Living Creatively: Creative Crafts

Before getting into the details of this post, one thing to mention is that you want to make sure you have the right camera when it comes to your new creative pursuit of photography. Personally I recommend the Rebel (comparison here) but everybody is going to have their own taste and flavor when it comes to selecting cameras. IF you want to see even more, you can check out Canon’s Youtube Channel.

The automatic coverage feature on today’s cheap digital camera models is frequently better than the auto exposure was on expensive movie cameras ten years ago. Improvements in computers permit an extremely advanced auto exposure mind to be packed into a small space in today’s digital camera models. Even the most advanced auto coverage functions may occasionally simply make a mistake or read the picture wrong and set the wrong publicity. The exposure compensation feature of your digital camera allows you to pay for these mis readings by making your pictures lighter or darker than you’d get using auto exposure alone.

Here are several tips for enhancing your digital pictures by utilizing the exposure compensation feature of the digital camera. Take a photo and check the publicity – Once you take your photo, review it in your camera LCD screen. Among the joys of digital photography is that you may always lighten or darken an electronic photo later using Adobe Adobe Photoshop or another kind of digital photo editing software. While you are still on the picture, why don’t you utilize the exposure compensation feature to make the correction in the original. Adobe Photoshop can darken a picture after the fact, however it cannot bring back details which were lost within an excessively bright section of your original photo.

If they got beaten up when the image was taken, they’re merely not there to bring back. Select the camera program settings – You may always use exposure compensation with the fully automatic mode, but there’s a better way. If you wish to increase the depth of field, change to aperture priority and maintain the camera aperture small. Obviously this may reduce the shutter speed to permit more light to come in to the camera. Be sure the resulting exposure will not be at a shutter speed of less than 1\/125th unless you are using a tripod. If you are shooting a moving object, you’ll have to switch to shutter priority and set the shutter speed fast enough to eliminate blurring – usually at least 1\/400th.

Just bear in mind that, whenever you do that, the depth of field are affected, therefore focus cautiously on your main subject. After you have selected aperture or shutter priority, take another photo and check the results. In case the depth of field and sharpness are appropriate, now it is time to use exposure compensation. Most digital cameras allow you to increase or decrease the auto exposure setting by 2 stops in 1\/3 stop increments.

I have been writing a lot of haikus lately, and they have gotten me thinking about Rugged Creativity. What is Rugged Creativity?

In a sentence, Rugged Creativity is the creativity you need to survive in a rugged world. That hiker who had to gnaw his own arm off when he was trapped un a boulder represents rugged creativity. The Ethiopian entrepreneur who went from a shack to a mansion almost overnight because of her inspiring idea to create internet access for all of Ethopian citizens? Rugged creativity.

It is creativity born of necessity, the kind of creativity that helps you to survive and does not compromise. If it is soft, it is not rugged creativity. If it forgives, it is not rugged creativity.

If it allows you to think unfiltered and unhindered thoughts, doesn’t bend the the will of any man, and tastes like the whiskey on Hemmingway’s breath. That, my friend, is rugged creativity.

May it be with you too.

Peter

We are truly living in an age of globalization and technological disruption. Are you going to ride these waves, which are bigger than anything we have seen before, or be left behind.

I would caution you against being left behind. While tech might not be “your thing”, the truth is that we are going to be facing greater and greater economic disparity that is already growing rapidly between those who embrace technology and those who don’t. Think about it this way- are you more productive on a typewriter or a computer? Do you work better when connected with literally everyone in your office, or when you need to send carbon copy letters by snail mail that takes weeks to arrive.

I think the answer is obvious, and while I am NOT going to say that there is an impending apocalypse, I am very aware of the social unrest that technological is accelerating. You need only look as far as the Arab Spring to see the huge role that Twitter played in the unveiling of the government.

So how do you survive by playing this new game of globalization and disruption. The first thing is that you need to learn to engage in the outside world. If you can’t speak multiple languages and communicate wit people regardless of their culture and socioeconomic background you, my friend, are going to be left behind. Thankfully, there are options for you. For one, you can find global work placements more easily than ever before. For example, you can start a company in China like my friend Scott did, or you can strike out on your own as a freelancing “digital nomad”.

You should also be working to pick up as many skills as possible. In this day and age, there is simply no excuse not to be improving your skills and knowledge at a rapid pace. After all, people in Bangladesh are, why can’t you, dear first world citizen, be bothered to? The truth is that The West has rested on its laurels for decades and arguably even centuries, but now, thanks to a flattened playing field, we are now facing competition from places we never had it before.

I welcome it personally. You should to. After all, the rewards for the innovative, the global, and the disruptive are potentially great, and if you are willing to study at a website like Coursera or Udemy you can also improve your skillset rapidly. If you don’t- trust me, you will be left behind.

Peter