Three Recent Discoveries

I've recently left Hobbiton, you might say.  So I thought, from time to time, I'd share some things I've been learning on this little journey of mine.  Come join the ride!

Highway guard rails are different now.  Perhaps they learned something and made it better.

  • Constant Feedback is Essential. In a recent episode of The Portfolio Life, Jeff Goins and Pat Flynn discussed the need to "validate an idea before you leap." Deciding to own a franchise of a restaurant no one likes and building it in a county with only 85 residents is not a well-thought-out plan.  In order to validate an idea, you have to pitch it: talk to friends, launch a beta release, pepper various strangers with questions. It's possible your idea is good, but seeking ruthless feedback and criticism can make your idea great. I didn't ask for much feedback when I designed this website. The more I learn, the more I realize I need to go talk to more people and seriously overhaul this thing.  What's good about this website?  What's garbage?  Is the word 'curiousitive' cool at all or actually completely stupid (I'm starting to think it's the latter!)?
  • Good Storytelling is Good Marketing. Don Miller and the Story Brand team basically take the essential plot of Star Wars (Hero with a problem meets a guide who sends him/her on a quest where failure brings disastrous consequences and success yields amazing results), and teach a businessperson to frame their service or product through this lens, in which the businessperson is the guide and their client is the hero. If I can tell you the story of what I do - the problem of yours that I can solve - in a compelling and understandable way, it's much easier for you to know what I have to offer and whether it truly does solve your problem.  When you need photographs, what are they for?  How do you choose a photographer?  Does this website clearly identify how I can meet those needs?
  • I Do My Best Writing In The Morning. I tried to write this post late on Saturday evening after a busy week. After a half hour of fogged frustration I gave up and watched an episode of Agent Carter. On Monday evening, I tried again, scrapping the original manuscript and going with this 'what-I've-learned' format. After choosing two topics and stalling on the third, I thought, ugh, I can't write at night! With a laugh, I realized I discovered my third topic. I am much better at writing in the morning when I am fresh and my mind is full of possibility, rather than exhausted by the events of the day. Therefore, if I am to consistently write quality content, I need to schedule time in the mornings to sit down and just do it. When are you at your highest levels of productivity and creativity?

Keep learning!  And I'd love to read your comments below.

The Joy of Collaboration

DL wants to practice his filmmaking skills, having served as DP on several local film productions.

Justin wants to hone his capabilities as a director and actor.

Nathan wants to exercise his wit and absurd ability to create puns.

I want to become a better storyteller and communicator.

Each of us could (and do) go off separately and practice on our own.  However, it's much more fun to find a way to work on all of these goals as a team.  Hence our YouTube channel, TheMooMoe.  Essentially, we tell a longer story through short vignettes that are filmed in one shot and oftentimes only one or two run-throughs before we roll camera.  Perfection isn't the goal, practice is.  Can we develop a concise and effective story or joke, find a clever way to film it, and end up with something people want to watch?  Can we get better as we do it over and over?  We're going to find out!

I've notice, after a few months of this, three benefits of this collaboration:

  1. Better Communication.  We've all known each other since at least 2008 (Justin and Nathan, brothers as they are, for longer) and already have deep relationships.  Neverthless, creating these videos together has helped us communicate what we want, what our visions are, and what tasks we want to own in this process.  I have such a better understanding of what everyone else wants to accomplish as we work through this.
  2. Better Feedback.  We don't spend a lot of time on each video, so it's often a quick process of story development, rehearsal, and filming.  As each of us throws out ideas and offers critiques or praises to the others, we all learn to improve our individual processes.  It's an encouraging atmosphere as we help one another hone our skills.
  3. More Energy.  Setting goals and accomplishing them is huge.  Waking up knowing you have forward momentum is a wonderful thing.  For a couple of us, we started making these videos at a point where most of our life seemed to be stagnant.  Being able to make these videos together and churn out a product that others were excited about was such a boost to get moving on other goals we each individually had.

Head over to our YouTube channel and give us some feedback!

Introducing Night Portraits

The game, as they say, is on.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

The rain had subsided; some final rivulets were arduously making their way through the gutters, sewers, waterways.  Asphalt, still warm from the vanished sun, sighed steam.  Detective Thompson saw none of it, heard none of it, brown eyes focused on a door across a busy street, waiting for a sign that she had hit her mark.

***

What's the use?  We've searched countless times and nothing's come of it.  Had he asked the rocks and briars for their advice, they would have told him to wait just a bit longer.  They had seen much in their time (especially the rocks!) and this particular adventure had yet some time to go before it would run its course.

***

Bad coffee helps you think.  Even though you may be thinking about an antacid and a toothbrush, you're still thinking.  And right now, Adam needed to think, needed to wander the cobblestone streets, needed the comfort of silence.  He had one week to come up with a briefcase full of monopoly money, one week to appease forces that had quite unkindly invaded his once-mediocre desk jockey life.

***

I've starting practicing nighttime shots as a fun exercise in seeing and creating interesting light, shadows, and stories.  And I offer to you the possibility of your own portraits - unique senior portraits, engagement photos, Sam Spade cosplay, or whatever else may be up one's sleeves.

Are you working on a mystery that needs some complementary imagery?  (Gosh, that's fun to say) I'd love to help you make that happen.


Get out of the TARDIS

What is it about myths that captures us?  What truth compels our fictions?

The Doctor travels through time and space in his blue police box, dialing in coordinates and traveling into the unknown.  Bursting out of the doors, he throws himself into whatever adventure awaits, often rescuing others from some evil force that seeks to destroy them.

I spent too many evenings last year watching one, two, three or more adventures of his in one sitting.  Internet streaming makes it easy to go on vicarious adventures, to pretend you're on a journey with these characters in front of you.

Story and myth are wonderful and necessary, stimulating imagination and drawing us into something bigger than ourselves.  Yet, I was often using these stories as an excuse to hide from a life that seemed to be going nowhere interesting.  What goals and desires I had were seeing little to no progress, and it was easier to vicariously make a difference through a television screen than to do the hard work of living a life in the world, of trying and failing and growing and succeeding.  Entertainment became escape.

No more.

With a new day job and a new year, I am enacting several new habits; moving forward with several new goals.  I will be honing my photography skills, practicing my writing, and trying some audacious things.  I'll be sharing how I flew to Hawaii for less than $100 and helping you do the same.  I'll be developing new photography products.  I'll be learning how to help small businesses tell their story - and I'd love to use my skills to help you tell yours.

It's going to be different for me this year.

What's going to be different for you?  I'd love to hear!

You have something to share with this world.  You can help bring light in the midst of darkness.  You can speak hope where there is uncertainty.  How will you choose to live?

Allons-y!

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