Kameron Bayne Images :: Signature Photography :: Studio News

Zach Arias, an editorial photographer in Atlanta, teaches the One Light Workshops and has a lot of insight to share from an honest, unpretentious and realistic point of view.  He posted this video recently as part of an on-going conversation dealing with the internal struggle artists go through to create meaningful work, still make a living, and not give up or burnout.  For every creative individual, this is a point of real tension.  Enter Derrick: a door-to-door salesmen, former felon and unlikely mentor.  Check out the video (it’s a bit long, but well worth it).

Listen to the wisdom Derrick shares; he reveals that what keeps a lot of people down is “insecurity – that’s me believing that I’m insignificant or not important without acceptance or approval from other people and when you’re under that state of mind, it allows you to manipulated by negative influences.”  He goes on to repeat the age-old advice that success comes from “hard work, sacrifice, and discipline.”  But he doesn’t say it with a negative tone of contempt like it’s often been said.  Instead, he speaks from a place of encouragement and hope that is truly inspiring.  Derrick’s interview is a reminder that genuine joy doesn’t come easily.  To reach the real thing, you have to go through struggle to get it.  Otherwise, we may have settled for a subtle superficial substitution.

It reminds me of the Switchfoot song “Happy is a Yuppy Word.”  The title was inspired by a Bob Dylan quote in response to the question posed by Rollingstone Magazine, “Are you truly happy?”  Dylan replied, “Those are yuppie words, happiness and unhappiness. It’s not happiness or unhappiness, it’s blessed or unblessed.”  The implications are one seeks a life free of complications, struggles and obstructions while the other learns to live in harmony with them with a constant positive perseverance.

I spent the morning painting the baby’s room, listening to the new Daughtry album and imaging how life is going to change with the presence of a new member of the family. Maybe this is what “nesting” is all about (is it still called “nesting” if Dad’s doing it?), but I really enjoy doing a simple task that allows me the space to daydream a bit and envision a better way of going through daily life. I treasure these potent moments that go beyond the scope of words. Somehow in the midst of actively painting, my thoughts come together like different puzzle pieces that fit into place and suddenly life makes a little more sense.

I think of the enormous responsibility of raising a child and it fills me with both fear and hope – a strange combination for sure, but a fitting one. It’s easy for me to worry about how fragile life is (will be the baby be healthy?  what if something happens to me or my wife?  what will happen then?) and seek to protect “life” without actually living it. But like all things that are worth living for, to truly be worth the devotion of one’s life, they must be worth dying for as well.  In a new sense, I feel like I’m being called off the sidelines and asked to live in the midst of great risk.  But the reward is greater still.  Learning to give one’s life to a child is another step in the dance of Love.  And I am an eager student.

I love the cinema!  No other art form has an ability to communicate so vastly.  With its story, moving visuals, and music, it is the closest thing we have to a language of the soul.

Because of my deep love for film, I’m a little curious as to what the Oscars have to say from time to time.  In the last couple years, I walked away from the evening disappointed because it felt pretentious, overly indulgent, and hallow with mere flattery.  But something was different this year; it was more personally engaging.  For the best actors/actresses nominations, past award winners lined the stage and introduce each nominee.  The introductions were thoughtful and showed a significant understanding of the people behind the craft – as the camera panned, you can see how the nominees were touched by the words spoken by the previous generation of greats within their community.  That kind of honor amongst peers goes way beyond a little trophy.  I think it touches the heart of why so many artists create…  to truly connect with others.

Recently, Brendan from Fishworks Engineering made an incredibly humorous and insightful discovery… computer hard drives dramatically decrease in performance when they are yelled at. Lesson be learned: don’t yell at your hard drive, it will hurt its feelings.

“An infant is born with a clenched fist; a man dies with an open hand. Life has a way of prying free the things we think are so important.”
-Unknown Author

After working almost nonstop for the past two weeks (up to 14 hour days), I finally had a chance for a break to do some creative refueling. My favorite thing to do is to take a drive or walk, maybe listen to some music and to think about the goodness inherit in simply being alive.  But why is it so hard to keep that in mind? Today I thought about the nature of love – or should I say, I thought about how love matures.

