I am an Incrementalist. And also do a lot of Insecurity Work.

I really enjoyed reading Scott Belsky’s Making Ideas Happen. I love the conversational, modern tone, and the way the book loosely organized ideas into chapters by category. The book inspired me on several levels.

Making Ideas Happen helps you think through systems and some practical steps to getting things done as a creative. Often creative people get stuck on one thing or another.

Scott Belsky divides people into three different categories:
dreamers
doers
incrementalists

Here’s a bit of an explanation about that:

“When I was putting together the book I’d put everyone I’d meet into 3 categories: the Doer who doesn’t really think of anything new but argues to stay on track with what’s current and get it done. Then you have the Dreamer who’s always on that idea-to-idea-to-idea syndrome we talked about earlier, they’re the visionaries. Then you have these others known as the Incrementalists who go from Doer to Dreamer and back again. You’d think that’s the ideal – to be able to think of something and then do it and think of something else and do it again. But that’s the problem. They have too much going on. They do such a wide variety of things they end up looking back and wishing they’d focused on just one thing or worked with a Doer who’d kept me grounded I’d have 300 stores instead of just one. So the point of that is that there is not one best thing to be. You need to work with others.” -Scott Belsky in an interview [source]

Here’s a blog post that quotes more about the three types directly from the book [source]

Another point from Making Ideas Happen that hit home is that of INSECURITY WORK.

“I have come to define “Insecurity Work” as stuff that we do that (1) has no intended outcome, (2) does not move the ball forward in any way, and (3) is quick enough that you can do it multiple times a day without realizing – but, nonetheless, puts us at ease.” -Scott Belsky

He talks about insecurity work as checking website stats, constantly monitoring our email inboxes, updating facebook, and the like. For me, insecurity work manifests as I attempt to keep tabs on everything my twitter contacts have to say. I have a great list of twitter people who share great information and lead extraordinary lives, but all this monitoring and following is ultimately unnecessary, and actually wastes quite a bit of time and energy. Daily, through my twitter stream, I follow more rabbit trails than are necessary for my life. It keeps things exciting, but it also keeps me glued to my computer. I’m supposed to be on sabbatical!

You can read a bit more about insecurity work in the first bit of the interview source quoted above, but here’s a post on Scott’s company site that talks a bit more in depth about what is this thing he calls Insecurity Work.

Reduce Your Level of Insecurity Work

brain pickings

1) 100 everyday ways to be adventurous.
on livethecharmedlife.com
(I knew I’d love any list that started with: “Drive a different way home from work today.”)

2) Love and Expat Marriage: Finding Identity as a Trailing Spouse
Mary Richardson on matadorabroad.com

I thought this was a particularly well-written article. There are several books written on the topic, but you have to first know they exist! When we thought we’d be moving abroad I bought a copy of A Broad Abroad and A Moveable Marriage, along with a few other resources (click “moving and living abroad” here) I thought would aid the transition. The article above sums up the issues that trailing spouses face daily.

And this sentence sums up MY LIFE for the past six months: “Before moving, I fantasized about how I would spend my free time. However, I soon discovered that ‘transition’ time when you’re unemployed is not exactly a vacation. Rather than liberating, it’s stressful and lonely.” (wah wah, I know)

3) Five Ways to Market Yourself During a Recession
on the99percent.com

There are a lot of bulleted lists out there, especially if you fall prey to links on twitter. Fellow entrepreneurs will appreciate this list for its content and levelheadedness. It’s not just the same old common sense tips and tricks but some practical suggestions to kickstart your back end. And my back end needs a good kick start!

4) The Secret Formula for Irresistible Presence
via escaping-mediocrity.com

Amazing + Generous = Irresistible

5) The Elegance of Slow
via livethecharmedlife.com
“Slow is so much more elegant than fast.”

6) Vintage Tour de France Photos
fun! via flickr

7) You wanna be canadian…
via youtube.com

a new visual inspiration: the illustrations of Rachel Allsop

This year I’ve been enamored with watercolors. I love the blending of colors and the way one basic color can take on many shades within the same figure.

I’ve been holding onto a card my grandmother sent me for my birthday with a floaty little hot air balloon. Luckily, Papyrus included the artist credit on the back and I was able to track down UK illustrator Rachel Allsop‘s work online. What a lovely collection of illustrations! I love her birds, and botanicals.

Thanks for the dose of inspiration, Rachel! RACHELALLSOP.COM

my muse

This is my little muse. I love the expression on her face here. I do not love the flare. It’s more unwieldy in post-processing with analog film. (With digital images it’s really easy to edit around and get a cool looking effect.)

heirloom

I’ve been thinking about the next place we are going to live. I’d love to have a garden space to grow some vegetables!

The idea is inspired by a visit to our cousins in Austin, who are figuring out the finer points of composting and box gardening in their new house. I am also inspired by my father in law’s rose garden, which has been putting out for the past three months. I harvest 10-25 blooming roses 3 or 4 times every week.

One thing I learned to love right before we left Massachusetts is heirloom tomatoes in different delicious colors. It was a guilty pleasure of mine to stop by Wilsons Farm in Lexington on the way home from photo shoots and load up on colorful produce. There’s something about the flavors you get out of heirloom varieties that puts those tomatoes on an entirely different level than the perfectly homogeneous genetically mutated cousins in the grocery stores. The big ugly shapes, crazy color patterns, and split seams mean that heirlooms actually taste much better than they look. Which is the complete opposite of the stuff you get at Stop and Shop.

