,

Coke bottle bottom eyeglasses coupled with a gray whispy Fu Manchu beard accented Lester del Rey’s persona. He was wearing Crayola burnt sienna Haband ban- rolled polyester slacks and a lime–green permanent–press leisure suit jacket. Around his neck was a bolo tie which fastened with a fixture that lit up mysteriously like a window to the cosmos. This package suggested a contemporary version of Tolkien’s wizard Gandolf. When he spoke, he blustered.

.

.

.Judy Lynn and Lester del Rey

Circa 1974

.

Lester had been appointed fantasy editor of del Rey Books, a division of Ballantine Books which was a division of Random House, to complement his wife Judy Lynn Benjamin del Rey. Judy Lynn founded the del Rey imprint and was a highly respected science fiction editor turning obscure authors into giants in spite of the fact that she was a dwarf. It was she who had presented Lester with a box of freshly printed business cards which read, Lester del Rey, Expert. And he was. I was the new Art Director. It was the mid-seventies.

Lester intimidated guests regularly on one of the first all night radio talk shows hosted by Long John Nebel and his wife Candy Jones during the fifties. I would listen on my pocket sized red transistor radio with a tiny ear piece when I should have been doing my algebra homework. Lester was a science fiction writer for more years than I was alive. His first short story was published in Astounding Science Fiction in the mid-thirties. He was a frequent contributor during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. I remember seeing the credits scroll by on Captain Video, the first of televisions space odysseys about 1949. Lester del Rey was the science advisor.

A quarter century later, I stood before this great man in awe holding his business card and accepting an invitation to a meeting of the Trap Door Spider’s Society. Lester explained that the Spiders were a men’s eating. drinking and arguing club made up of thirteen old friends. A significant number, I thought. The Spiders were formed in response to one of his friends being henpecked. The men invented the club to get him out of the house once a month. Meetings were hosted in rotation. The host would select the restaurant, wine, and menu. He also had the privilege of inviting one or two guests whom he thought might be interesting to his colleagues. I was flattered and accepted.

During the next three weeks, while I waited for the event, Lester and Judy Lynn initiated me into a fantastic world of science fiction and fantasy — a world I abandoned when I was thirteen. Later we would collaborate on hundreds of science fiction paperback covers and the number one world’s best-selling calendar based upon the works of J.R. Tolkien and illustrated by Tim and Greg Hildebrandt.

My taxi pulled up in front of an unsuspecting Spanish restaurant on West Seventy-second Street. An seemingly obsequious uniformed doorman fawned over other guests while judging me for my long hair, beard, bandanna, black T-shirt , love beads, and safari jacket – the uniform of the art director. A more considerate Maitre D’ escorted me to a private dining room lit by a Marie Theresa chandelier. Waiters carried trays of hors d’oervres and drinks in Baccarat crystal.

.

\.

Copytight James Randi

The James Randi Foundation

www.randi.com

.

Del Rey, still dressed in stretch knit, enthusiastically introduced me to the other spiders. “Ian Summers. Issac Asimov. Ian Summers. L. Sprague Ducamp. Ian Summers. Martin Gardner.” Ian Summers met eight other luminaries consisting of more writers, editors and the Director of the Hayden Planetarium. I took a drink. Lester introduced me to another guest. “Ian Summers. Jim Randi. The Amazing Randi.” I took another drink. I met Truman Capote the day before. I met Gore Vidal that very afternoon. But these men were heroes from my childhood. Terror welled while I wondered what Lester thought might be interesting about me to this august assembly of luminaries.

Upon conclusion of dessert the waiter gracefully removed the china, poured vintage port, and lit thirteen black candles now dancing in sterling silver candelabra. The formal proceedings commenced. Amazing and I were toasted. Then Issac Asimov explained it was a Spider’s tradition to interrogate their guests. The great man leaned across the table. Bushy mutton chops illuminated by candle light framed him in his own aura. I wanted to run. I tried to make myself small, a skill developed in junior high school.  Surely he would start with Jim Randi. Asimov boomed, “Ian Summers. Why do you exist?”

