Just curious about your experience in life. How different are you from most other people? Does that difference bother you?
I've always been "different." But it's only been in the past few years that I've been able to accept that otherness. And because I've become more accepting of the way I've always been, I'm starting to "see" more. I like me but I think I scare and disgust others, and that bothers me. Well, sometimes.
About me -- always had artistic tendencies (my kindergarten teacher was the first to point that out), always was somewhat musically gifted, even have a decent IQ for a creative type. Plus I'm female, so definitely I'm frickin' weird. lol At least I'm not trying to fit in anymore. Not that I really ever tried to before. Just so glad that I've had this second chance at life.
How about you?
Full Version: Photographers and other creative types
As a child, I suffered from asthma; being a child and not being able to run makes you "different".
At the university, I studied maths; if you want to feel "weird" looks at a party, say you study maths.
I work as a software developer; we invented the word "nerd".
Not a lot of artistic background, I guess...
At the university, I studied maths; if you want to feel "weird" looks at a party, say you study maths.
I work as a software developer; we invented the word "nerd".
Not a lot of artistic background, I guess...
QUOTE (EduPerez @ Oct 20 2009, 12:00 AM) 
As a child, I suffered from asthma; being a child and not being able to run makes you "different".
At the university, I studied maths; if you want to feel "weird" looks at a party, say you study maths.
I work as a software developer; we invented the word "nerd".
Not a lot of artistic background, I guess...
At the university, I studied maths; if you want to feel "weird" looks at a party, say you study maths.
I work as a software developer; we invented the word "nerd".
Not a lot of artistic background, I guess...
That's funny.
I can relate to you -- most people don't seem to like logical types and smart people.
Here's a maybe not altogether apropos story for you -- used to be part of a Tuesday night movie group. One of my then buddies had a Masters in math from Cal-Berkeley. One evening we were strolling along some downtown Berkeley street and he remarked how much he loved numbers. He went on and on, extolling their virtues, pointed out building street numbers and telling me why the numbers were beautiful. I shuddered, spat out: Ew, numbers!, and then laughed.
Anyway as to artistic/creative types I'm talking mostly about how we think, feel and relate to the world and others. Most other people think we're weird and flakes and a host of other negative things. We tend to be able to see mistakes and freely point them out; but some of us also give what we perceive to be the proper fixes.
Well, obviously I can only speak from my perspective. But artistic/creative types can be found among mathematicians and scientists as well. Some of our best examples include Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Franklin, Lavoisier, Einstein, Feynman, and Kamen.
Feeling "different" is merely a symptom of being in with the wrong group of people. If you feel your creativity sets you apart, go hang out with the creatives! The problem with early education is that creatives are forced to rub up against normals, the resulting friction creates the illusion of being different. When I finally escaped the iron grip of normal expectations I got a job at a design studio and felt I had stepped into paradise. There are plenty of creative jobs to be had, all you need to get one is for the interviewer to sense the raging creative fire behind your eyes.
And numbers? Don't ANYBODY say anything bad about numbers! Soon after I learned the alphabet I could also recite pi and the square root of 2 out to more than 50 digits and I'm proud of it. A few years ago I charged a client $768 for taking a picture of an address sculpture consisting of 3 large figure 8's, and delivering 2 prints. Of course 768 is 3 times 2 raised to the 8th power, but you knew that. You can find similar interesting facts in a good percentage of the numbers daily life throws at you, hint...integers are always the most fun. Science and art are merely the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the same urge towards observation and curiosity.
And numbers? Don't ANYBODY say anything bad about numbers! Soon after I learned the alphabet I could also recite pi and the square root of 2 out to more than 50 digits and I'm proud of it. A few years ago I charged a client $768 for taking a picture of an address sculpture consisting of 3 large figure 8's, and delivering 2 prints. Of course 768 is 3 times 2 raised to the 8th power, but you knew that. You can find similar interesting facts in a good percentage of the numbers daily life throws at you, hint...integers are always the most fun. Science and art are merely the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the same urge towards observation and curiosity.
Different? Well, that may simply be an added layer of defence or self-imposed 'glory' that we like to bestow upon ourselves.
My late wife was into maths and science which didn't prevent her from being ultra-creative in the kitchen. She didn't say much about my own inclinations as a professional photographer because we met whilst still at school and so there were no nasty shocks to come and we took each other at face value because we knew WYSIWYG. For once.
But, looking at it coldly from the perspective of a retired old snapper, I would say that being artistic is probably more of a curse than a blessing. It is oh so easy to indulge in a mood of self-love and to promote one's self as something special and thus immune from the realities that face the rest of the world, but if we are to measure success in life by the bottom line, then few so-called artists are into the higher brackets of comfortable living.
