Brilliant video Colton! Preach it! I have had and on occasions still experience most if not the all those points you have talked about. I slowly learned that doing is far better than than thinking about doing. Working from home and the responsibility of home care there is a ton of noise. Some is avoidable, some is self inflicted and some is just life. I have learned that interruptions are going to be part of my day. How I handle those, the attitude to them and how I can best be pro-active, set boundaries and allow other to know I am going to be focused on a project for hours. As for gear ( GAS ) learning to be content with what I have and using it to the fullest. I think that it takes a bit of realizing what you really need over the desire of wanting. Thanks for having a great channel and sharing you creative journey!
You've worded that perfectly. The steps to identify noise, cut it out, and deal with it when it's unavoidable! Those are the markers for success. I absolutely agree that doing (even with less than ideal conditions) is better than thinking about doing (waiting for perfect conditions). Through that we learn and advance much more! What has been the biggest noise for you?
@@ColtonMatocha One of the biggest noise is more or less self inflicted. I thought about this for sometime, I caught myself fearing the outcome more than the work, so basically...being comfortable doing little, rather than starting a new project that requires more attention and perhaps more effort. I guess there is 2 concepts, fear of failure and fear of success. If I don't do, then I won't fail, but if I do and I succeed then it will require change. Sounds weird. Getting out of my comfort zone ( easy as packing up a camera, take a drive and then spend time to just enjoy taking photos) I did a high school senior photo shoot for the first time. It was so out of my normal ( comfort zone) I spent a good 3 hours...on location, and I am so happy with the results. the client was so excited! I was worried with the equipment I had, but ended up having so much fun in the process. lessons learned!
@thissidetowardscreen4553 That resonates a lot with me. When I was working as a photographer for large clients, I was so stressed that something would go wrong and that it would ruin the shoot so bad I would not be able to deliver the photos. Of course that was mostly in my head and nothing ever so extreme took place. Just that thought though was a big obstacle in picking up consist work for a time. Even to this day, that still pops up every time I get a chance to do a collaboration. If I succeed then more potentially larger opportunities will come and I'll finally be found out for a crappy photographer. But of course that is also just noise as well!
Nice video, Colton. I would say that the main source of noise is insecurity. Sometimes it feels like the ideas we have are never good enough to be worth pursuing (candies? come on, man!), and that mindset can leave people stuck, hesitant to start anything. That make us believe we need something external, like better equipment, tools, or the 'perfect setup,' before we can begin. In reality, these external factors are rarely the issue. What truly holds us back is the fear that what we create won’t measure up to our expectations or those of others. Ironically, the best ideas and progress often come while we’re already working, not while we’re waiting for perfection or confidence to magically appear.
Interesting chat, Matocha. I'm thinking hard to see if i can find something in my life where this sort of applies, but i'm drawing a bit of a blank. The only 'creative' activity i have is the house i'm building in our rainforest... or at least it seems to be 'creative' because it's not a 'normal' house and the only other person it involves is lisa, and her role thus far has largely been limited to approving or disapproving my initiatives. I suppose i also tend to think of 'creativity' as being essentially: 'idea' -> determination to act -> problem solving in the process... which effectively makes everything including breakfast a creative act. My photography is not 'creative' - everything i take a picture of already exists and i just stand in what seems to be the right place and secure an image of a pre-existing actual-factual in the world. I did write a few songs a few years ago and i'll get back to that when the house is done, but my experience of being creative there was just a response to what seemed like an irresistible force within me which i just recorded... and that may be the thing that gets closest to what you're talking about here - because while creative, it was not effortful, and that comes down to the way i orientated myself at that time. I spent many years competing in sport internationally - a complex individual sport that posed a lot of problems that demanded novel solutions. I developed a very strong capacity to focus - to reduce the world to a single compulsion - to step into what used to be called The Zone. I have a technique for making this transition from the scatteredness of the Everyday to Being Present in something specific - i use it most days in photography. I don't think it necessarily makes my photography any good, but it does mean the time i invest in doing photography is just one intense, productive flow. Where the improvement comes is in reflecting on the results - in the critique - and then fine-tuning (or massively overturning) the details that are present in the actual practice. Now - i could go on with how all of this works for me in practice, but it's Sunday morning and i've got the house to work on and i want to go shoot late this arvo and a Dissertation on this topic would be an uninvited imposition in a Comments section! You've started me off thinking about a habit that i've had for decades, and now i have to reorient to do some tricky cuts on the framing for the conservatory! Problems, Colton... it's all problems. Cheers, man - thanks for the vid and y'all have a great day. PS: need to organize my zine copy - u want cash or a broken camera?
