Ideas are like fish ...

The Stillwater River

The Stillwater River

“Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They’re huge and abstract. And they’re very beautiful.”  ~ David Lynch

I often hear people say that they are not creative. That they don’t have any ‘new ideas’. I think this is a self-limiting mindset. I have been there. I felt drained .. sapped of my creativity. 

Working in a corporate climate for years can drain your creative juices. It does not have to be this way.  You can stretch your creative muscles, and be more innovative.  Here are a few ideas to juice up your creativity:

Variety is a seedbed of creativity. Expose yourself to new experiences. Try working in new spaces, with different people, or perhaps with new tools. Try eating new and different foods. Traveling to new cultures and learning about the people and foods can stimulate new thinking. Diversity is a powerful driver of creativity. 

Develop your sense of curiosity. Slow down and ask questions. Learn as much as possible, and try to understand. Curious people are extremely interesting.  

Years ago I was in a meeting with my manager. We were discussing general topics .. I don’t remember much about the conversation, except for this one question. Yes, a single question that he asked in that meeting about a fundamental aspect of physics as it related to our equipment changed the entire industry over the following 24 months. Be inquesitive ... there are no dumb questions.  

Learn about other careers, science, industries, or technology.  So many breakthroughs come from applying learnings in other industries to  your area of work. In the previous example, we used technology from automotive, and applied it to Food Service. It was game changing. 

Make space and time for letting your mind work! Everyone that knows me well, knows that I get up early every day. I do this to get in a workout, but I have also found that this is the time when I ‘think’ best. Perhaps you mediate, walk, run .. whatever works, make some space in your life for the creative mind to work.

I like to feed my mind while I’m on the treadmill. I expose it to audible books, I read RSS feeds that I have found helpful, and sometimes I just think about big questions. I suggest you follow big thinkers and innovators on Twitter and Facebook. Good audiable books can make a big difference. I have a library full of books that I have listened to over the years. I’ll share that list sometime. Email me if you are looking for some ideas. 

Plug into meet-ups with other creatives. I have been involved with New Media Dayton for years. I’ve gone to other meet-ups for a long time. I have not only meet great friends, I have juiced my creative spirit. Most corporate meetings kill creativity and drain the mind. There is something about a more casual learning environment that reverses that process. I love it. 

Ideas .. really big ideas are waiting. Engage with the world around you and life can be much richer, and you can can be more creative. 

 ~ Rick

Prints are available for many of the photos on this site on canvas, metal or glass. They are stunning and you can purchase them for a wall at home. Click the link or the ‘prints and such’ tab. 

Just take the picture ..

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We took a car ride and then a long walk yesterday. Fall colors are gaining momentum, but it’s moving slow. Teresa took the photo above, and I took the other shot. We took these on North Rangeline Road, north of route 36 and west of Covington, Ohio. I’m sure we looked funny, stoping the car and trying to frame a good shot.

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When you are trying to photograph animals, you don’t always have time to setup the perfect picture. Prior to taking these photos, while we were walking, we saw this beautiful male cardinal. Perhaps the largest one I have seen. He was  gorgeous. We tried for a long time to get a picture of him. He was not going to let that happen, so we moved on.

While taking pictures of these horses, I caught myself saying to Teresa, “Take the shot, we can fix it in post.” Driving home, then early this morning, I came back to these words. Sometime we find ourselves waiting for the ‘perfect’ time to make a change, or to take some action. We ‘waited’ and didn’t get any shots of the cardinal. Teresa took the shot and while we didn’t get a perfect picture, but we did get a meaniful, beautiful picture of the horse. There is value in patience, but sometimes you need to ‘take the shot’ and move on. 

Something to think about.

~ Rick

Prints are available for many of the photos on this site on canvas, metal or glass. They are stunning and you can purchase them for a wall at home. Click the link or the ‘prints and such’ tab. 

Where is that cat?

Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis)

Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis)

Pictures this: You are walking a trail through the woods, listening to the sounds of nature. The birds singing, an occasional rustle of the leaves as a squirrel scrambles across the trail. As you continue your walk, you are startled to hear a kitten .. she sounds lost. You search for the lost kitten, but all you see is this gray mockingbird .. grey with some cool black markings, and a touch of red. You don’t see a kitten anywhere, but that cool looking bird sure sounds funny.  

That’s not exactly how this photo happened, but this is an amazing bird. It’s most common ‘call’ is a raspy mew, which sounds like a cat. A bypasser would swear that there is a lost kitten nearby. This is the Gray Catbird. Mother Nature certainly has a sense of humor! 

I took this picture near Eaton, Ohio. My first encounter with a Catbird. What a beautiful and amazing creature.  

Totally off topic: When I was writing this, my mind rushed back to my childhood and the cartoon characters Sylvester and Tweety. Who remembers this line, “Awww, the poor kitty cat” or sometimes the more frendly reference, the “puddy-tat”.

 ~ Rick

Prints are available for many of the photos on this site on canvas, metal or glass. They are stunning and you can purchase them for a wall at home. Click the link or the ‘prints and such’ tab. 

Learn, adapt, and change

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If you take the bike trail from Piqua, to Troy (Ohio), you will cross this bridge. On the southern edge of PIqua, this bridge has been repurposed to be a walkway for bikers and runners .. and people like me, trying to stay close to Mother Nature.

I don’t know the history of this bridge, but I believe it is special. It’s not beautiful, like the Robert J Shook Bridge that is about 4 miles to the south. It is functional, but its not unique in it’s structure .. many bridges use this design. 

So what is so special about this bridge?

Its has stood the test of time .. it’s weathered many years of heavy loads. It has been repurposed and by doing so it has stayed relivelant.  

I have spent my career doing this. Going to school at nights, taking on special projects, learning on my own time by reading and tinkering. Learning is the key to adapting .. and adapting is the key to dealing with change and moving forward.

What we have here is a key to a long and happily life: Learn, adapt, and and be willing change.

Prints are available for many of the photos on this site on canvas, metal or glass. They are stunning and you can purchase them for a wall at home. Click the link or the ‘prints and such’ tab. 

Curves in the road

Photo by Teresa somewhere between Urbana and Piqua, Ohio.  

Photo by Teresa somewhere between Urbana and Piqua, Ohio.  

When I was young, I remember being told that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The reality is the road we call life is not always straight. Health, money, relationships .. the good and the bad - curves in the road. I believe a bit part of life is how we respond to the crazy curves puts in our road. They often enter our field of vision when we believe we are least able to take them. Perhaps at a low point, we we feel down and depressed. 

Adapting, not simply accepting, is one of the keys to taking the curves. When I was learning to drive, I recall a habit I had of accelerating as I entered into a curve. The instructor would remind me to slow down before I entered the twist in the road. Learning to corner: how to use the breaks, and how to accelerate out of the curve is empowering. It allows us to move forward gracefully, and find more happiness. 

Enjoy the day, and the drive!  

 ~ Rick

 

Prints are available for many of the photos on this site on canvas, metal or glass. They are stunning and you can purchase them for a wall at home. Click the link or the ‘prints and such’ tab.