Tag: journey

There’s No Business Like Snow Business!

by communicatingcreatively, posted in Stories From Life

This post was inspired by a friend’s recent ‘Snow-misadventure…’

Back in the 1980’s, I was part of a 18-35years Church Social Group and one of adventures was to the Snowy Mountains in southern NSW, Australia. It was one of those hurried 3 day weekend trips that saw me (briefly) on Ski’s but mostly on a Toboggan, which (for me) at the time was a lot more fun, that is until a had a slight ‘run-in’ with a creek. That was my first time in the Snow. I was satisfied with that. Visit to the Snow ticked off the list.

The very next year (1984) I was invited back to the Snowy Mountains by a small group of school friends who were planning to go for a whole week. Sounded fun so I agreed.

We stayed at Jindabyne and travelled to the ski fields from there. Jindabyne is basically the closest town to the ski fields but is not actually in them.

The previous year I had an hour ski lesson but I thought it was prudent to have another, and so I did, only this time it was snowing fairly heavily and to this day I wonder if I perhaps missed some ‘key technical points’ that would have helped immensely later on?

Most of my friends had Skied before and one friend in particular, David was a bit more experienced but he decided to hang back with me whilst I was endeavouring to ‘glide’ down the run called the ‘Pretty Valley Triple’ at Perisher Valley.

Needless to say that after a short time, I thanked David for staying with me but said that he would probably have more fun if he went on and left me to my own devices as I didn’t want him to get bored…

Off he glided down the hill…

Thinking back to the Ski lesson, I remember the lessons on how to ’Snowplough’ (or stop) & they taught us about weight control/which way to lean if we wanted change direction. It seemed fairly easy where we did the lesson. It was relatively flat ground.

Thinking back, I would have weighed about 55Kg and was 185cm tall so I didn’t have a lot of weight to throw around.

When you fall skiing it’s not as soft a landing as would think and in my first journey down the Pretty Valley Triple run I fell seventeen times. What would you do?

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David & David Skiing @ Perisher 1984 – I am the David on the left.

I went back up to try again. This time I only fell seven times, an obvious improvement, though the 24 clashes with Mother Earth had left me bruised and battered. Somehow though, I had managed to miss every tree.

My mistake that day wasn’t that I had fallen 24 times attempting to ski, it was the fact that I made the decision to return my gear to the ski hire place and go to the local bar for three beers (muscle relaxant). I haven’t skied since….

On pondering why I stopped, I remembered I hated the icy weather, the ski boots – I found them painful to wear around the ankle section of the leg, much of me was sore & I was skiing on my own. Given that and the ‘person I was as a 21 year old’ I can see why I gave in.

It is easy to look back and say ‘I would have done it differently’ but I can honestly say that if I was the person I am now, I would have gone back up and maybe only fell 3 times and so on… That’s not to say that I would be down the Snowy Mountains skiing every year, but it would be fun to have the option…

My wife, Susan has mentioned ‘going to the Snow’ a few times over the years as he has skied before. At 53, I wonder if the time for skiing has passed?

I would still like to go back to the Snow but this time it probably would be a photographic expedition, but you know what they say…’never say never….’

Written by David Johnson
23 July 2016

Viewing Life

by communicatingcreatively, posted in Photography, Stories From Life

Back in the year 2000, my wife and I were touring around southern NSW and visited (among other places), Yarrangobilly Caves. They are but one of a number of beautiful examples of limestone caves here in Australia.

We received a guided tour that day and apart from the memory of the caves, I remember a conversation I had with the tour guide as he, like me, was into photography for a great part of his life. This was until one day, after a 20 year love affair with the medium, he gave it away, citing that, ‘he was tired of looking at the world through a rectangle…’.

I didn’t think of this again until recently when I began reflecting on my photographic journey. Unlike the tour guide, I have not given up photography (as I will love it till I pass from this world), however I now have other interests as well and these days I am a bit more selective of what I photograph with my DSLR (and at this point I’m refining my ‘Light Inspired’ photography business as well). My phone is with me just about everywhere and images from that end up on Instagram.

Starting my photographic journey in 1982, I too have looked at the world through a rectangle via 35mm and through a square via a medium format camera. When I wasn’t with family, friends or at work, I was involved in photography in some way, shape or form since that time, either photographing, developing, printing, editing, reading about the subject, attending a Camera Club (or two) or judging photography. The ‘other’ interests I speak of are Toastmasters/public speaking (since 2008), drawing/painting (since 2010) and writing/writing poetry (since 2013).

Whereas once I would only be thinking and communicating about the world via photography, I now attempt to do this in a number of ways (depending on how I feel that I want to communicate it) and it is a lot of fun.

Life is about having experiences, fun, creativity, overcoming challenges, helping others, growth and communication.

I now enjoy seeing the world in different ways, not just through a camera. In some ways, I feel like my journey has just begun…

Written by David Johnson
June 2016

A Journey To Personal Style…

by communicatingcreatively, posted in Painting

I love it when I see an Artist’s creations and they have that much of an impact on me that it changes the way I think about my own.

In this case I’m taking about the latest episode on Colour In Your Life, featuring Sydney Artist, Sandra Blackburne which was aired in Sydney last night, and which I have now watched for the second time.

I would class myself as a ‘Beginner’ in terms of painting as my creative background has been through Photography, over the past 35 years. It started as a bit of a hobby about 5 years ago, though and I only ‘painted when I could fit in it’ as I have had other full-time occupations in that time. In January this year I decided that I would allocate 2-4 hours per weekend to my Oil painting and so far I have only missed out once, and I made sure I doubled the amount the following weekend. 😃

As I watched the episode, taking notes (as I do with each one), quite a few things resonated with me and have given me food for thought, such as:

  • Sandra does a few Plein-Air sketches of the subject she paints rather than photograph the scene. She mentioned that this allows herself to ‘put more of herself’ into the painting rather than be constrained by a photograph
  • Sketching with Colour Gesso is a new technique to me and watching Sandra create, I can see the benefits of doing it
  • The choice of colours which creatively evoke the Australian Landscape
  • The concept of layering paint which helps give the image light and life
  • The colours that were used and the way that they were applied. Sandra said that ‘tightening up when painting’ signals the death of a good painter
  • Using Cobalt Blue on Gum trees to reflect the Blue of the rich Australian sky

My style (if indeed I have one yet) seems to be more to ’try to paint subjects in a pictorial way.’ I remember when I did a basic Drawing course 6 years ago, the teacher said that appeared more a ‘Line Drawer’ than a ’Tone Drawer.’

Part of the challenge for me I guess is that coming from a photographic background, I’m too used to seeing subjects in a pictorial presentation rather than a fluid, abstract way, i.e. when I paint a leaf, a tree, or a building I try to capture all the detail when I don’t need to…

Looking at Sandra Blackburne’s Art I see sheds, trees and other subjects as perhaps ‘how I would remember them after a period of time has elapsed’, rather than as if they are in front of me, right then.

Sometimes I paint from photographs, sometimes from my imagination. I know which is more fun! A bridge between the photograph and the imagination is perhaps a Plein-Air sketch or two, which will then allow me to ‘put more of myself’ into a painting.

Thank you, Sandra Blackburne for your Art and inspiration. I look forward to seeing your Art face-to-face. Thanks also to Graeme Stevenson and to the team from ‘Colour In You Life’ for bringing such Art and inspiration into our Lives!

The journey to find my personal style continues…

 

Written by David Johnson
21 May 2016

 

Links:
https://www.instagram.com/sandrablackburne/

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=colour+in+your+life+tv+show