That all makes sense to me however I would say that just because something exists and you're photographing it, doesn't mean it isn't creative. The exposure you chose, the angle you shoot at, the exact moment you chose to click the shutter, etc, etc, are all creative choices. Even if the goal is to be as direct and objective as possible, Or to take as much of yourself out of it and report as factually as possible. That's still a creative choice in my humble opinion. I think there could 'Maybe' be an argument for the difference between creativity and originality. You could shoot anything creatively, but perhaps for it to be purely original or "new" requires even further effort to either make something never before seen, or to portray something which already exists in a completely new light so as to make it feel new. But, just because something isn't totally original or new doesn't mean it isn't creative or interesting! I would agree that even breakfast is creative. Just because I'm creative in making breakfast doesn't mean it's gonna taste good. In fact, my girlfriend will tell you that my scrambled eggs are lazy and bland, but that might be something for another time. Creativity doesn't guarantee success, nor does originality, but creativity does persist in nearly all actions. Some just benefit from clearer creativity than others. I also would say that in your photography, while you may just be reporting the facts at the right moment, is still very interesting. The industrial work you've done is incredibly interesting to me and the way you've chosen to image those photographs (whether by choice or necessity) makes them very good to look at! Hope your rainforest retreat is everything you want! Or at least everything you've been approved for by Lisa's rubber stamp! Have a great Sunday! Cash is king in this case as I have plenty of broken cameras and a deficit of repair knowledge 🤣
@@ColtonMatocha I take your points... but they raise further questions/issues/caveats for me. So... 'exposure, angle, moment' etc - these are choices i make, but they are tightly constrained choices limited by the environment, technology, light... by lots of things that i have little or no real control over. At some point as i'm orienting myself to a composition, and i've done those mechanical things that the camera and physics permit, i experience a sense of ease with what i see in my viewfinder and i depress the shutter. But that's all i've done - ie stuck it in A or M, waved it around, thought 'that's nice'. I have contributed nothing to the image that will arise, because it was there before me all the time and, if not before me, then the identical image was there for anyone else who happens along. When i think of my creativity, i think of an output derived from a complex process within me - there is something intensely personal about it - and while it may be independently replicated by another person standing next to me, that occurrence is highly unlikely. But here's a banal example... i look up, see the full moon, go 'wow', and take a photo of it with my iPhone. The image looks great. Globally, a million other people did the same thing that night. I'm not going to go thinking i'm being 'creative' under those circumstances, so the question becomes one of when and where do we start shading into the world of creativity? If i use you as an example: your candy shots are creative. You exercise control over nearly all aspects of the process. You are even constructing the subject, which is something i never do. Your carnival shots are also creative. You produce something that cannot be seen in the actual-factual world (excepting by those with a visual impairment!) - you modify reality in a way that changes its effect on our senses - this is a creative act. Now - you say that some of my photography is 'still very interesting'. [Thank you]. So we can agree that something can be interesting despite not being creative... my point here being that i didn't do anything to make those scenes, and many of them i didn't think of at all until the moment i saw them (surprise!). From that moment my process is mechanical - just what i wrote at the beginning. I have no need to go out and try to exercise my creativity in the realm of photography. The simple fact is that, where i live and in the places i visit, my creativity would be redundant because the photos are just lying around waiting for me to pick them up. All i have to concentrate on - and i'm working freakin' hard at this - is getting better at harvesting. Fresh paragraph (lol): Really appreciate the interaction with you, Colton. You help my thinking and my photography - two of the four things that are most important in my personal world. Hopefully it can continue and, again hopefully, maybe one day you'll get the itch to get outta Dodge and i can offer you some hospitality down-under. Have a great day, hombre. Cheers.
You have an interesting idea, to understand the color of camera sensors, that's why I subscribed to you. This is your contribution to the community! But seriously, my friend, except for the camera color test, no one except you is interested in looking at photos of bears. It's immediately obvious that you are a creative person, but understand that creativity should serve people. I think you need to not just wander along creative paths, but find a goal. If you take pictures of bears, then make an exhibition and not just shoot for the table, people need to be surprised with art, this is about seeing and feeling what you've never felt before. But the goal of art should always be to serve people and the desire to shock them, to turn their views on life upside down!
Thanks for watching and thank you for your thoughts. I actually do have an exhibition for the candy art (including the bears) which opens in January 2025. Some of those candy art images are also already showing in a separate gallery as well. I've also recently printed a Zine of this series, so I'd say the goal for me is quite clear. That said, I don't expect everyone to find that interesting. That's fine with me. I'll continue to make videos about camera tests and equipment, but I don't find that content interesting enough to do that exclusively. My goal has always been to work on things that interest me, and to share that with anyone else who also finds it interesting regardless of the mass appeal or lack there of! I appreciate your thoughts and hope you have a great weekend!
