50 Ways to Find Inspiration: Create, Explore, Expand

                     

photo by : Katarina Benzova

“If we look at the world with a love of life, the world will reveal its beauty to us.” ~Daisaku Ikeda

I have always loved that scene in American Beauty when Ricky Fitts shows his video of a plastic bag blowing in the wind.

He’s the complete opposite of his neighbor Lester Burnham, who seems to have decided long ago to live life in a comatose state of submission, completely disconnected from authentic joy.

Ricky seems inspired by everything that most people simply overlook. He explains of his bag video:

“It was one of those days when it’s a minute away from snowing and there’s this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes.

“And that’s the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and… this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video’s a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember—and I need to remember. Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.”

Though it can look different for all of us, I suspect this is the feeling we wait for in life: a sense that there’s boundless beauty out there, and we have the capacity to feel, channel, explore, and express it.

We all want to feel moved, and then to use that to create love, joy, passion, and purpose.

If you’ve been feeling stuck or uninspired, these ideas may help you find inspiration:

Find Inspiration in Nature

1. Go for a walk in nature, practice mindfulness, and lose track of time for a while.

2. Meditate or practice yoga in a nearby park.

3. Watch children playing at the park then make a point to carry their spirit with you throughout the day.

4. Watch your cat or dog in nature and try to emulate your pet’s mindfulness and playfulness.

5. Take a camera outside and photograph everything that looks beautiful to you.

6. Practice deep breathing while listening to nature sounds.

7. Draw or paint a scene outside your window.

8. Watch Planet Earth DVDs to experience beauty of the oceans, forests, jungles, Great Plains, and caves.

9. Get lost in nature photos online.

10. Spend some time contemplating nature-based art.

               photo by; Katarina Benzova

Find Inspiration on the Web

11. Watch a TED video to learn about inspiring ideas.

12. Search for tweets with the hashtag #inspiration using the Twitter search functionality.

13. Post an inspiring video, like Validation or The Tutu Project. Then be an active part of the conversation in the comments.

14. Read blogs written by people who have overcome adversity.

15. Join a forum of people who can relate to your challenges.

16. Browse through inspirational quotes on Tiny Buddha.

17. Share yourself vulnerably and authentically in a blog post—give inspiration to receive it.

18. Learn about ways to change the world through social media.

19. Watch 40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes.

20. Search Facebook for new inspirational pages to follow.

Find Inspiration in Possibilities

21. Try something you’ve always assumed you can’t do but secretly wanted to try.

22. Teach someone to do something and tap into your potential as a leader.

23. Immerse yourself in learning something new and allow yourself to forget about the limitations of time.

24. Write a bucket list of all the things you’d like to do in your lifetime.

25. Create a vision board with pictures of all of those things.

26. Brainstorm for ideas for a new project.

27. Think about the challenges you face and identify possibly solutions.

28. Submit your resume for a dream job instead of assuming you can’t get it.

29. Attend a conference or retreat to connect with likeminded people. (The Wisdom 2.0 Conference recently inspired me!)

30. Read 50 Ways to Open Your World to New Possibilities and pick one to try today.

                  photo by: Katarina Benzova

Find Inspiration in People

31. Ask someone you love what they consider to be the most important thing they’ve ever learned.

32. Ask everyone you see today what they’re grateful for.

33. Ask someone to tell you about the thing they love the most in life, and watch how they light up sharing their passion.

34. Ask your parents to tell you what you were like as a child, and remember what mattered to you then.

35. Notice what matters to someone and focus solely on how they experience it.

36. Join an organization of people making a positive difference in the world.

37. Read an autobiography by someone who has marched to the beat of their own drummer.

38. Listen to music that moves you and think about what the songwriter felt when s/he wrote it.

39. Make a list of all the ways your friends and family members are your heroes. Odds are, there’s a lot of inspiration around you already.

40. Spend time with children and see the world through their eyes.

Find Inspiration in Yourself

41. Disconnect for a while and write in a journal.

42. Make today the day you embrace a new healthy habit that can change your life for the better.

43. Give yourself a pressure-free day with nothing to do except the things you enjoy.

44. Try something new and revel in the sensation of stretching beyond your comfort zone.

45. Express yourself creatively in a way you never have before, by sculpting, for example, and see what comes in your mind and heart.

