Creative Renaissance

There is a creative renaissance going on right now and chances are, most people don’t even realize it. Of course, the savvy readers here at Life of an Architect have probably noticed – how could you not? More and more people – neighbors, nieces, nephews, sisters, grandparents … (okay, probably not grandparents) have all started taking pictures and sharing them with the world. Sure, there are way too many pictures of Grumpy Cat but even the overwhelming number of pictures people share of the pets is lending itself to creating a critical eye.

People are trying to create visually interesting photos. They are trying to square up their shots, they are trying out different filters, they are rotating the images, adding text, blurring certain portions – all sorts of things that are bringing out their inner artist

and I love it

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As just one example, I will focus on the photo sharing application ‘Instagram’. I’m quite sure someone you know uses Instagram to share their photos with anyone who might be interested. The picture above is a screen grab from my Instagram account, you can see some of my most recent “shares”. All of the images I am going to show today were taken with my iPhone and most were processed on my phone using the photo editing app “SnapSeed” (my favorite for photo editing). All these pictures are mine, I have a thing about using other people’s photos – or rather, they have a thing with other people using their photos.

I know that I’m not a great photographer, that’s not really the point I am trying to make. This is about introducing the idea that a generation of smart phone users are starting to look at the world around them differently, more creatively, and that they are sharing their visions with people. This act of creating is happening at an extraordinary level.

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This was a picture I took when I was recently on vacation on the island of Lana’i. It was a small church on the grounds of the hotel ‘The Lodge at Koele”. My wife and I were waiting on a bus to take us into town and while I was sitting there, the sun was setting and I thought I would walk over to this little church and take a quick picture. In fact, it was my wife who suggested that I take the picture.

My wife suggests a lot of things to me that turn out pretty good.

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The next morning, on the heels of the previous nights photo success I thought I would walk back down to the church and see if I could capture some of the greens. I choose this shot because I thought it framed up pretty well, it was certainly green, and I liked the balance of light and dark.

I have mentioned in the past that one trait that I believe most formally architects and designers from everyone else is our ability to know why we like something AND be able to articulate those reasons.

Most formally educated designers have been trained to understand why they like something and to then be able to communicate those reasons. While you might like a certain shade of orange because it’s pretty, I might say I like that shade of orange because the way the light hits it causes the surrounding areas to change and that modifies the perception of the size of the room.

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I love stumbling onto churches – especially compact ones like this one – Kaahumnau est. 1876, just down the road from Iao Valley State Park. I forced everyone out of the car so I could walk around the church and take a few pictures.

So what am I going to do with all these pictures?? Some get turned into blog posts, but I never know it at the time whether they will or won’t. I just like taking pictures now and when I get one that I like

BOOM

It goes onto Instagram, Facebook, etc.

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So why would anybody actually care about my vacation photos? My guess is that since I am trying to bring a little something extra to the party, people can find something of interest in the picture. Maybe, like this window detail shot at the church, they like the symmetry. Maybe the like the order and hierarchy, or maybe like me, they like all of those things.

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As a result of my own picture taking/ picture sharing behavior, I pay more attention to other people’s photos. I can promise you that a year ago, I would have walked right past this assembly of sea kayaks without thinking twice – not anymore. This isn’t really about taking better pictures – not for me, although it’s a nice side effect. This is about trying to develop my eye, how I see things and if those things translate to other people. To help develop that skill set, I try to mimic what I see other people doing that resonates with me.

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I took this picture because a)I thought it was a funny sign and looked like it was written in goblin blood, and b) I liked how the sign was tilted at a 45 degree angle. I rotated my phone around so the sign would be straight up and down and the horizon would be tilted and I liked how that turned out. Vision, Experimentation, and Creation.

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I’m going to wrap it up soon since most people stopped reading a few pictures ago. This picture was about trying to get an equal balance between sun and sky, the rock on the right and the space between the rocks. While I like it, this goes back to being able to articulate what you were trying to accomplish and then critically evaluate whether or not you got close.

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This picture is purely the result of the filters I used on SnapSeed. What is it about pink? (or maybe you haven’t heard about the pink cup incident…)

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I’m not above taking a “walking on the beach sunset photo”…

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FInally, this is a picture of a sketch I made while working on my playhouse design for this years Parade of Playhouses. I don’t think I am particularly skilled at sketching but I thought this sketch had a little something to it.

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So what do you think? With all the people out there taking pictures and sharing them, do you think as I do that more and more people are starting to tap into their creative side? The fact that there are more people not just creating images, but actually thinking about the images they create – putting a little thought and “shazam” into them is incredible.

There is a creative revolution going on and people might not even realize that they are participating in something amazing. That’s okay as long as they keep participating.

Cheers

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