Brilliant video Colton! Preach it! I have had and on occasions still experience most if not the all those points you have talked about. I slowly learned that doing is far better than than thinking about doing. Working from home and the responsibility of home care there is a ton of noise. Some is avoidable, some is self inflicted and some is just life. I have learned that interruptions are going to be part of my day. How I handle those, the attitude to them and how I can best be pro-active, set boundaries and allow other to know I am going to be focused on a project for hours. As for gear ( GAS ) learning to be content with what I have and using it to the fullest. I think that it takes a bit of realizing what you really need over the desire of wanting. Thanks for having a great channel and sharing you creative journey!
You've worded that perfectly. The steps to identify noise, cut it out, and deal with it when it's unavoidable! Those are the markers for success. I absolutely agree that doing (even with less than ideal conditions) is better than thinking about doing (waiting for perfect conditions). Through that we learn and advance much more! What has been the biggest noise for you?
@@ColtonMatocha One of the biggest noise is more or less self inflicted. I thought about this for sometime, I caught myself fearing the outcome more than the work, so basically...being comfortable doing little, rather than starting a new project that requires more attention and perhaps more effort. I guess there is 2 concepts, fear of failure and fear of success. If I don't do, then I won't fail, but if I do and I succeed then it will require change. Sounds weird. Getting out of my comfort zone ( easy as packing up a camera, take a drive and then spend time to just enjoy taking photos) I did a high school senior photo shoot for the first time. It was so out of my normal ( comfort zone) I spent a good 3 hours...on location, and I am so happy with the results. the client was so excited! I was worried with the equipment I had, but ended up having so much fun in the process. lessons learned!
@thissidetowardscreen4553 That resonates a lot with me. When I was working as a photographer for large clients, I was so stressed that something would go wrong and that it would ruin the shoot so bad I would not be able to deliver the photos. Of course that was mostly in my head and nothing ever so extreme took place. Just that thought though was a big obstacle in picking up consist work for a time. Even to this day, that still pops up every time I get a chance to do a collaboration.
If I succeed then more potentially larger opportunities will come and I'll finally be found out for a crappy photographer.
But of course that is also just noise as well!
Nice video, Colton. I would say that the main source of noise is insecurity. Sometimes it feels like the ideas we have are never good enough to be worth pursuing (candies? come on, man!), and that mindset can leave people stuck, hesitant to start anything. That make us believe we need something external, like better equipment, tools, or the 'perfect setup,' before we can begin. In reality, these external factors are rarely the issue. What truly holds us back is the fear that what we create won’t measure up to our expectations or those of others. Ironically, the best ideas and progress often come while we’re already working, not while we’re waiting for perfection or confidence to magically appear.
I couldn't agree more!
Interesting chat, Matocha. I'm thinking hard to see if i can find something in my life where this sort of applies, but i'm drawing a bit of a blank. The only 'creative' activity i have is the house i'm building in our rainforest... or at least it seems to be 'creative' because it's not a 'normal' house and the only other person it involves is lisa, and her role thus far has largely been limited to approving or disapproving my initiatives. I suppose i also tend to think of 'creativity' as being essentially: 'idea' -> determination to act -> problem solving in the process... which effectively makes everything including breakfast a creative act. My photography is not 'creative' - everything i take a picture of already exists and i just stand in what seems to be the right place and secure an image of a pre-existing actual-factual in the world. I did write a few songs a few years ago and i'll get back to that when the house is done, but my experience of being creative there was just a response to what seemed like an irresistible force within me which i just recorded... and that may be the thing that gets closest to what you're talking about here - because while creative, it was not effortful, and that comes down to the way i orientated myself at that time. I spent many years competing in sport internationally - a complex individual sport that posed a lot of problems that demanded novel solutions. I developed a very strong capacity to focus - to reduce the world to a single compulsion - to step into what used to be called The Zone. I have a technique for making this transition from the scatteredness of the Everyday to Being Present in something specific - i use it most days in photography. I don't think it necessarily makes my photography any good, but it does mean the time i invest in doing photography is just one intense, productive flow. Where the improvement comes is in reflecting on the results - in the critique - and then fine-tuning (or massively overturning) the details that are present in the actual practice. Now - i could go on with how all of this works for me in practice, but it's Sunday morning and i've got the house to work on and i want to go shoot late this arvo and a Dissertation on this topic would be an uninvited imposition in a Comments section! You've started me off thinking about a habit that i've had for decades, and now i have to reorient to do some tricky cuts on the framing for the conservatory! Problems, Colton... it's all problems. Cheers, man - thanks for the vid and y'all have a great day. PS: need to organize my zine copy - u want cash or a broken camera?