I took a gulp of sipping port. I was silent. I had not given the question a moments thought in my first thirty-five years. I filibustered for over thirty minutes fearing another question. I felt unworthy to be in the company of such great men. I remember thinking, “Oh my God. Issac Asimov knows my name.” I judged myself for not having the right answers — for not being good enough. I vaguely remember presenting my credentials, my accomplishments, my family and work histories. I worked hard to hold back tears.

.

.

..

.

And then, Asimov said, “Thank you Ian. That is enough. Lester will you escort Mr. Summers to the door.”

I realized I had spent most of my life as a human doing; not a human being. I did not know the difference. I tried to do exactly what well-meaning caretakers expected. I guessed at what they wanted. I guessed at what normal was and rebelled against it. I became the son I thought my parents wanted. I failed at becoming the good husband without knowing what that meant. I achieved other people’s goals and consequently I was empty. I was fear based. I would do anything to be seen. I had no idea why I existed or who I was. I kept it all to myself.

share this

© 2010 Ian Summers - HEARTSTORMING - please visit heartstorming.com for more information on Heartstorming Career Coaching.
Thank you for subscribing.
iansummers@heartstorming.com
+1 610-438-5707

.

I just received the following post from one of my favorite, passionate, compassionate, talented photojournalists, ZORIAH MILLER.. Imagine a play written about you and your work. Read this post then check out Zoriah’s  work. And if you are in London get yourself a ticket to this Ice & Fire production. But you better hurry, it closes on August 13th.

.

.

..

.

On The Record – It’s Me But It’s Not?

Posted: 07 Aug 2011 01:50 AM PDT

If you happen to be in London this week I will be speaking with the highly accomplished journalist Nick Davies (famous for breaking the recent phone hacking scandal in the UK) on Monday night after the showing of On The Record.  It will be my first time to see actor Trevor White portray me on stage (so this could be a great chance to see what I look like when I am completely weirded out!) Ha!

Seriously though, the play has been getting amazing reviews and the subject matter is very interesting.  I will post some reviews and the press release below, for those of you that are interested.

The playwrights, Christine Bacon and Noah Birksted-Breen contacted me in early 2009 and told me about their interest in writing a play, based in part on my experiences in Iraq.  We spent hours on the phone in interviews for them to get the direct quotes from which the play is primarily based.  I never knew if anything would come of the project and was happy to find out that not only did they see it through but apparently they did an amazing job with the production.  I look forward to seeing it on Monday the 8th and if any of you are able to join, please stick around afterwards and say hello.

From the Producers:

Press:

The Times  ‘This play by Christine Bacon and Noah Birksted-Breen is a tribute to the courage, compassion and tenacity of those who unearth and report stories of real significance, often at great personal risk. Partly based on interviews with journalists, and partly dramatised, it makes gripping theatre, in a production by Michael Longhurst that is at once succinct, shocking and wryly funny … Throughout, the acting is riveting, unflashy and full of conviction, while the stories the play tells are truly humbling.’The American photo-journalist Zoriah Miller (Trevor White) maintains that in the United States censorship is rife, thanks to the power of the advertising dollar. “Nobody wants to sell a watch opposite a picture of someone dying,” he says. His images of the Iraq war are devastating; he captures them in the face of pressure from editors who want something lighter.Financial Times  ‘At a time when so much of the British press appears to have been involved in crimes and corruption rather than uncovering them, this is a sobering and heartening reminder of why journalism also matters in a positive way.

Evening Standard  ‘Impassioned … Director Michael Longhurst keeps up the tension throughout. A vital play for grubby times.’

The Sunday Times ‘As the phone-hacking scandal rumbles on, this reminder that journalism and integrity need not be  mutually exclusive is something of a pick-me-up … The production … compresses a lot into 90 minutes as it lays out why the practice of investigative journalism matters’

Guardian  ‘These people are fierce, proud and hearteningly optimistic.

