Travel

The Artist's Way - Week 7

Day 42:

In the reading this week I am reminded of two things:

"Don't compare your behind the scenes to some else's highlight reel" - Someone

"Don't compare your behind the scenes to some else's highlight reel" - Someone

And–


Week 7 Goals:

Morning Pages x7
Artist Date x1
Archeology, An Exercise
Complete as many additional Exercises as possible.


Archeology, An Exercise

Complete these phrases:

  1. As a kid I missed the chance to be a kid

  2. As a kid I lacked friends my own age

  3. As a kid I could have used a mentor or someone that would just listen to me

  4. As a kid I dreamed of being a scientist

  5. As a kid I wanted to be loved and understood

  6. In my house we never had enough time for ourselves

  7. As a kid I needed more positive re-enforcement

  8. I am sorry that I will never again see a world where everything doesn’t exist in your pocket

  9. For years I have missed and wondered about “G”, I wonder how she is doing these days

  10. I beat myself up about the loss of my youthful energy

It is important to acknowledge our positive inventory as well as our shortfalls. Take positive stock of what good you have to build on in the present.
— Julia Cameron - The Artist's Way

Finish these phrases:

  1. I have a loyal friend in Nathan, mostly, or Kristin, she always sets me straight

  2. One thing I like about my town is how close I am to just about everything I want to do

  3. I think I have nice wit

  4. Writing my morning pages have shown me I can change up my day to day and set new habits.

  5. I am taking a greater interest in starting something for myself

  6. I believe I am getting better at managing my stress and feelings

  7. My artist has started to pay more attention to other artists and their struggles and challenges

  8. My self-care is a big bath tub with plenty of room. I wish I had one.

  9. I feel more calm, confident, and full of anxiety all at once.

  10. Possibly, my creativity is wanting more from me and the world around me .


There will probably be a lot of poor excuses on this one. I was traveling all week for work and didn’t get a whole lot of time to myself to complete the tasks assigned.

Tasks:

  • Make this phrase a mantra “Treating myself like a precious object will make me strong” I made the effort to write this at the top of each of my morning pages, and think heavily about how I can treat myself better day to day.

  • Give yourself time to listen to one side of an album, just for joy. This was able to be done, except the album could have probably been more joyful. I found myself wanting to listen to The Downward Spiral a few times this week…and I did.

  • Take yourself to a sacred space and allow yourself to savor the silence and healing solitude. Silence is pretty hard to find in New York City. I’ll take some time next week and see what quiet places I can find.

  • Wear your favorite item of clothing for no special occasion. This also will probably be a next week task.

  • Buy yourself one wonderful pair of socks, one wonderful pair of gloves– One wonderfully comforting self-loving something. I’ve spent a lot of money on my Artist-child over the last few weeks. I think I need to slow down lest I become way more in debt than I want to.


Check In:

How many days this week did you do your morning pages? Have you allowed yourself to daydream a few creative risks? Are you coddling your artist child with childhood loves? I skipped a few days this week, 2 for sure and I did a half day one day. I was in a van a lot for work, and also on a very tight timeline most of the mornings.

I want to have more time to daydream, and I’d love to coddle my artist child more. But I’m not sure how.

Did you do your artist date this week? Did you use it to take any risks? What did you do? How did it feel? I also skipped my artist date. Which of course really sucks because I was in one of the most fantastic of cities in which to do just that.

Did you experience any synchronicity this week? What was it? None that I noticed.

Were there any other issues this week that you consider significant to your recovery? Describe them. I almost feel like I backtracked a little this week. I dove into my day job hard, and really didn’t carve out any time for me.

I feel really anxious as I am finalizing this entry, I wanted so much more out of it. I will do better in the upcoming week to try and “catch up”.

Graffiti + Bike √ The Netherlands = Photos

At the time of me writing this blog post, I am severely jet-lagged. My body doesn't know what time it is right now. I'm not sure any part of me knows what time it is right now. But anyway–

I had a chance to spend a week in The Netherlands for work, and of course, I can't just go somewhere new and not take photos. Of course as you probably already know I consider myself a portrait photographer above all, so going to a new place where I knew absolutely nobody provided me with a bit of a challenge. 

These first photos are from a small town called Kampen, where I spent most of my week abroad.

After Kampen, I had about a 36-hour layover in Amsterdam before heading home. My goal was to avoid any of the traditional tourist photos, and instead take a trip down the roads less traveled. 
Jokingly I went on a "Self-guided-walking-graffiti-tour". My biggest goal was to avoid taking photos of things everyone else was. 

Arizona Workshop – Day 1

Hello everyone, so this next week I hope to post an update each day for an event that I was given the opportunity to attend. I'm hoping over the next 5 days to get some great shots. Thanks in advance for coming along for the ride! 

So some of you may already know that when I am not playing photographer on the internet that I am also both a camera salesman, and a diehard Sony lover. I was offered a chance to leave Atlanta for a week and take a workshop with some pretty huge names in the Sony community. I'm going to be a little tight-lipped about the specifics but let's just say this is a pretty big deal.

If you have been following my goals for 2016 you may remember that one of them is "learn more" and when I was told I was selected to travel to Arizona and have the chance to re-learn some old techniques, as well as discover new ones, I was floored! 

This morning started off around 4:00 am when I arrived early (very early) to the airport. I needed to drop off a rental car (long story) and wanted to make sure I got through security ok. 

Having some time to kill, I chose just to relax and try my best not to fall asleep. 

I did, however, end up catching a pretty killer sunrise at the airport. 

Two flights later I landed in Arizona and made my way to the resort where the workshop will be held. After checking in I met up with an old friend of mine, Justin Briggs, of JBriggs Photography. Side note, be sure to check out his work. Great guy, and an amazing photographer. Justin drove 2 hours from Phoenix to meet me at the resort, buy a camera from me, and ultimately play driver and just kill a few hours until the welcome meeting. He also let me snap a few shots with his medium format setup, which I am entirely too jealous of (I'm sure he can say the same thing about what I am doing for the next few days). 

At the meeting, I was introduced to some of the other attendees, as well as a few of my "coaches" for the next few days. Said coaches have a combined 90+ years of experience in Photography, and I fully intend on picking their brains as much as possible. I didn't do much shooting as I was pretty tired after a long day of travel, but I'll share some of the images I happened to snap while walking around. Today was long, and the next few days will be even longer. But I am confident that I will be able to learn a few new tricks, hopefully anyway. 

But for now, I have a case of the sleepies. It's time to call it a night. See you all tomorrow. 

-Blake



Back in Atlanta:

For those of you who didn't know, I've been out of town the last few days shooting a wedding for some very close friends of mine. 

Having never been to New Orleans before I was excited to see a new place, as well as document the joining of two very great people.  

I'm still working on most of the photos from the wedding itself, however enjoy some instagrams from my travels. 

A goofy looking Ice Machine. I still kinda regret not finding him another googly eye. 

One of many interesting shops that I saw and visited. 

Not just shops, but the street art and tags also drew me in. Not pictured is "Achoo" "Meow" and "Goon".  

And somehow I packed it all into just these two bags. 

I hope to have some new updates coming soon, and add a few images to my weddings album. Feel free to comment, as well as contact me for openings for your big day! 

© 2006 – 2023 UNEXPhotography and Blake Griffin.

Privacy Policy