REWIND: How did I come to wanting to donate the class money to Make A Wish Foundation and not another charity? This was asked by my husband, then by my amazing friend Shauna K. I decided to give to Make A Wish simply because those kids won’t be around to see the cures come about. If I can give right now, and it go to a “wish” today, then I am helping out. Most of the “wishes” aren’t really that expensive. One little boy wanted to go to Ranger School. He did and received his Ranger Tab. Another little boy wanted to go to the NFL Draft. It’s the little things that I can easily help give to. Not only giving through monetary gifts, but volunteering my time and talent is the 2nd half of my giving back!

Volunteer update from
Make-A-Wish Foundation®
of Georgia & Alabama
Hi Stacy,

Thank you for generously offering your time and talents. Wishes are created by the imagination of each child. Please be patient as we await an opportunity matching your preferences. We’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, here is some of the latest news:

Make-A-Wish Foundation®, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Grant Girl’s Wish on May 9 Mother’s Day Show
Make-A-Wish Foundation®, WWE® Teamed to Thrill 35 Wish Kids at WrestleMania® XXVI
Make-A-Wish Foundation® Introduces “World Wish DaySM” by Granting Wishes in 36 Countries
And below are some of our recent wishes:

I wish to have a pirate-ship playhouse.
I wish to be a soccer player with Real Salt Lake.
I wish to have a hot tub.
Below you’ll find a summary of your offer to the
Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Georgia & Alabama:

Skills: Professional Services: Photography

How often you can help: anytime
When you are available: flexible

Best Wishes,
Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Georgia & Alabama
www.ga-al.wish.org

Interested in a Photo Booth at your next event? Please contact Stacy Martinez Photography for more details!

phone : 1.912.308.1427

email : stacy.martinez@comcast.net

‘Spotlight’ will showcase new and favorite sessions periodically through the month.

Check back for more new stuff.

This is the style of PIN UP that we are going for here at Stacy Martinez Photography. Interested? Please contact us.

Thank you to our TROOPS! And thanks to Harley Davidson for such a great tribute and deal.

http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_US/Content/Pages/home.html

http://photofocus.com/2009/11/10/three-things-you-should-know-about-creativity/

All Rights Reserved

Creativity is a big concept for a photo blog. We spend so much time fighting upgrade fatigue, learning new software, working out new techniques that we often have very little time for creativity. But just taking note that we need to think about creativity isn’t enough. How do we go about it?

Everyone goes about being creative differently. What works for me might not work for you, but I’m going to just share these thoughts on creativity with the hope they will help you concentrate on something other than the next lens you think you want to buy.

For me, creativity is about removing artificial limits. And I think most limits are self-imposed. More precisely, these limits are directly tied to low self-esteem. Now I know you might be thinking, what’s that have to do with creativity? In my experience lots.

We put boxes around ourselves and make decisions that hamper our growth because often, as artists, we don’t really believe in ourselves. How many times have you thought you were just faking it? Or have you ever just assumed that you weren’t good enough? These thoughts murder your creative spirit and you get started on a more creative path when you stop that behavior.

The creative process can start to open up once you just trust yourself. If you empower yourself to try something different and give yourself permission to fail, you become more creative. Don’t make the metrics of success or failure the guidelines by which you proceed. Instead make experimentation, expression and joy the metrics.

The second big point of contact for me is authenticity in my work. If you can start to look at authenticity, rather than originality, you will become more creative. I learned this concept best by listening to John Paul Caponigro. He was talking about other art forms and mentioned that in Asia for instance, artists don’t worry about coming up with something new, they work within an existing form and try to expand it. When I read the photographic forums, the younger photographers seem to beat their chests the loudest and proclaim their creativity simply because they did something “new.” Usually what they did wasn’t new at all, but rather new to them. But it doesn’t matter. Worrying about doing something new ends up stunting creative growth. Being creative does NOT require doing something new. It requires doing something that is authentically your real personal and true vision. If you take away anything from this blog post, I hope it’s that.

Lastly, creativity is about choices. The choices can often be based on a few dynamics like tension, juxtaposition, conflict and resolution. These are good tools in a creative environment. But sometimes, you learn most of your creative ideas from pure experimentation. Free-form music – called jamming often lets musicians come up with their best sounds. Writers use free-association and brainstorming to come up with their best words. Why shouldn’t photographers use their own brand of visual experimentation to find their own visual creativity?

To sum up – if you want to be more creative, start loving yourself enough to give yourself permission to fail. In fact, better yet, don’t even worry about winning or losing. Just DO.

Don’t focus on NEW – focus on authentic. Being original isn’t being new – it’s being you.

And riff. Go out there and jam. Try this and that and then invert it all. Go crazy. Do something you’ve never tried.

I wrote this post as much for myself as I did for you.

The photo on the left is from the Georgia 300 and the Inauguration 2009 with the Obama’s and Biden’s. The photo on the right is my ever amazing son and my dad. It’s the same train with a few things back in their normal place. How cool is that? How did Connor get to be up there? Well my dad invited us over to the Amtrak station this weekend during an annual Private Rail Car Association was in Savannah. They were parked on the tracks for a couple days and left this morning. These rail cars are expensive and beautiful…but open to private invitation and guests only. While we were viewing the rail cars, we were invited to view another car (the newest one there, built in 1959), the Scottish Thistle. If you want to charter the Scottish Thistle, the fees start at $2,500 per day. More photos to come.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_300