Craig Tanner – Open Mic

Hey everyone. I’m just over a week returned from teaching a Location People workshop in beautiful, sunny Savannah, GA and finally getting over the sleep depravation. More on the workshop in future posts. I traveled down a few days early to scout and spend some time with my friend and mentor Craig Tanner ( see The Mindful Eye). We had a great time catching up and discussing our latest creative endeavors. Craig is always an inspiration and source of creative energy for me and for that I am truly grateful. He has litterally changed my life as both a photographer and just a human being on this planet.

The latest installment of Craig’s inspiration for me came in the form of watching him bring to fruition one of his long time creative pursuits, which was to take the next step with his music and actually begin performing live. Craig had already taken the major first step and performed at a few open mic’s. I believe this was to be his third. I watched Craig prepare and practice for a few days and was able to witness him put many of the same principles he teaches photographers in overcoming their fears in photographing people or approaching strangeers into practice to this end. He was clearly nervous and anxious. Ultimately though, he just did it. He stepped over the edge and took that step. He prepared, practiced, and the performed . . . adminarbly well too I might add. Craig is quite a good musician and will no doubt continue to excel at this endeavor to the extent he desires. Moreover though, the process and privildge of watching Craig put into practice so many of the things he has taught me was both affirming and ultimately inspirational. If you’re out there and sitting on a dream, follow Craig’s lead, and take the next step!

Here are a few pix and a video slideshow set to one the song’s Craig performed (sorry about the poor audio quality!):

 

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Art of Lighting Tutorial – Lens Flare

Hey Everyone,

Many of you know that I am a contributor on a wonderful web site called The Mindful Eye (TMELive.com). Make no mistake, TME is Craig Tanner’s baby and I am simply honoered to add a small contribution from time to time. I strongly encourage you to check out the site. In particular, take a look at Craig’s Daily Critique features. Craig has a gift for critiquing the work of others and doing so in a way that is informative, inspirational and uplifting to those listening to the critique as well as the original artist.

That said, I wanted to embed a link to a recent Art of Lighting piece that I contributed to the site. This is a uTube version of the piece. You can see this piece and my other contributions here.

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The Mindful Eye & Image Showcase

Hi everyone. People often ask me where I go on the internet for educational and inspirational information. Several years ago, I ran across a site called The Radiant Vista which was run by Craig Tanner (Craig’s Light Diary) and Mark Johnson. The site was full of incredibly informative and inspirational free content. In addition to ingesting ever piece of content they had to offer, I also took several workshops from Craig. Craig has been one of the most influential people in my photographic life for sure, if not life in general, and has become a mentor and dear friend. I am now fortunate enough to contribute to Craig’s new site, The Mindful Eye (www.tmelive.com), and teach workshops under that umbrella. I just posted an Inspirational Image Showcase at The Mindful Eye from a Location People workshop I taught down in Savannah last year. You can check out all of the workshops and other content there as well. I highly recommend this site, particularly Craig’s daily critique. You can also check out Mark Johnson’s blog and Photoshop Workbenches here.

Screen Shot of The Mindful Eye (tmelive.com)

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