Thursday Post 10-16-08
Focus
A person who is gifted sees the essential point and leaves the rest as surplus.
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Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) British historian and essayist.
Coleman, A.D. Depth of Field: Essays on Photographs, Mass Media, and Lens Culture.
University of New Mexico Press: New Mexico, 1998.
Sterner, Thomas M. The Practicing Mind: Bringing Discipline and Focus You’re your Life. Mountain Sage Publishing: Wilmington, 2005.
The title of this book basically says it all, it covers strategies for self-discipline and focus. It involves changing your perception, changing habits, and becoming patient. Thomas M. Sterner has also written The Meditating Mind about bringing meditation into your life, which can enhance focus and help with relaxation. Sterner spent years becoming an accomplished piano player, but it wasn’t until he began to learn golf that he started noticing some key motivational flaws that disrupted the dynamics of practice. He notes that today’s society encourages excessive multi-tasking which creates exhaustion and prevents focus from ever remaining on any one thing long enough to do any benefit. He argues that striving for perfection is self-defeating; instead practice should be considered the end result. By living in the present and always practicing, one can remain successful.
I picked the word focus because it has double meaning for my work. In the technical sense, I have been struggling to get the tattoos in crisp, perfect focus. I have recently acquired a new lens, which seems to be helping a lot with that issue. I also recently decided to focus on creating a portrait of the person, revealing an aspect or two of the tattoo-wearer’s personality. Though I feel it is good to have found this focus so that my work will be more coherent, it has greatly hindered my ability to find suitable models. Sadly, there are so many people who get, for lack of a better word, bullshit tattoos. Most of the people who seem to respond to my ads have names and/or flash images they picked off the wall, and I have been struggling to figure out a way to incorporate anything else of meaning into the picture.
A person who is gifted sees the essential point and leaves the rest as surplus.
Send quote to a friend
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) British historian and essayist.
Coleman, A.D. Depth of Field: Essays on Photographs, Mass Media, and Lens Culture.
University of New Mexico Press: New Mexico, 1998.
Sterner, Thomas M. The Practicing Mind: Bringing Discipline and Focus You’re your Life. Mountain Sage Publishing: Wilmington, 2005.
The title of this book basically says it all, it covers strategies for self-discipline and focus. It involves changing your perception, changing habits, and becoming patient. Thomas M. Sterner has also written The Meditating Mind about bringing meditation into your life, which can enhance focus and help with relaxation. Sterner spent years becoming an accomplished piano player, but it wasn’t until he began to learn golf that he started noticing some key motivational flaws that disrupted the dynamics of practice. He notes that today’s society encourages excessive multi-tasking which creates exhaustion and prevents focus from ever remaining on any one thing long enough to do any benefit. He argues that striving for perfection is self-defeating; instead practice should be considered the end result. By living in the present and always practicing, one can remain successful.
I picked the word focus because it has double meaning for my work. In the technical sense, I have been struggling to get the tattoos in crisp, perfect focus. I have recently acquired a new lens, which seems to be helping a lot with that issue. I also recently decided to focus on creating a portrait of the person, revealing an aspect or two of the tattoo-wearer’s personality. Though I feel it is good to have found this focus so that my work will be more coherent, it has greatly hindered my ability to find suitable models. Sadly, there are so many people who get, for lack of a better word, bullshit tattoos. Most of the people who seem to respond to my ads have names and/or flash images they picked off the wall, and I have been struggling to figure out a way to incorporate anything else of meaning into the picture.
Labels: Thursday
posted by Megan Wagner at
9:37 PM
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