Tacklebox – On a New Year

Well, 2011 was fun, wasn’t it? Actually, truth be told, 2011 wasn’t nowhere near as bad as I thought it could be. Got a couple of books out.. looks like i’ve put roots down in Florida. Things seem to be looking up!

Rustling Up Writing
You know, I had spent a good portion of the year not writing as much as I could on the blog. Yes, I know this is going to sound a little bit like a resolution.. but it was one of those things that towards the latter part of the year, I got the itch to write more and more on. In a weird way, I kinda thought that I had two problems going on here. First, I thought the friends that I have would see the blog turn into a giant vat of tutorials that they couldnt really benefit from (I actually have friends outside of my Photoshop/Photography space). I felt like I would just alienate them if I did that. Then, on the Photoshop and Photography part, I felt like very few people would have any interest in much of what I would have to say that didnt deal with what Filters I used, what Photoshop technique was hot, or what was my favorite FStop.

Throughout the year however, I feel like the writer part of me has been kind of peeking out. Ive gone back to old journals that I had and reread them. I’ve revisited stories in my head and found new meanings in them. This is stuff I loved to do when I was steeped in English as a major, a degree, and a career. As all of that passed and was covered with my “tech” life, I feel this sense of atrophy in that part of my life.

Waking Up
Two things happened that started changing that. It would appear that more and more people now are asking me about my opinions on a specific topic more than my settings for a given problem. As i’m masked more about what my feelings are on something, i’ve found myself wanting to share thoughts that are in my head. Turns out – people actually want to listen to them. I’ve even started to use Google Plus – and found a welcome community to speak with all sorts of things creative. I find myself sharing all sorts of thoughts, and taking in the ideas and fancies of so many people. I speak. I listen. I practice music. I’m even painting.. which I never thought i’d do. For this, I am forever grateful.

The second has been watching and reading my friend Joe McNally over the past year. Aside from a photographic inspiration and a dear friend – i’ve found an incredible amount of solace in watching the words he writes envelop the images he makes – at some point confusing me as to which I find more inspiring. As i’ve read more, i’ve felt more restless. The more restless I feel, the more careless I become about who or what reads this blog. The more careless I become, the more I find all of these little trinkets of thoughts in my head, waiting to be dusted off and put to some form of use. Joe not too long ago wrote about how he thought a recent short that I did called “Proof” was a gift to him. I’ve spent the better part of my time free checking out his new book Sketching Light just feeling this incredible desire to make an image, and to say something. Truthfully- it was just one way that I could say thank you for helping me realize how much I miss writing my thoughts down.

So, I guess that’s where i’m at now. I know that I want to be more frequent in sharing my thoughts.. and I know that sharing my pictures here is a good thing to do. I don’t want tp promise a 365 here.. but I can tell ya i’m definitely loving doing this more than I have as of late.

For those of you who come by and read it.. I too am extremely grateful.