46. Enjoy something you created in the past—a blog post, a video, a drawing, or a project.

47. Sing in the shower. Put your heart into and release your feelings through music.

48. Recognize in yourself the strengths you see in other people.

49. Make a conscious decision to let go of something that doesn’t serve you.

50. Reflect on everything you’ve learned and accomplished and how you’ve made a positive difference in the world.

What inspired you today?

photo by Katarina Benzova

Article by Lori Deschene/ tinybuddha.com

21 photography facts you probably never knew

We’ve put together 21 fascinating, puzzling, and bizarre facts about photography that you probably never knew. If the next pub quiz you attend asks you what was the most expensive camera ever sold, how big the largest ever photograph was, or how many Hasselblads there are on the moon, you’ll be glad you read this post. (And if you win, you owe us a drink.)

Biology and Photography

1.The f-number of the human eye varies from about f/8.3 in brightly lit conditions, to about f/2.1 in dark conditions.
Source: Wikipedia

2.To work out the focal length of the human eye, you would need to take into account the light-reflecting properties on liquids in the eye.
Source: Wikipedia

3.F-numbers are actually written as they are due to human biology, or more specifically, due to the logarithmic nature of human perception. I can sense your eyebrows raising in confusion. The story behind f-numbers actually begins in ancient Greece and has its roots in the brightness of stars. Even more confused? You might want to read this post…
Source: PetaPixel

Human behaviour and photography

4.Today we snap as many photos every two minutes as humanity as a whole did in the 1800s.
Via: Fstoppers

5.In a survey undertaken last year, 76 per cent of people from Britain were seen to be drunk in photos in which they were tagged. (Perhaps many of those people were celebrating winning a pub quiz on photography.)
Via: Telegraph

6.Which is your best side? Your left? A study by Kelsey Blackburn and James Schriillo from Wake Forest University found that the left side of peoples’ faces are perceived and rates as more aesthetically pleasing than the right. They theorise that this is due to the fact that we perhaps present a greater intensity of emotion on the left side of our faces. Perhaps this is something you should consider when you take your portrait photographs!
Source: Science Daily

Photography Record Breakers

7.The biggest SLR lens made to date is the Carl Zeiss Apo Sonnar T*. It weighs 564lb/256kg and has a focal length of 1700mm. It is designed specifically for use with a Hasselblad 6×6 medium format camera, and was custom-build for an anonymous customer who had a particular interest in wildlife photography.
Source: Zeiss

8.The most expensive camera ever sold was a rare 1923 Leica camera, which went for $2.8 million at auction in Vienna.
Source: Reuters

9.The largest photographs in the world are made by stitching smaller images together. The largestseamless photograph in the world is of a control tower and runways at the US Marin Corps Air Station in El Toro, Orange County, California. It measure 32 feet high and 11 feet wide. It was taken in a decommissioned jet hanger, which was turned into a giant pinhole camera. The ‘film’ was a 32 feet x 111 feet piece of white fabric covered in 20 gallons of light-sensitive emulsion. The fabric was exposed to the outside image for 35 minutes. Print washing the image was done with hire hoses connected to two fire hydrants.
Source: Wikipedia

10.The longest photographic negative in the world is 129 feet and was created by Esteban Pastorino Diaz. The negative is of a panorama of major streets in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The images were captured by the slit camera, which was mounted to the roof of a moving car.
Source: Guinness World Records

11.The largest collection of cameras in the world is held by Dilish Parekh of Mumbai, India. He has a collection of 4,425 antique cameras which he has been collecting since 1977.
Source: Guinness World Records

Interesting snippets from history

12.George Eastman, founder of Kodak, had a particular fondness for the letter ‘K’. He reportedly said, “It seems a strong, incisive sort of letter.” He came up with the name ‘Kodak’ for his company along with help from his mother.
Source: Wikipedia

13.Back in 1990, Kodak used cuddly collectible toys to promote their brand in the effort to get kids into photography. They toys were called Kolorkins.
Via: Photojojo

14.Before the digital age, the US government was taking spy photographs of the Soviet Union. How did they do this? They launched 20 satellites, each containing 60 miles of film along with cameras. After the film was finished, it was shot back through the Earth’s atmosphere in buckets and parachuted over the Pacific Ocean, where they were then snagged with grappling hooks by C-130 Air Force planes.
Source: The Atlantic

15.Cameras and guns share a common history – in the early days of cameras being manufactured, some dry plate cameras were explicitly modelled on Colt revolver mechanisms, and the design of cinema cameras was modelled on machine guns. Closer still, when William Walker and George Eastman of Kodak developed a new paper negative, it used guncotton. This was expanded upon by a French inventor who created a gelatinised guncotton that could be cut into trips, which in turn permitted the first modern smokeless fun powder. Later on, amyl acetate was added to this, as well as nitroglycerine and acetone. So essentially, at the time, cameras and guns both contained the same sort of chemicals in their cartridges.
Source: David Campbell