As of late, I’ve been struggling with the ever widening gap between the doom and gloom of our world from recent news coverage (global warming, raising gas prices, deceptive politics, war, bloodshed, etc.) and the slick and styled promise of a better tomorrow from advertisements and paid sponsorships. My exposure to public media has been saturated with such emotional extremes, I often feel powerless to do anything about the growing problems of our world but to go along for the ride and settle for the superficial good feeling of buying something new. But that approach to life is so incredibly unhealthy and I want to move in a different direction… I want to choose to love.

There is a side to life, full of brokenness and tragedy, that makes the choice of love so much more painful. It’s the darker side of life that’s easy to ignore until it strikes, because in all honestly, so few of us actually have the tools to cope. Instead, it’s easier to indulged in a reality escape or bury it with a blur of activity instead of choosing anything at all.  But that will surely keep us from love.  By acknowledging the brokenness in our own lives and in the relationships we share, we make room for love to grow. Surprisingly, it is not weakened by our weaknesses; love is not spoiled by our past mistakes. It is not hindered by our inability to move without it.  Like nothing else, love accepts and transforms the tragedies of life.

Love matures by seeking to heal and repair that which is broken beyond its own usefulness. Much like a cracked cup that can no longer hold water, love confidently moves forward and offers a fresh and tender bandage.

It’s funny how those “ah-ha” moments happen when you least expect them – like watching the latest Rocky movie…  The character of Rocky is fascinating to me – he’s a man who once had fame and fortune and was on top of the world.  But as he’s aged, life has taken its toll.  He still has people saying hi to him on the streets and asking for his autograph but the money’s all gone. He grieves the death of his lovely wife, Adrian. On the surface, he seems painfully unaware of his own irrelevance – the world has moved on but he appears to stuck in the past “living backwards.”

But what appears on the surface turns out not to matter in the least; Rocky has something figured out about life few of us get to taste. He is truly free from the opinion of others – not in the way that devalues others – but in the way that can keep us from ever knowing ourselves, forming our own opinions and convictions, and taking a stand in the world.  Over the years, Rocky has become a remarkable man; he’s simple and far from perfect, unpretentious, humble, gracious, yet strong and confident while also being vulnerable and real and wise.  This kind of strength is only possible for a man who gives up trying to be what he thinks everybody else wants him to be, a man who stops pretending to be something he is not, a man who is so comfortable in his own skin his very presence invites us to take another step in becoming comfortable in ours.

In this scene, he speaks to his son in the only way a father who loves can. Rocky calls his son out of his own insecurities without blaming or criticizing him, and calls him to something bigger by restoring his identity. Here is a father leading his son to life.

I’ve been taking one day a week to explore creativity… As a full time photographer and artist, I’m discovering how much I need to care for my own soul to keep the joy alive in my work (and life!). So far, it’s been a wonderful and refreshing experience! All I do is stop… I stop the busyness of daily life and allow my mind to think of something other than what’s on my must-have-done-list. Usually, that’s just enough space for me to feel moved to create something new.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about vulnerability. I think much of modern culture is constructed as an effort to avoid feeling or appearing vulnerable. We buy insurance, we install security alarms, we don’t talk to strangers. We can try and hide it, but our own vulnerability, our fragility as human beings just doesn’t go away. Those of us who go to great lengths to bury the tender and vulnerable parts of our lives only succeed in becoming cold and hard by keeping others at a distance.

We are like a melting ice cube that cannot escape its nature. Yet, maybe that’s the most beautiful thing about us.

Yesterday, Will and I had lunch with Andrey Mikityuk of Corrie and Andrey Photography. And we had a great time talking about the craft of photography, what makes a photographer unique among his or her peers, and how the business of photography doesn’t suffer with the rise of “competition.” Why? Because the business of photography isn’t based on “widgets” like Wal-Mart, Best Buy or the like. When a company sells a product that is basically the same as their competitors, the only thing the buyer can do is shop around until the best price is found. Unfortunately, shopping for a photographer isn’t that easy. Each photographer is one-of-a-kind. Even with those of equal technical skill, we could never duplicate how another photographers sees the world. It’s the photographer’s vision that sets him or her apart from the rest of us. And that’s what makes photographers like Andrey a true artist.Thanks for the engaging discussion Andrey!