I think this happens because we seem to have an ability to avoid seeing the facts that surround us, form us and become us. We make allowances and say oh, it's just because of my artistic nature, I can't help it, and that you drive a brand new 600SL doesn't matter to me one iota. Indeed... Look, as a personal example: my in-laws ran a firm of chartered surveyors and my dad-in-law always maintained that it made no difference to them if they worked on the facts and figures of a brick shit-house or a palace - the money was proportionately the same. You see, I couldn't, wouldn't do that: it had to be work that gave me a sense of one-upmanship or I wouldn't look for it. So I got stuck in fashion and calendars and an ever-shrinking world of bigger and fewer clients until the time when I ran out of both, not necessarily because of anything I did but because the world also changed whilst I was avoiding looking it in the eye. A more balanced and non-artistic point of view would have made a helluva lot of difference to my todays!
On the bright side, being a photographer and, I suppose, a creative by extension, certainly gave an entrée into higher social circles than earning power alone would have dictated; whether as a freak or some other kind of curiosity I was never quite sure, but it was pleasant enough and also instructive in that I realised that money makes many things possible that its lack does not, but per se provides very little. I have seen as much unhappiness and insecurity amongst the very wealthy as I have ever experienced myself. The difference is that you do have today's expenses taken care of, even if you might lose the rest tomorrow.
How do the very successful 'artistic' types fare? I don't know - I never got to know one.
Rob C
My late wife was into maths and science which didn't prevent her from being ultra-creative in the kitchen. She didn't say much about my own inclinations as a professional photographer because we met whilst still at school and so there were no nasty shocks to come and we took each other at face value because we knew WYSIWYG. For once.
But, looking at it coldly from the perspective of a retired old snapper, I would say that being artistic is probably more of a curse than a blessing. It is oh so easy to indulge in a mood of self-love and to promote one's self as something special and thus immune from the realities that face the rest of the world, but if we are to measure success in life by the bottom line, then few so-called artists are into the higher brackets of comfortable living.
I think this happens because we seem to have an ability to avoid seeing the facts that surround us, form us and become us. We make allowances and say oh, it's just because of my artistic nature, I can't help it, and that you drive a brand new 600SL doesn't matter to me one iota. Indeed... Look, as a personal example: my in-laws ran a firm of chartered surveyors and my dad-in-law always maintained that it made no difference to them if they worked on the facts and figures of a brick shit-house or a palace - the money was proportionately the same. You see, I couldn't, wouldn't do that: it had to be work that gave me a sense of one-upmanship or I wouldn't look for it. So I got stuck in fashion and calendars and an ever-shrinking world of bigger and fewer clients until the time when I ran out of both, not necessarily because of anything I did but because the world also changed whilst I was avoiding looking it in the eye. A more balanced and non-artistic point of view would have made a helluva lot of difference to my todays!
On the bright side, being a photographer and, I suppose, a creative by extension, certainly gave an entrée into higher social circles than earning power alone would have dictated; whether as a freak or some other kind of curiosity I was never quite sure, but it was pleasant enough and also instructive in that I realised that money makes many things possible that its lack does not, but per se provides very little. I have seen as much unhappiness and insecurity amongst the very wealthy as I have ever experienced myself. The difference is that you do have today's expenses taken care of, even if you might lose the rest tomorrow.
How do the very successful 'artistic' types fare? I don't know - I never got to know one.
Rob C
QUOTE (Rob C @ Oct 21 2009, 02:14 AM)
Different? Well, that may simply be an added layer of defence or self-imposed 'glory' that we like to bestow upon ourselves.
My late wife was into maths and science which didn't prevent her from being ultra-creative in the kitchen. She didn't say much about my own inclinations as a professional photographer because we met whilst still at school and so there were no nasty shocks to come and we took each other at face value because we knew WYSIWYG. For once.
But, looking at it coldly from the perspective of a retired old snapper, I would say that being artistic is probably more of a curse than a blessing. It is oh so easy to indulge in a mood of self-love and to promote one's self as something special and thus immune from the realities that face the rest of the world, but if we are to measure success in life by the bottom line, then few so-called artists are into the higher brackets of comfortable living.
I think this happens because we seem to have an ability to avoid seeing the facts that surround us, form us and become us. We make allowances and say oh, it's just because of my artistic nature, I can't help it, and that you drive a brand new 600SL doesn't matter to me one iota. Indeed... Look, as a personal example: my in-laws ran a firm of chartered surveyors and my dad-in-law always maintained that it made no difference to them if they worked on the facts and figures of a brick shit-house or a palace - the money was proportionately the same. You see, I couldn't, wouldn't do that: it had to be work that gave me a sense of one-upmanship or I wouldn't look for it. So I got stuck in fashion and calendars and an ever-shrinking world of bigger and fewer clients until the time when I ran out of both, not necessarily because of anything I did but because the world also changed whilst I was avoiding looking it in the eye. A more balanced and non-artistic point of view would have made a helluva lot of difference to my todays!