Telegraph  ‘Was I impressed?…Yes”

The Public Review (4.5 Stars) : “The most impressive thing of all is how this play teeters along the line between candour and good taste, showing us horrifying video images to shake us out of our comfortable, democratic cocoon without needing to push so hard that it feels like shock tactics. I often had goosebumps, and at times a lump in my throat, but mostly I felt in awe, and with a desire to find out more”

Spectator ‘On the Record is ‘an excellent, timely and unsettling play … So many plays are just circus routines or museum pieces. This is a living, breathing piece of propaganda in the best sense. It jerks us from our complacency and argues, quietly but with overwhelming force, that liberal democracy is not inherent in any community’s gene code. It has to be replanted and refreshed by each new generation.’

Metro “Warm and Witty”

The Stage : “Human rights theatre company Ice and Fire’s well-timed celebration of investigative journalism is a refreshing contrast to the daily reports of indiscriminate phone hacking recently in the news.”

The British Theatre Guide: “The acting in On The Record is impeccable throughout. Each performer gives a small masterclass in acting …The script by Christine Bacon and Noah Birksted-Breen is well paced and informative”

The Public Review : “The most impressive thing of all is how this play teeters along the line between candour and good taste, showing us horrifying video images to shake us out of our comfortable, democratic cocoon without needing to push so hard that it feels like shock tactics. I often had goosebumps, and at times a lump in my throat, but mostly I felt in awe, and with a desire to find out more”

ReviewsGate: “Theatre at its best showing journalism at its best…Michael Longhurst’s direction is exemplary… leaving the floor to six fine actors who embody their characters’ different manners and inhabit their sense of purpose without any sense of forcing personality or pleading a case…Christine Bacon, Noah Birkstead-Breen and Ice and Fire theatre’s production ensure a gripping, revelatory event”
.

.

share this

© 2010 Ian Summers - HEARTSTORMING - please visit heartstorming.com for more information on Heartstorming Career Coaching.
Thank you for subscribing.
iansummers@heartstorming.com
+1 610-438-5707

A picture is worth a thousand words and Hermann Hesse said it in one hundred five. I found this quote today and thought all photographers and seekers of the sweet light would appreciate it. What photographers come to mind after reading this quote? What is it like to catch the sweet light just right in that precious moment with or without a camera?

.

.It was that glorious hour, with the daylight still glowing everywhere, but the moon already gleaming and the first bats dipping in the green, shimmering air. On the edge of the woods stood dissolving in the last light, bright chestnut trunks against black shadows. A yellow cottage softly radiated the daylight it had absorbed, glowing gently like a topaz. The small paths pink and violet, led through meadows, vineyards and woods. The western sky hung golden and green above the velvet blue mountains. Oh, to be able to work now, in the last enchanted quarter hour of ripe summer’s day which would never come again!

Hermann Hesse

.

(July 2, 1877 – August 9, 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best-known works include Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game (also known as Magister Ludi), each of which explores an individual’s search for authenticity, self-knowledge and spirituality.

.

.

share this

© 2010 Ian Summers - HEARTSTORMING - please visit heartstorming.com for more information on Heartstorming Career Coaching.
Thank you for subscribing.
iansummers@heartstorming.com
+1 610-438-5707

This is one of a series of animations by Ken Robinson and produced by RSA Animate. You may see more of these brilliant pieces on YouTube.

Please comment on any of Heartstorming Redirection Workshops’ posts. It is important to dialogue about who we are, where we are going, and how we are going to get there. This blog is about creating significant change in ourselves and the world.

.

.

share this

© 2010 Ian Summers - HEARTSTORMING - please visit heartstorming.com for more information on Heartstorming Career Coaching.
Thank you for subscribing.
iansummers@heartstorming.com
+1 610-438-5707

Today’s post contains a discussion on why multimedia is not likely to save the commercial photography industry and what may.

In a previous post, I wrote about the 70,000 or so advertising agency people who are out of work and do not know what to do. Many are spending buckets of energy to get jobs similar to those they left and have discovered those jobs no longer exist. So if that affects you or someone you know, it is time to take different actions.

.

Change everything, except your passions.

Voltaire

.