16.There are 12 Hasselblad cameras on the surface of the moon. They were left there after the moon landings to allow for the extra weight of the lunar rock samples to be brought back.
Source: Wikipedia

17.Amusing photographs of cats with captions (see icanhascheezeburger.com) quickly became (and remained) viral on the internet. Apparently this is nothing new. One of the first photographers of cats in amusing poses was English photographer Harry Pointer during the 1870s. He began his career taking natural pictures of cats, but soon realised that his photography had more success when the cats were in ridiculous poses. He even added captions to the images, such as ‘Happy New Year’, ‘Five o clock Tea’ and ‘Bring up the dinner Betsy’ as he found this made the images more successful still.
Source: photohistory-sussex.co.uk

Interesting things to photograph

18.Manhattanhenge (also known as Manhattan Solstice) is a phenomenon whereby the setting sun aligns with Manhattan’s east-west streets. It gives a dramatic effect which has been compared to the same phenomenon at England’s ancient Stonehenge (hence the name). It is a favourite event for people to photograph in New York when it occurs.

19.During the solar eclipse, tree leaves have been seen to act as pinhole lenses, casting crescent-shaped images of the eclipsed sun on the ground.
Via: petapixel.com

Technical stuff

20.If you’re photographing in space you might have some difficulty getting sharp images due to vibrations induced by fans, jet firings, and other machinery.
Source: luminous-landscape.com

21.You can test your camera’s shutter speed using a TV or monitor. Apparently it works for both focal plane and leaf type shutters. This diagram shows you what you should be looking for.
Source: Rick Oelson

source:Digitalcameraworld.com

Kodak: The fading of the Old Yeller

Kodak is likely to become a different company from the one we know. Image © Jonathan Eastland.

Kodak once had a watertight business but, says Jonathan Eastland, complacency and a failure to look to the future have brought it to its knees.

Never mind what the loss of “Old Yeller” may mean to the wider public; for photographers weaned on its iconic yellow box film and printing paper, Kodak’s financial problem feels like the dying of a dear friend. In this camp, there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth. In the late 1990s, Eastman Kodak’s share price was up in the mid $90s. Just before it filed for bankruptcy protection in January, the price crumbled to a few cents. How did it all go so wrong?

For more than a century, Kodak enabled generations of the largest economy in the world to document a lifetime of memorable moments. While other companies fell over themselves in the fight for a share of the market, Kodak innovated, regularly bringing new products to the consumer while serving professional photographers, the graphic arts and movie industry with high-quality materials. They had it made, they thought. Thus, instead of going hell-for-leather to develop and market Steve Sasson’s 1975 digital camera innovation, Kodak sat on it. The film cash cow reigned supreme.

That was the problem. Far Eastern companies, having effectively destroyed camera manufacturing in Europe in post-war decades with cheap exports, built colossal marketing operations in the US. Like the proverbial ostrich, it seems, Kodak poked its head out of the Rochester Alamo every once in a while, saw nothing, then stuck it back in.

Enter digital

By the early 1970s, the writing was already writ large on the wall. Itek Corporation’s Earth Resources Technology Satellite mapping cameras used high-resolution electronic systems. The Philips laser video disc of 1974 and laser printers a year later were a sign of more to come. Sony’s Mavica of 1981, the 1986 Nikon/Panasonic SVS and Fuji/Toshiba’s R&D on memory cards were a clear sign of Japanese intent; by 1990, every major Japanese electronics firm had a video stills camera on sale.

Kodak did eventually see the light, producing its first Nikon F3-based digital camera in 1991 with successive models appealing to the news gathering fraternity. Picture Disk allowed photofinishers to scan film images to a floppy disk enabling consumers to view them on a TV or computer – the forerunner of Kodak’s Compact Disk storage system.

Rochester piled huge amounts of money into developing these and other products while setting out on a shopping spree to buy innovative digital companies. All this was at the expense of maintaining, securing and improving its share in what was patently becoming a contracting market for film, while failing to develop an enthusiast version of the F3 digital back.

Kodak’s dilemma went from bad to worse. While loyal American citizens bought into Rochester’s dour-looking bridge and compact digital cameras, the rest of the world moved on. Panasonic and Sony created svelte and feature-loaded bijou products linked to slick advertising. These were the new icons in the burgeoning world of digital imaging.

