick Exposed.

Today’s article was released in Kris Mathis’ newsletter earlier this morning. He was kind enough to offer it up as a guest post, in hopes of adding some extra value to start your week off. If you’ve been following the blog, you probably remember Kris’s first appearance with his article Young Boy Baffles Reporters, on the topic of overcoming limiting beliefs. If you enjoyed that article then your going to love this post about one of our most valuable resources.

The Present

Imagine if you had a bank that credited your account each morning with a large sum of money. But, it carried over no balance from day to day. Every evening it deleted whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out all of it, of course!

Each of us has such a bank. Its name is – Time. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Continue reading →

Creative Innocence

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A couple of weeks ago I was having a conversation with a close friend when the topic of personal creative expression came up. My friend, like many others, had found them self in a bit of a creative rut. A paralyzed state that most creatives, if not all, come across time and time again. I myself have found this to be a repeated pattern throughout my life. I would consider my self to have been a creative from birth in a wide variety of expressive forms. The moment I was allowed to have crayons in hand I was creating personal masterpieces on any “canvas” I could find, many surfaces of which were not to my parents liking. This continued in various forms until around the age of 12 or 13, when I made a mental shift.

It was at this age I started sharing my artwork with class mates and friends. I suddenly had a new status of popularity, with requests coming in for a drawing of this or a sketch that. At first I loved the attention my art was getting, as I had only ever received praise from my parents for my creative endeavors. My amusement quickly perished as requests continued to come in, feeling as if I now had a duty to impress and please my new fan base. It was at this point I became paralyzed within my own craft… I lost my passion and wasn’t finding it anytime soon. In fact it wasn’t for another 3+ years that I picked up sketching and designing again, in which the process seemed to start all over again. Continue reading →

A way of Life

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This morning I came across a quick design I did for fun last year. Thought I would share for fun being I have yet to give my definition of Live Life :: Love Life as I promised last month.

Photographic Inspiration: David duChemin

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About 2 weeks ago I came across a fantastic book titled “Photographically Speaking”, and it has played a huge part in changing the way I look at my photos and the way I think about my framing when approaching a scene. The author of the book is the extraordinary photographer David duChemin, and when I continued to search through his work and writings it was like a never ending fountain of knowledge and inspiration. He approaches his photos with such a strong personal vision and seems to have such a distinct reason for each element in his scenes. With his teachings he focuses heavily on photographic vision and the story telling aspect of the art, so its no wonder that his photos contain such stories with depth and dimension. Continue reading →