practise, practi[c]e, practi[c]e

glory. from a practice session with my niece

as artist we struggle with the notion of: "is my work good enough"; we go through a lot of self doubt: scrapping and retrying. akin to the proverbial writer in the movies, who types a script on his/her typewriter and then in an instant, brutally snatches the paper from the typewriter, crumples it, and tosses it into the garbage.

it makes the developmental process of art even more difficult if one is in the business of art because most times business take preference over art. so whats the key? practice! that age old concept that betters our skills, so when we are on location we are not practicing but rather preforming. i have an alarm on my tele that reminds me daily to "practice your craft."  most times when it alarms, i am in the process of doing so already. this could be a five minute process of looking for a new location and searching for contrast, color, shadows, lines, posing, light etc. or a six hour process depending on what i am doing. i believe in practicing with the camera, or simply with my mind's eye, as well as practicing my post processing techniques.

second, it is my philosophy that "art is a dialectical process," it is also what keeps me going. and by that i mean: i have learned the rules, i follow them, i break them, i am influenced/inspired by those before me, i add my own, i develop, i produce, i change, i grow, i refine, i add, i subtract, i worry, i scrap, i go back, i work hard, i do, i never give up!  and finally, i always keep in mind "all will be right in the end, and if its not right, it's not the end."

keep kewl!