On the bright side, being a photographer and, I suppose, a creative by extension, certainly gave an entrée into higher social circles than earning power alone would have dictated; whether as a freak or some other kind of curiosity I was never quite sure, but it was pleasant enough and also instructive in that I realised that money makes many things possible that its lack does not, but per se provides very little. I have seen as much unhappiness and insecurity amongst the very wealthy as I have ever experienced myself. The difference is that you do have today's expenses taken care of, even if you might lose the rest tomorrow.
How do the very successful 'artistic' types fare? I don't know - I never got to know one.
Rob C
My late wife was into maths and science which didn't prevent her from being ultra-creative in the kitchen. She didn't say much about my own inclinations as a professional photographer because we met whilst still at school and so there were no nasty shocks to come and we took each other at face value because we knew WYSIWYG. For once.
But, looking at it coldly from the perspective of a retired old snapper, I would say that being artistic is probably more of a curse than a blessing. It is oh so easy to indulge in a mood of self-love and to promote one's self as something special and thus immune from the realities that face the rest of the world, but if we are to measure success in life by the bottom line, then few so-called artists are into the higher brackets of comfortable living.
I think this happens because we seem to have an ability to avoid seeing the facts that surround us, form us and become us. We make allowances and say oh, it's just because of my artistic nature, I can't help it, and that you drive a brand new 600SL doesn't matter to me one iota. Indeed... Look, as a personal example: my in-laws ran a firm of chartered surveyors and my dad-in-law always maintained that it made no difference to them if they worked on the facts and figures of a brick shit-house or a palace - the money was proportionately the same. You see, I couldn't, wouldn't do that: it had to be work that gave me a sense of one-upmanship or I wouldn't look for it. So I got stuck in fashion and calendars and an ever-shrinking world of bigger and fewer clients until the time when I ran out of both, not necessarily because of anything I did but because the world also changed whilst I was avoiding looking it in the eye. A more balanced and non-artistic point of view would have made a helluva lot of difference to my todays!
On the bright side, being a photographer and, I suppose, a creative by extension, certainly gave an entrée into higher social circles than earning power alone would have dictated; whether as a freak or some other kind of curiosity I was never quite sure, but it was pleasant enough and also instructive in that I realised that money makes many things possible that its lack does not, but per se provides very little. I have seen as much unhappiness and insecurity amongst the very wealthy as I have ever experienced myself. The difference is that you do have today's expenses taken care of, even if you might lose the rest tomorrow.
How do the very successful 'artistic' types fare? I don't know - I never got to know one.
Rob C
What a great share.
Thank you, Rob C.
And you too bill t.
A bit short on time, but would like to mention that I know several "creatives" who have been very financially successful. The ones I know are mostly working in motion picture visual effects which has long valued many of the things creativity and vision can deliver. These guys have mostly what I call "hard edge creatives" who are willing to channel their impulses along what amount to guidelines but who nevertheless give over their entire beings to the process in a way that is not too often seen in our society.
And yes there are those who use "a creative nature" as a kind of one-size-fits-all excuse, too bad for them, at least they won't be competition. A well used creative nature can support a person, but sometimes at a cost of a somewhat more pronounced feast/famine cycles than for most others.
Something else that comes to mind is John Campbell's comments on "following your bliss." The link below has some food for thought. Campbell also has mentioned something to the effect of "...if you sell yourself for money, you have lost your soul" which to me rings very true, but is quite a hard call sometimes. Interesting guy, he looks at religion and cultural mythology with a compassionate but distinctly outsider point of view.
Some may find this too new-agey, but IMHO such ideas serve the modern psyche in ways that mainstream religion has long failed to do...
http://www.jcf.org/new/index.php?categoryid=31
And yes there are those who use "a creative nature" as a kind of one-size-fits-all excuse, too bad for them, at least they won't be competition. A well used creative nature can support a person, but sometimes at a cost of a somewhat more pronounced feast/famine cycles than for most others.
Something else that comes to mind is John Campbell's comments on "following your bliss." The link below has some food for thought. Campbell also has mentioned something to the effect of "...if you sell yourself for money, you have lost your soul" which to me rings very true, but is quite a hard call sometimes. Interesting guy, he looks at religion and cultural mythology with a compassionate but distinctly outsider point of view.
Some may find this too new-agey, but IMHO such ideas serve the modern psyche in ways that mainstream religion has long failed to do...
http://www.jcf.org/new/index.php?categoryid=31
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