The use of the term art medium is , to say the least. misleading,

for it is the artist that creates a work of art not the medium.

It is the artist in photography that gives form to content by a distillation of

ideas, thought, experience, insight, and understanding.

Edward Steichen

.

Multimedia is not a Panacea

.

Photographers frequently ask me what I think of the multimedia market?

Some photography pundits emphasize multimedia as being the savior of the commercial photography business. Photographers are encouraged to get into the multimedia markets.

Multimedia is not a market. It is a medium in the same ways that the Internet, magazines, newspapers, movies, poor old television, etc. are media. Media are ‘devices’ for disseminating information, culture, news, entertainment, sales messages, and much more.

Multimedia has been around for at least forty years. It simply means using two or more combinations of media to tell a story. When I first entered the business, the technology consisted of nothing more than racks of carousel projectors, dissolve units programmed with tape, some footage, a script, a narrator, live actors, a script, perhaps some live entertainers or speakers. The applications were for sales meetings, new product introductions, motivation, public relations, etc.

As a young producer/director I was responsible for new business, client contact, proposal writing, sussing out a story, hiring scriptwriters, still photographers, cameramen, editors, choreographers, recording studios, sound engineering, and an array of other technicians. The producer/director was the orchestrator. Being a producer/director opened the door for me to the advertising world.

It is not enough to learn multimedia technology. In fact, it is probably mandatory. However, if a photographer is only a technician, s/he will be competing with thousands of people who have already entered the field and the tens of thousands about to arrive believing it is a panacea. The competition will be keen. It is unknown how much work will be available. Technical expertise is important but it is only part of the picture.

Those who will offer multimedia assignments, include art buyers and others who assign still photography and those learning new media themselves .Television commercials, sales meetings, trainings, in-store promos, etc. may be media or applications themselves. I believe a large part of the market will come from corporate direct.

.

Multimedia Requires Storytelling

.

Still photographers need to learn a very different way of storytelling. They need to learn how to direct and to produce multimedia. They need to think sequentially. According to Albert Maysles one of the greatest and most original American documentarians, “A documentarian finds stories where none seemed to exist.”

My concern is that so many still photographers believe they ‘should’ learn multimedia as a survival action rather than having heard the calling.

Vision is a calling. A calling is an inner urge or a strong impulse, a passion, some believe a calling may be divinely inspired. How will the world be a different place as a result of your visit on the planet? What is your calling? What is it that you feel the urge and passion to bring into being no matter what?

Do you have a natural marked innate urge for artistic accomplishment? That is a definition of talent. Talent and calling must be present to sustain a career as a professional artist.

.

Some Storytelling Essentials

.

The graphic novel as a model for multimedia storytelling

The following excerpt is from Will Eisner’s classic book Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative

.

.

Will Eisner 1946

.

The telling of a story lies deep in the social behavior of human groups — ancient and modern. Stories are used to teach behavior with the community, to discuss morals and values, or to satisfy curiosity. They dramatize social relations and the problems of living, convey ideas or act our fantasies. The telling of a story requires skill.

In primitive times, the teller of stories in a clan or tribe served as entertainer, teacher and historian. Storytelling preserved knowledge by passing it from generation to generation. This mission has continued into modern times. The storyteller must first have something to tell, and then must be able to master the tools to relay it.

.

The Story Itself Abides

.

…A story is the narration of a sequence of events deliberately arranged for telling. It is kind of like reporting an event except that the storyteller controls the events. All stories have a structure. A story has a beginning, an end,and a thread of events laid upon a framework that holds it together. Whether the medium is text, film, comics, or any combination of these elements, the skeleton is the same. The style and manner of its telling may be influenced by the medium, but the story itself abides.

.

Basic Principles of Storytelling

.

…A story may begin as an abstraction. At this point, it is still a lot of thoughts, memories, fantasies, ideas, floating around in one’s head waiting for it to find structure. It becomes a story when told in an arranged and purposeful order. The basic principles of narration are the same whether told orally or visually or both.

