Creative Thinking

That's really my goal -- to cultivate creative thinking, create a road map in my brain that solidifies like molten lava and becomes a permanent pathway ... the creative Lisa.

And you  know, it's kind of working.  I am constantly thinking of what to write about and what am I going to take for a self-portrait of the day.  

It makes me look at the world differently -- instead of looking out the window, I am looking out upon a potential canvas -- a place where I can somehow insert myself into the landscape in some manner that will be interesting.   And I am listening closer to what people are saying, paying more attention in the hope that I can glean a blogging moment out of it!  (I better be careful or people won't talk near me at all!)

Yesterday after I climbed out of the shower I was wondering what I could do for that day's picture.  It seemed to make sense to incorporate the blizzard we were having, so I envisioned myself laying in the snow with my wet hair spread like a halo about me.  The crazy thing is, I actually tried this.  I put on a bathrobe, grabbed a towel and laid myself down in at least 8 inches of snow.

I was cracking myself up.  And when I held the camera above me to take the picture, snowflakes kept getting in my eyes.  OH!  And I put lipstick on because I thought the contrast of it against the snow would be cool.

Truly, they were the most hideous pictures. First off, my hair didn't halo, it curled up into frigid little curls and froze itself solid.  So not my vision of golden hair spread out against the milky white virgin snow.  (You can see where I was trying to go.  Oh, I so didn't get there.)

And the lipstick!  You would have thought I would have at least looked in the mirror to make sure it went on okay.  Oh no.  So with poorly applied lipstick I looked like a freak who was for some godforsaken reason laying in the snow half naked.

And the squinting!  I mean, snowflakes were coming down like bullets, I had three dogs sniffing at me -- the things we do.  (Shut up all of you who are saying Get a Life.)

The one cool thing is the hair.  It almost looks as though I am suspended upside down or something.  But the face is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

But I wouldn't have tried it if I didn't have to come up with something -- and that's what I mean when I say I am trying to live in a creative mode.  So those pictures didn't work out, but later I came up with the cool shadow shots in the window.

Today I carried my camera with me while I skied and I took a few shots.  It's kind of hard with the sun blazing down on you and goggles on -- I was basically shooting blind.  But I didn't get anywhere near the pictures I was hoping to.  So I will be carrying my camera with me the next time I ski in order to realize the vision I have.  

And the ideas that others come up with on Flickr are so cool.  One woman posts a picture of herself and then writes a caption that describes it.  And she is good.  So good I am kind of pissed off I didn't think of it first.  But everyone would know I was just copying her!  Lots of other people copy others, but I refuse to (surprise surprise!)  So that makes it even harder for me because there are close to 200 members posting pictures of themselves daily.  Unique ideas are at the bottom of the barrel and it's only 15 days into a 366 day project!

You only have to take a picture of a part of your body -- so a lot of the pictures I think are lame.  One woman takes her feet all the time.  Ho hum.  I am already intrigued by how different I look in the 15 photos I've already taken.  Who am I?  Which one of them truly depicts the person that everyone else sees?

I am constantly amazed at how much I am enjoying both of my little projects.

My name is Lisa and I am an avid blogger.