Lists

We all have lists; lists of what needs to be done, lists of what we’d like to do, lists of what others would like us to do, grocery lists, track lists, wish lists, various checklists, you name it. We use lists all the time.

Nighttime Monsoon Microburst

Late one evening after my wife and I had gone out for dinner, I noticed that a storm was moving towards the Superstition Mountains. I asked my wife if we could go out and shoot the lightning, and she agreed. We got out there as soon as the storm was headed into the mountains. Mother Nature was nice enough to cooperate that night, and so we were treated with some fantastic views!

Making Art

“Making Art is the Same as Saying a Prayer.” – Rainn Wilson

Failure is a catalyst for creativity…

Failure is a catalyst for creativity – as long as you don’t let it defeat you.

Are we so afraid of failure, that we don’t even try? Or do we play it so safe, that we don’t give failure the opportunity to let us grow? Failure is painful. I’ve failed, I know.

3 Lightning Bolts Playing on a Hillside

My oldest son and I were able to catch these during a chase early this monsoon season in Northern Arizona. We chased this storm across the state, and timed it almost perfectly. The storm blew right over us, and as it blew over, it dropped some spectacular lightning behind it!

Creativity & Passion – A Tale of 2 Seas

The Dead Sea, which we know isn’t really a sea, is completely devoid of any life. The water is full of salt. It’s seven times more salty than the ocean, so the lake is completely dead. It can’t support life. The Sea of Galilee on the other hand, which isn’t really a sea either, is just north of the Dead Sea. It’s a thriving lake. There is an entire fishing industry based on the fish that come from the Sea of Galilee. It has a thriving and beautiful ecosystem.

What we know

This is a photo of one of the first automobiles in California. The design stands out to me – it looks like it’s missing a horse. The thing looks like a wagon. I’d imagine it looks that way because that’s what we knew then. It makes sense that it would look like something that’s familiar.

Passion & Reason

Reason said that going into outer space was a bad idea.  Reason said that a human shouldn’t be able to run a 4 minute mile.  Reason said that there was no way that we’d take pictures from a different planet in our solar system and then send them back to earth. Reason says that art is probably not a viable career, and that we should pursue an education to be engineers and accountants. Reason says that a high school dropout with poor reading and math skills shouldn’t go on to be one of the world’s top earners and leaders, worth over 4 billion dollars (Richard Branson.)

Creative Culture

Sometimes I think we spend a lot of time and effort on being a good cog in the system.  We concern ourselves with compliance and efficiency over creativity, innovation, and passion. It gets hard to innovate when your main concern is being a good cog.

On Inspiration

I’ve been thinking a lot about inspiration lately, and how it affects the work we do, and how it connects with who we are. I enjoy doing a lot of creative “stuff.”  I enjoy taking photos, I write music, I design, I enjoy cooking, the list goes on.  I enjoy creating things.  It’s easy to say, ” I need to be creative to create things” but it’s difficult to stay creative.  I feel like I need inspiration to create. It was William Faulkner that said that he only writes when he’s inspired, and it’s a good thing that shows up every morning at nine o’clock AM.