The story form is a vehicle for conveying information in an easily absorbed manner. It can relate very abstract ideas, or unfamiliar analogous use of familiar forms of phenomena.

.

A Good Place to Begin: Tell Your Own Story

Themata

.

How Your Earliest Childhood Memory May Forecast a Life Theme

.

I am a reader of autobiographies, journals and letters between people who interest me. I recognized a phenomenon while reading the Letters of Georgia O’Keefe. There she described her earliest childhood memory. She recalled being kept in her dark bedroom before the age of two. Her mother would bring her outdoors on sunny days and place her on a patchwork quilt. Young O’Keefe remembered the great joy of watching the ways the light changed the colors of the quilt. This triggered something in me and I ran to my library and started pulling books off the shelf.

I found an interview with Mike Tyson. He said, “The first thing I remember is being a naughty little boy of two. My father threw me into my crib. I pulled the arms and legs off all of my dolls. It was orgasmic.”

Next I found a letter by young Albert Einstein to a colleague. He wrote about his earliest childhood memory. Albert had no clear memory of his father before the age of five. He caught some childhood disease. His father took the day off from work and spent the entire day with him. Father Einstein brought his son a compass. They spent the day trying to figure out why the needle always pointed in the same direction.

O’Keefe, Einstein, and Tyson remembered incidents which forecast their life themes. Since then, I have found dozens of examples.Hundreds of my clients

I recall my own memories. I see a corner of a room in a house I moved from just before I turned two. There was a Victorian painted porcelain light switch on the school green painted wall. I saw a table which held a Tiffany lamp and an upright telephone. The interpretation was fast. My life is about communications and turning on lights. My early childhood memory confirmed my life purpose. I am a compassionate teacher who helps others turn on the lights.

What is your earliest childhood memory and how does it forecast your life theme? How might you turn your life adventure into a multimedia presentation?

,

Watch Examples from a Variety of Non-Fiction Storytellers (Each Image is a Link)

.

.

.

.

Capturing Reality A National Film Board of Canada presentation of brief interviews with 33 documentarians

.

.

An Interview with Albert Maysles

.

.

.

Salesman – a 1968 documentary classic by Albert and David Maysles (Here is 9 minute segment)

.

..

.

Help Gail Mooney and her Daughter Erin Kelly Open Your Eyes 2010

.

.

.

Stavit Allweis’ Photographic Novel in Progress was funded through Kickstarter

share this

© 2010 Ian Summers - HEARTSTORMING - please visit heartstorming.com for more information on Heartstorming Career Coaching.
Thank you for subscribing.
iansummers@heartstorming.com
+1 610-438-5707

.

For the past three weeks or so, I have been posting 1501 Quotes Questions & Pondering on the Creative Process at my Facebook Group Page. I invite you to visit the group and sign up as a member. This is an opportunity to enter into dialogue with a wide range of people. You may post artwork based upon the quote. Add to the collection by posting quotes from your own collection on the FB discussion page. Think of each entry as an idea stimulator.

.

When the Japanese mend broken objects they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold, because they believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history, it becomes more beautiful.

Barbara Bloom

Installation Artist, Curator, Photographer, Designer

b. 1951

.
For a synopsis of the book that accompanied The Collections of Barbara Bloom, by Barbara Bloom, at ICP.

.

Photograph, paint, draw the face of a wrinkled elder. While you are working, imagine each crack filled with gold. How does that vision change the ways you see the subject? How different would our culture be if we valued elders this way?

Men are not born, but fashioned.

Desiderius Erasmus

.

Albrecht Durer the Elder, Self Portrait, Silverpoint, Early 1500′s

.

.

share this

© 2010 Ian Summers - HEARTSTORMING - please visit heartstorming.com for more information on Heartstorming Career Coaching.
Thank you for subscribing.
iansummers@heartstorming.com
+1 610-438-5707

.

Hey Whipple!

After you visit Luke Sullivan’s blog, you will want to read his book. I did.