That all makes sense to me however I would say that just because something exists and you're photographing it, doesn't mean it isn't creative. The exposure you chose, the angle you shoot at, the exact moment you chose to click the shutter, etc, etc, are all creative choices. Even if the goal is to be as direct and objective as possible, Or to take as much of yourself out of it and report as factually as possible. That's still a creative choice in my humble opinion. I think there could 'Maybe' be an argument for the difference between creativity and originality. You could shoot anything creatively, but perhaps for it to be purely original or "new" requires even further effort to either make something never before seen, or to portray something which already exists in a completely new light so as to make it feel new. But, just because something isn't totally original or new doesn't mean it isn't creative or interesting!
I would agree that even breakfast is creative. Just because I'm creative in making breakfast doesn't mean it's gonna taste good. In fact, my girlfriend will tell you that my scrambled eggs are lazy and bland, but that might be something for another time. Creativity doesn't guarantee success, nor does originality, but creativity does persist in nearly all actions. Some just benefit from clearer creativity than others.
I also would say that in your photography, while you may just be reporting the facts at the right moment, is still very interesting. The industrial work you've done is incredibly interesting to me and the way you've chosen to image those photographs (whether by choice or necessity) makes them very good to look at!
Hope your rainforest retreat is everything you want! Or at least everything you've been approved for by Lisa's rubber stamp! Have a great Sunday! Cash is king in this case as I have plenty of broken cameras and a deficit of repair knowledge 🤣
@@ColtonMatocha I take your points... but they raise further questions/issues/caveats for me. So... 'exposure, angle, moment' etc - these are choices i make, but they are tightly constrained choices limited by the environment, technology, light... by lots of things that i have little or no real control over. At some point as i'm orienting myself to a composition, and i've done those mechanical things that the camera and physics permit, i experience a sense of ease with what i see in my viewfinder and i depress the shutter. But that's all i've done - ie stuck it in A or M, waved it around, thought 'that's nice'. I have contributed nothing to the image that will arise, because it was there before me all the time and, if not before me, then the identical image was there for anyone else who happens along. When i think of my creativity, i think of an output derived from a complex process within me - there is something intensely personal about it - and while it may be independently replicated by another person standing next to me, that occurrence is highly unlikely. But here's a banal example... i look up, see the full moon, go 'wow', and take a photo of it with my iPhone. The image looks great. Globally, a million other people did the same thing that night. I'm not going to go thinking i'm being 'creative' under those circumstances, so the question becomes one of when and where do we start shading into the world of creativity? If i use you as an example: your candy shots are creative. You exercise control over nearly all aspects of the process. You are even constructing the subject, which is something i never do. Your carnival shots are also creative. You produce something that cannot be seen in the actual-factual world (excepting by those with a visual impairment!) - you modify reality in a way that changes its effect on our senses - this is a creative act. Now - you say that some of my photography is 'still very interesting'. [Thank you]. So we can agree that something can be interesting despite not being creative... my point here being that i didn't do anything to make those scenes, and many of them i didn't think of at all until the moment i saw them (surprise!). From that moment my process is mechanical - just what i wrote at the beginning. I have no need to go out and try to exercise my creativity in the realm of photography. The simple fact is that, where i live and in the places i visit, my creativity would be redundant because the photos are just lying around waiting for me to pick them up. All i have to concentrate on - and i'm working freakin' hard at this - is getting better at harvesting. Fresh paragraph (lol):
Really appreciate the interaction with you, Colton. You help my thinking and my photography - two of the four things that are most important in my personal world. Hopefully it can continue and, again hopefully, maybe one day you'll get the itch to get outta Dodge and i can offer you some hospitality down-under. Have a great day, hombre. Cheers.
You have an interesting idea, to understand the color of camera sensors, that's why I subscribed to you. This is your contribution to the community! But seriously, my friend, except for the camera color test, no one except you is interested in looking at photos of bears. It's immediately obvious that you are a creative person, but understand that creativity should serve people. I think you need to not just wander along creative paths, but find a goal. If you take pictures of bears, then make an exhibition and not just shoot for the table, people need to be surprised with art, this is about seeing and feeling what you've never felt before. But the goal of art should always be to serve people and the desire to shock them, to turn their views on life upside down!
Thanks for watching and thank you for your thoughts. I actually do have an exhibition for the candy art (including the bears) which opens in January 2025. Some of those candy art images are also already showing in a separate gallery as well. I've also recently printed a Zine of this series, so I'd say the goal for me is quite clear. That said, I don't expect everyone to find that interesting. That's fine with me. I'll continue to make videos about camera tests and equipment, but I don't find that content interesting enough to do that exclusively. My goal has always been to work on things that interest me, and to share that with anyone else who also finds it interesting regardless of the mass appeal or lack there of!
I appreciate your thoughts and hope you have a great weekend!