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October 23, 2012 by ChadZ

10 ways to spark your creativity

We all experience times of great creativity.  Our ideas flow in a seemingly unending outpouring of genius.  Then, the switch goes off.  We can’t buy a great idea and we’re stuck.  How do we find our creative muse?  Here are my top 10 ways to ensure the ideas keep coming.

1.  The morning routine – get up early.  It is well documented that early risers are the most productive and feel the most in control of their lives.  While I am not the most creative in the morning, it gives me time to knock out menial tasks allowing me to focus on what really matters – my personal projects.  I am much more creative when busywork isn’t looming over my head.  
- http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/how-to-become-an-early-riser/
- www.huffingtonpost.com/tracey-marks-md/morning-person_b_864377.htm

2.  Nutrition – We as creatives rely on our minds, and our minds rely on fuel.  Putting garbage in the body correlates directly to a foggy brain.  While the ideal situation would be to live completely on 100% organic natural foods free of pesticides, hormones and preservatives, not all of us have access to this type of nutrition (sadly) or can afford the organic premium price.  Continue reading →

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October 23, 2012 by ChadZ

Find your creativity in the wilderness

I make my living in the urban environment, mostly as an architectural photographer in San Francisco.  I have to admit: sometimes the best part about the urban environment is leaving it.

The city is our center for business, technology and culture.  But it also is a chaotic mess of constant productivity.  It can be most refreshing to escape the rat race and find solitude in nature.  I look for every opportunity possible to find wilderness and be alone with my thoughts.  It brings perspective to my daily routine and helps me refocus my priorities – both for business and for family.

My brain is always operating at 100 MPH in an effort to get the most out of every creative idea or quickly dismiss the bad ones.  I unfortunately can’t help it, there’s a manic sense of creativity that is always brewing in my head.  Continue reading →

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October 19, 2012 by ChadZ

Overcoming failure – Baseball is just like photography #1

Baseball is sometimes nicknamed “The game of failure” because of how insanely difficult it is.  Hitting a baseball is regarded as the single hardest thing to do in all of sport.  A ballplayer is expected to hit a little round ball traveling 90+MPH with a little round bat, squarely.

A .300 batting average is an amazing batting average.  As you may or may not realize, .300 is a percentage and indicates that you hit successfully 30% of the time.  In other words, the very best hitters in the game fail 7 out of 10 times.  

As a photographer, could you imagine telling potential clients that your photo shoots succeed only 3 out of 10 times?  And you say it with a look of confidence and pride?  Ludicrous!

This is why the best ballplayers are so mentally tough.   There are tons of great ballplayers.  The champions are the ones who hit the game winning home run after striking out twice earlier in the game.  It is the mental game that separates champions from the unwashed masses of great ballplayers.

The same is true for photographers.  

Continue reading →

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October 18, 2012 by ChadZ

A great morning in San Francisco

It’s been years since I have gone to San Francisco to make pictures without being hired to do so or having a deadline to contend with. Yesterday morning my good friend Ray Osuna and I went up to the City by the Bay just for the sake of making pictures…no plan, no creative direction, just went to make pictures.

While the Golden Gate Bridge might me the most photographed structure in the Bay Area (in the world?), I haven’t personally made a picture of it since 2008. Fog free and crystal clear, yesterday morning seemed like a great opportunity for a refresh.

The Golden Gate Bridge is seen at sunrise on October 18, 2012 from the Marin Headlands near San Francisco, Calif. [© 2012 Chad Ziemendorf]


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October 16, 2012 by ChadZ

Photography business is a 50/50 split

For most photographers, our attention is split between what we want to shoot and what we have to shoot to make a living.

As visual artists we all love to follow our muse and tell the stories that are aching to be told or create fine art images of the world around us.  I’d be willing to bet that most of us would focus on our art 100% of the time if we could.

But then we remember we have to make a living.  How do we bridge the gap?

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