I See Dead Ad Jobs

From Sullivan’s About page:

Hey, everyone. I’m a writer by trade. Been writing since about 6th grade. In fact, that’s when I started my first diary and have been keeping one ever since. I’ve been a copywriter for about 31 years now. Have worked at Fallon McElligott, The Martin Agency, and am now at GSDM in good ol’ Austin. I wrote a book on advertising back in ‘98. It’s now in its third edition and is used in lots of colleges and ad schools. Titled, Hey Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Advertising. Here’s a link to its amazon page: http://tinyurl.com/yhxuljj

.

.

.

.

share this

© 2010 Ian Summers - HEARTSTORMING - please visit heartstorming.com for more information on Heartstorming Career Coaching.
Thank you for subscribing.
iansummers@heartstorming.com
+1 610-438-5707

.

All my art is in some way about other art, even if the other art is cartoons

Bob Kessel

.

I was delighted this morning when Bob Kessel friended me on Facebook.

I have been aware of his illustrations in The New York Times,

The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek,  and many other national publications.

I did not know his fine art work which is in numerous private and museum collections.

His artwork revisits the works of old and modern masters.

Kessel’s work is amusing, intelligent, beautiful, graphic, bold,  and more.

His collection of quotes called Artists on Art represents his illustrative style.

,

.

.“““““““““““““““`

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Bob Kessel’s Fine Art

.

.

Girl with Pearl Earing by Bob Kessel

After Vermeer

.

.

.

Herring by Bob Kessel

After Van Gogh

.

.

Limited edition prints and original art by Bob Kessel • Email:  b.kessel@snet.net • Phone: (860)334-9438

All images in this post © Copyright Robert Kessel

.

.

share this

© 2010 Ian Summers - HEARTSTORMING - please visit heartstorming.com for more information on Heartstorming Career Coaching.
Thank you for subscribing.
iansummers@heartstorming.com
+1 610-438-5707

.

Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875-1926

.

And if only we arrange our life in accordance with the principle that tells us we must always trust in the difficult, then now what appears to be the most will become our intimate and trusted experience. Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act,  just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps Everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.
Rainer Maria Rilke

We live in difficult times. We carry a heavy load of anger. We battle with entitlements. We place blame on others. Who firightens you? What frightens you. What actions may you take bring your passions into being, no matter what?

.

.

Augustus Rodin (1840-1917 )

Photograph (C. 1907) by Edward Steichen (1879-1973)

.

.

Rilke was Rodin’s secretary for a while, and Rodin one day advised him to go down to the zoo and try to see something. Rilke did and spent some time watching a panther. Rodin respected seeing, the ability to observe, to use the terrific energy of the eyes, to pay attention to something beside one’s own subjectivity. Rilke understood that his own poetry lacked seeing, and he wrote nearly two hundred poems in about six years in an effort to sharpen his seeing. Through that labor, Rilke pased to a new stage of his art.

News of the Universe, Robert Bly

.

.

The Panther
Rainer Maria Rilke
In the Jardin des Plantes, Paris

From seeing the bars, his seeing is so exhausted
that it no longer holds anything anymore.
To him the world is bars, a hundred thousand
bars, and behind the bars, nothing.

The lithe swinging of that rhythmical easy stride
which circles down to the tiniest hub
is like a dance of energy around a point
in which as great will stand stunned and numb.

Only at times the curtains of the pupil rise
without a sound…then a shape enters,
slips through the tightened silence of the shoulders,
reaches the hear, and dies.

.

How are you like the panther? How are you like Rilke? When do you make time to sit still and observe? This afternoon go to the zoo, a park, a beach, a… Then sit and observe. Meditate on it. Breathe in and Breathe out. Listen to your heartbeat. Show courage. Love what you see. If you hear voices in your mind, command them to go away or perhaps it would be interesting to listen without judgements. Do this for at least an hour. When you are finished, write in your journal, draw, photograph, create.Use the energy of your eyes.

Let us hear your comments. Did you do this exercise? Did you discover the essence of what you observed? Did you turn a dragon into a princess?

Please follow this blog by clicking on the ‘follow’ button in the right sidebar.

.