My mind wanders to an interview I heard on NPR awhile back by Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell, who are creating a self-sustaining goat farm. They made a show about it called “The Fabulous Beekman Boys”. Ok, it is a little ridiculous to watch a reality show about a former drag queen trying to balance life commuting between a cubicle in NYC and a rural farm location, learning to raise animals and harvest crops while maintaining a partnership. It’s the type of thing that tv producers love to juice for the drama… Charming? Or stupid? I’ve only seen the first episode so I really can’t say.

Despite the frivolity of the form, this whole farm project is an interesting concept that probably appeals to many dissatisfied urbanites. The part of the NPR segment that caught my fascination was when Brent and Josh talked about partnering with a local company to distribute the seeds from heirloom vegetables. Antiques! I love the idea of growing a garden full of almost-extinct produce! The genetic engineering that has made our food bigger but less tasteful really bothers me.

Here’s the 1802 website, which started as a blog and is now a shop that sells antique varieties of seed and the soap made from goat milk. LINK

I’m guessing it’s not the most economical choice to buy the seed packets at retail cost of $8-20, so I don’t plan on buying from Beekman1802, but it’s at least a point of comparison in the research stage. I found that googling “heirloom tomato seeds” brings LOTS of results, including this helpful info packet (PDF download link) about how to best care for the crop for huge tomatoes vs. huge yields. Also, here is more information about getting started growing heirlooms. [ed. note: while I was writing this blog post, the seed packets from 1900-1950 sold out, so I've appended the contents of the 1850-1900 packets below for my future reference and research.]

I’m also interested in the other heirloom / antique vegetables and would love to learn more about acquiring seeds to grow them. BTW, did you know that carrots used to be purple? (reference)

beach day

For Fathers’ Day this year we took Ali’s dad to the beach and cooked potatoes wrapped in foil on a firepit, old country style. It was a really relaxing, enjoyable day. It’s rare that we get to talk with him for more than a few minutes without being talked over by aunties galore

free to do anything.

“Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything.”
― Floyd Dell

DONYA

Don’t you just love the energy of kids being silly? Our cousin Donya is a free spirit, which makes her incredibly fun to photograph. These images are from mid-February. They are on 120 film, from a plastic Holga camera.

I’m actually kind of surprised the images worked out since I was photographing inside with iso100 film and no control over aperture!

CUTE!

ps: when she got herself into that weird yoga position (southwest corner) I could barely contain myself. she accompanied the pose with bizarre little meeping sounds. Now THAT is a photo that brings back a great memory!!

observations after experimenting with film…

For the past month I have been experimenting with film cameras in different combinations. I’ve been able to try out borrowed Minolta, Canon, and Nikon cameras with an assortment of different lenses, and have used a range of film types from “professional” grade to drugstore generic. I’ve sent my film to be developed at a few different labs, and also taken it to the 1-hour counter in the pharmacy.

I’ve learned that having the film developed and scanned by a professional lab yields a much better result, but the price adds up quickly. Taking film to the 1 hour place near me has yielded passable results, but the machines are not calibrated nor equipment maintained or staffed by people who understand the photographic process. So there’s no guarantee on the quality of the work.

The most surprising thing to me has been this: I love the look of generic CVS store brand film! I’ve been shooting 200 and 400 ISO in bright natural light situations, and I am really digging the deep saturated shadows and the colors that result.

Logistically, the cost of film is about the same for any kind – if you buy in bricks of 5 rolls or more at a time. If you buy single rolls at a camera store, you’ll be paying $5-8 per roll depending on the type, or if you buy a single roll of film at a drugstore you’ll be paying $3-6 per roll of 24 exposures. I order my film from adorama.com and the $5 shipping fee is offset by the savings of buying many rolls at a time.

One issue to consider is the mandatory waiting period between finishing a photo shoot and receiving your negatives and scans back from the lab. I often have more than a few shots left on a roll before it’s finished, but since each frame you take costs between $0.50-$1.50 to develop you don’t want to just take a bunch of filler photos (although that’s what I’ve been doing on test rolls). SO, I have noticed that I tend not to finish a roll for awhile, and by the time I get film sent off to the lab, a week or so has gone by. The lab process takes about a week and then finally, 2-3 weeks later, I have the finished product in my hand.

Compared to the instant accessibility of digital photography, this waiting can be quite an adjustment to accommodate.

Here’s the best part about this analog process: it’s exciting! You don’t know quite what you have until you get the shots back. Your client doesn’t expect to be able to see the photos the next day. The time between creating and enjoying the results lets the excitement of the art sizzle in your brain. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of seeing your padded envelope containing finished film waiting in your mailbox!

I’ve heard film photographers say that one of the really cool things about shooting film is that it’s faster. When you get your scans you are done! I was skeptical about this assertion, however, now I understand what they’re talking about. The images that come off film already have that special something, without needing to color correct and adjust in photoshop. WHAT THEY SAY IS TRUE!! Also because you are forced to wait on the shot rather than machine-gun until you get something, there is a lot less editing down involved as well. I find editing down to be the most difficult part of the photographer’s job.

The most obvious downside to shooting film is cost. Although the equipment can cost less up front (old cameras still work great for those of us who understand exposure and manual settings) the ongoing payouts for film and developing can become a nuisance. Every time you click the shutter it costs $1.50. There are also some limitations to shooting in low light situations, such as a wedding reception. I haven’t experimented much with high-speed B&W film although that may be next.

Will I stick with analog film photography? Probably. I like the way it slows me down and makes me think about what I am trying to achieve. I enjoy having work to savor and enjoy rather than consume at high speeds. I like the way it looks and feels.

I’m curious to notice what happens when I start photographing client work on film. Have any of you used film lately? What was your experience?

a chinese proverb

“Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.”