The right side of my brain
The beginning of August, 2017, I was conducting my latest Maine Media Workshop (also known as my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshop”) for the twenty-ninth time. I always go up a day early to look around for possible ideas to add to the way I’ve already structured the week long class.
Among other discussions I always work on getting people to see with the right side of their brain, the creative side, instead of the left side, the analytical side; this is also a big part of my online class with the BPSOP.
I was driving from Rockport where the workshop campus is located down to Rockland where the Lobster Festival was slated to start a few days later. As I passed one of many motels along scenic Route 1, I noticed several striped umbrellas grouped together that offered shade to the residents wanting to sit around and enjoy the fabulous weather.
I kept driving but after a few miles I had an epiphany, and when I have one of those while driving around with a camera next to me I immediately make a U-turn; people driving with me are usually not as excited as I am!!
the left side of my brain.
As I passed these umbrellas I first saw them with the left side of my brain, the side that only saw a group of umbrellas. It didn’t take me long to switch off the left side of my brain and imagine those umbrellas with the right side. The side that saw something entirely different.
In my mind I envisioned several of the basic elements of visual design: color, shape, line, and pattern. I saw them no longer as umbrellas, but an arrangement of elements in a way that became an abstraction of a group of ordinary objects.
I knew that what I was originally looking at was not what I was going to get, which was why I made the decision to go back and take a closer look.
To my fellow photographers my point here is to look at the world around you not with the left side of your brain, the analytical side, but with the right side, the creative side. When you can start doing that, a whole new world will open up and you be able to see things not as they are, but what they could be.
Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and check out my 2018 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. I’ve a couple of openings in my Springtime in Berlin workshop next May 23rd. A fantastic city with so many great locations we’re going to be shooting.
This coming July 29th will be my 30th anniversary teaching at the Maine Media Workshop. I’ve always picked this time as it’s the week of the Lobster Festival down the road in Rockland. This ofers a unique set of photo ops, different from the Maine Coast, fishing villages and lighthouses. The Lobster Festival is all about color, design, light, energy, people watchng and environmental portraits everywhere you look; some people are there in costumes and loved to be photographed.
In conjunction with The Santa Fe Workshops, October 2nd I’ll be leading a group in San Miguel de Allende. A beautiful oasis and artist colony, and the entire city is a UNESCO site.
Come join me for a week of fun and photography…what could be better
JoeB