.

share this

© 2010 Ian Summers - HEARTSTORMING - please visit heartstorming.com for more information on Heartstorming Career Coaching.
Thank you for subscribing.
iansummers@heartstorming.com
+1 610-438-5707

.

Many photographers (substitute illustrator, designer, art director, copywriter, and other creative services) are off their paths. Some were never on their paths at all. They saw what appeared to work and followed in the footsteps of their heroes hoping they would reach their goals. We must reset our own goals clearly based upon our heart’s desires. It is only then that we own them..

.

Blame Leads to Victimization

.

Others are easy to blame for current conditions in the industry. There are many factors contributing to the overall malaise: crowdsourcing, recession, technology, 70,000 out of work advertising people, threatening changes in copyright law, devaluation of photography, etc. Threads on professional forums are filled with complaints that villainize the people with whom we want to do business. Why would you want to do business with villains? When we have villains, we often become victims and we make everyone and everything wrong. These projections are shadowy behaviors.

We do not feel safe. The level of safety that many search for is an illusion. Creating demands change. Change entails risk. Risk requires a temporary suspension of security. Creators know they are on the wrong path when they resist change, growth and innovation.

Some wait for something to happen to them rather than making something happen.

It is no longer effective to do the same thing, or even the same thing differently. We must redirect our passions to bring something new into being.

We must take a long hard look at the road we are walking on right now.

The photography industry is grieving the road familiar. Some feel lost. Others are wandering in new woods on unbeaten paths.

The answers are inside. Yet we were taught to search for them outside of ourselves. Creators who do not approach their work wholeheartedly become heartbroken, suffer heart attacks, heartache or heart failure, face angst, despair, desolation, heartsickness, lose heart, and more.

What may be done to help manage change? Apply the same creative energy and spirit used to make images. Embrace change. For me, it has often been about redirection of my passions. Passions do not change all that much. However, it is possible to redirect them. Our industry has changed so rapidly, many have not had a chance to catch their breath. Rather than gather in places where people spend time supporting negativity, accentuate the positive.

.

Redirect.

Fan the Embers.

Set Yourself on Fire!

.

Notice I have used the word redirection rather than reinvention. Reinvention means that your career is wrong and that you may need to invent it all over again. Redirection is finding new places, actions and methods to place your passions.

.

Calling and Talent

.

Vision is a calling. A calling is an inner urge or a strong impulse, a passion, some believe a calling may be divinely inspired. How will the world be a different place as a result of your visit on the planet? What is your calling? What is it that you feel the urge and passion to bring into being no matter what?

Do you have a natural marked innate ability, for artistic accomplishment? That is a definition of talent. Talent and calling must be present to sustain a career as a professional artist.

.

The Heartstorming Career Redirection Workshop

.

Discover new ways to manifest and redirect your dreams.
Articulate your calling.
Explore alternative markets.
Learn how to set goals based upon your passions that
don’t end up in the back of a drawer.
Find ways to stay on your path.
Identify what you want and set priorities.
Create an action plan to do what you want
and overcome the obstacles.

I am planning a series of career redirection workshops beginning in the Fall. I know money is tight. However I believe many would benefit from redirecting their careers. So, I have come up with a plan.

.

What if?

.

What if we present a two day workshop? What if we charged a fee of $500 a person? What if we offered it at half price, if you were to bring one of your business friends who may wish to redirect their passions too? What if we offered the workshop for free, if you bring two others?

This will allow you to become a linchpin by linking yourself to a wide range of people from other disciplines and to make a difference in their careers and your own.

.

Feedback Requested

I am searching for sponsors for these events. I would like to let them know what you think about this idea. Please respond by commenting on this post or email me at iansummers@heartstorming.com or call me at 610-393-6816. I will be happy to answer your questions and to discuss the possibillities. I am creating this workshop to meet your needs and desires.

.

.

.

share this

© 2010 Ian Summers - HEARTSTORMING - please visit heartstorming.com for more information on Heartstorming Career Coaching.
Thank you for subscribing.
iansummers@heartstorming.com
+1 610-438-5707