Art Director Inspired: Kathryn McFarlane
Creative: Kathryn McFarlane
Agency: Team One Marketing
Title: Associate Creative Director
Clients working on: Häagen-Dazs
Art Director Inspired: Rob Story
Associate Creative Director, Rob Story sheds some light on what keeps his creative juices flowing, what keeps him fulfilled and how he’s continuing to master his craft.
FoundFolios Acquires ThePhotocloser
Featured Contributor: Tim Hawley
Internationally acclaimed award-winning photographer and digital artist, Tim Hawley, utilizes a style that he believes transcends the limitations of categorical definitions.
Art Director Inspired: Carmelo Rodriguez
Creative Director Carmelo Rodriguez shares with us his daily inspiration.
Jim Erickson Stocks Up On Creativity
As in any creative field, it can sometimes be difficult to maintain a passion and inspiration for your career as the years go by. Photographer Jim Erickson will tell you that shooting stock is a rewarding, but often frustration process that can sap your creative potential. Jim has a number of methods which he employs that help him retain a feeling of artistry and creativity while shooting and selling photos for stock.
The first thing that Jim does is indulge in what he refers to as “a regular diet of fine art and paintings.” The emotional impact and profound inspiration which comes from this refreshes one’s creativity and gives you something to draw on while shooting.
Another surefire method is to “unhook your mind,” as Jim describes it. If you find yourself in a creative rut, or simply not happy with what you are producing, the best thing is just to walk away for a while. “I think we fall prey to getting wrapped up in what we’re doing – technique, equipment, client concerns, etc.). Just divorce yourself from whatever you are working on for a little bit.” Jim finds that controlled breathing works wonders for helping to “unhook.” “I focus on my breathing and the sound of my breath. This drives your concentration inward and detaches you from all of the stimulus around you. Then, I go back to the set mentally refreshed and renewed.”
Jim is admittedly a bit whimsical about his process, but the quality of his work proves that his methods work. There is a lot of creative potential within us that we need to figure out how to unleash. To put it in Jim’s words: “Really powerful creative forces fly underneath the conscious mind. We need to be strong enough to pull them out.”
For more of Jim’s phenomenal imagery, head to his FoundFolios portfolio.
It’s More Than a Game For Eliot Crowley
Sometimes (not often, unfortunately) things that you enjoy doing can actually be extremely beneficial. This is the case for a game that Eliot Crowley has been playing with ten photographer friends. The idea for the game is simple – each day one player posts an image which is related to the previous day’s image. They can interpret it in any way they choose, whether it be similar in subject, color palate, style or even a more subtle way. The players take turns each day responding to their competitor’s image posted the previous day. What started as a simple game for fun turned into incredibly helpful practice for honing their photographic skills. “Playing this game really helps me see things differently than I normally would,” says Eliot. “I find myself creating images I otherwise wouldn’t have thought to if not for this game.”
The tight knit group of photographers all came together in the 1990’s as members of consultant Ian Summers’ “Heartstorming” group. Throughout the years they stayed in touch, and earlier this year Eliot had the idea for this game. After quickly hashing out the rules, they began the experiment on May 1. Since then, not one day has gone by without a player posting an image. With all the variables that life presents, this is an impressive feat. “Sometimes we are in remote locations, with no internet access or even electricity, yet we have all managed to get an image up every single day.”
Eliot is particularly proud of one image that resulted from this game. When his turn came around, Eliot had to “respond” to an image of a deer in the wild. Running with the “nature” theme, Eliot risked life, limb, and camera to capture the phenomenal above image of a lonely golf hole in the middle of a torrential downpour.
The overall theme of “changing perceptions” was the impetus and also the primary accelerant of this entire project. “What we’re trying to do is take back control of our work and change the perception of photography. It is an art form and not just some commodity that you can just go onto the web and grab and download.”
To see all the images in the game, visit the Daily Photo Game website.
For more of Eliot’s fantastic imagery, check out his FoundFolios portfolio.