Weekend Inspiration – Do What You’re Told | Nice Photography Magazine - The "Why To" Magazine about Creative Photography and Film Making

Weekend Inspiration – Do What You’re Told

Posted by Zeke Kamm on 7/02/09 • Categorized as The Latest

I don’t know about you, but I know about me. What do I know? I know I don’t like people telling me what to do. That’s right. Suck it!

Face Tarantula If I don’t like people telling me what to do so bad, how come I’m telling you what to do and what I’m telling you to do is to do what you’re told? Well, because I LOVE telling people what to do. Okay, that’s not the only reason.

This is a Weekend Inspiration post and these posts are all about trying to set you out in the world with a seed. You’ve got to water that seed and stick it in some dirt or it just stays a seed. My favorite kind of seed? A pizza seed. But since those don’t actually exist outside of my dreams and an underground alien tech black-ops lab in Mohave, I’d have to say my next favorite seeds are surprise seeds. That’s a seed you get that you don’t know what it might grow into. Still, you take care of it, make sure it gets everything it needs to succeed (hehe). Sure, it might turn out to have been an amazement seed or just a face tarantula seed. It doesn’t matter. The point is how much you grow not how much the seed grows.

Of course if you’re some sort of horticulturist you can tell what kind of seed it is just by looking at it, so that kind of turns my charming metaphor into the worthless ramblings of a crazy head. However, if you’re a photographer or a film maker (yes, I’m getting to the point), sometimes it’s better to have a mystery seed rather than one that you know how it’s going to turn out.

That point I promised I’d get to: your Weekend Inspiration assignment is to go to your neighbor Danny, or your Mum, or your kid, or a guy in the mall (not that guy, the other guy) and ask them to give you an assignment. Or better. A word or phrase. Then you intemperate that word into a photo or a short film or a clay pot for all I care. Just do it. The more you hate the assignment the better. Just take that word/assignment, water it, make sure it gets plenty of sun, and watch it grow. Just keep your fingers crossed it doesn’t turn out to be a face tarantula.