Fujifilm, while successfully chasing the digital rainbow, also saw the smart move. Bowing to pressure, it relaunched one of its most admired emulsions, Velvia. Kodak, instead of improving its Kodachrome service, shut down the film’s production. Did that benefit profit or was the company-quoted “less than one percent revenue” the film generated still worth having? Now it tells us film sales contribute a healthy 10 percent chunk to the revenue account. That being the case, Kodachrome might still have been pulling in a few hundred thousand dollars today.

When Kodak launched Ektar 100 in 2009, I stocked up on it. I thought its colour palette was unmatched by anything in the digital world. Now I’m in a conundrum; buy more or throw in the towel and spend the money on a Nikon D4?

The future in print?

Focusing its attention on the inkjet printer market and restructuring the company, Kodak says the balance sheet should come right. But the consumer market is flooded with inkjet printers and for photographers, Canon, Epson and HP, probably have it already sewn up. The home printer and consumables market is cut-throat and has generated a fair amount of disillusionment among photo enthusiasts; the high cost of ink, dried up print heads, unsatisfactory print quality and flimsy machines, are regular discussion topics.

Because of this, and if my local supermarket is anything to go by, the demand for in-store printing is on the up. Queues wait anxiously to stab at screens before doing the weekly shop. The installed HP dry print system is quick and inexpensive, although the colour reproduction isn’t a patch on Kodak’s vibrant hues. Consumers care little for such esoterics, however, which probably means retail outlets wanting to install such services may not be looking at Kodak’s Nexpress print systems.

Short run book production is a growth area in the publishing industry and it is on this that Rochester is pinning many of its hopes for a successful turnaround. Kodak Prosper 1000 and Versamark presses use advanced ink formulation with Kodak Stream Inkjet Technology. Product quality is excellent and several print houses, including Clays in the UK, have installed this new hardware along with Kodak digital to plate systems for web offset printing. And in the US, Kodak has signed up around 100 contracts for the same product.

It looks dandy on paper. A Kodak Prosper installation costs more than £1.4m, but while short run print products are doing well in some countries, the ebook business is jacking up huge sales and climbing a near vertical trajectory. Printing is not a dead end, but one can see limited possibilities for high‑volume expansion.

Kodak may get through this financial restructuring phase, but more than likely, it will emerge a different company from the one we know. It recently sold Kodak ISS (Image Sensor Solutions) for a miserly $200m, but one of its problems will be filling a massive $1.5 billion hole in its US and UK pension funds. It hopes this will be plugged by selling some of its patents, but so far, it has struggled to offload them. There is an inherent problem in trying to flog intellectual property that no-one wants because similar or better stuff exists elsewhere, while simultaneously trying to fight expensive court cases to protect other rights. The image of a dead horse comes rapidly to mind.

Closed box

Old Yeller needs to understand it does some things better than anyone else in what is now a niche market. That must surely be exploited via clever marketing linked to great service; a service that offers everything beyond what is already prolifically available and which is reasonably priced, reliable and efficient. I want to feel, having spent the money, my reward is my value received.

In this rapidly changing world, manufacturers must think outside the box to stay in business. Kodak’s answer seems to have been climb inside and shut the lid. Despite closing more than 100 labs and a dozen factories, and shedding hundreds of thousands of employees in the past decade, many of its 2011 financial expectations were not met by year’s end. That’s why it had to borrow and file for bankruptcy protection.

Restructuring is no guarantee of success and even Kodak seems unsure “Whether we can generate or raise cash... from the sale of non-core assets... digital imaging patent portfolios.... enforcing our intellectual property rights”, in order to fund investments, capital needs, restructuring payments and service its debt. Sadly, these are just a few of the many known caveats of Kodak unknowns.

Author: Jonathan Eastland for British Journal of Photography

Read more: http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/opinion/2154237/kodak-fading-the-old-yeller#ixzz2lCBBW9k7
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Mötley Crüe pictures from show in Sydney

I wanted to share some pics I did of Mötley Crüe during their show in Sydney with Thin Lizzy and KISS. Enjoy:)

Aerosmith and The Dead Daisies New Zealand and Aussie tour 2013

I'm back in Aussieeee and first time for me in New Zealand:) This time with The Dead Daisies as a support for Aerosmith:)

Super excited about this run. 

We have 4 shows :  24/04/13    Dunedin, NZ

                   28/04/13    Melbourne,AU

                   01/05/13    Brisbane, AU

                   04/05/13    Melbourne, AU

Whohooo..Let's rock it:)))

Soon will be posting pics of KISS, Motley Crue, ZZ Top from last tour so keep on checking up my blog even that it takes me a while to write it:)