I can't get started with you

There are times when stepping out of a comfort zone is a necessity. As a writer I love words, but trying to work with images and taking photographs can become frustrating. But rather than ignore what I consider a weakness, I have embraced it and work it into my daily routine, improving bit by bit as I go along.

Spending time with photographers like Greg Grimsley, Ray Harkness, and Brian Fee, watching and listening to the manner in which they photograph I have gleamed some valuable insights. Once home, however, the task is up to me as to what I do and create with the pictures I have captured.

My inability to edit photographs from their raw form has never stopped me form trying. In The Imagineering Workout, Chuck Ballew, a Senior Concept Designers, states, “Make a lot of mistakes. Do a ton of worthless testing. Use up paper and pencils, paint and brushes, water and glue – whatever you need.” This is a concept I have taken and run with, creating exercises for myself.One example is this photograph of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, otherwise known as The Hollywood Tower Hotel. I wanted to give the structure an image that suited the era in which it was created, the 1930s. But rather than simply assign a sepia tone through basic photo imaging, I took time to work with the contrasts, tones, brightness, saturation, and a variety of other variables. It took more time, and perhaps did not come out as perfect as I would have wished, but it gave experience with skills and details I didn’t even know about a year ago, it cracked me out of the mold of simply using words to express my creativity, and sparked the creative juices. The result of my exercise is below.While you may or may not need help in creating a picture perfect picture, chances are there is something that you are not an expert at and feel you never will be. While you may never be a master of writing, photography, public speaking, roller skating, ping pong, painting, gardening, or rock, paper, scissors you should never let that stop you. Start a project, make mistakes, learn from them, and keep trying. You just might surprise yourself!