Dear Friends,
Happy Sunday everyone! I hope this message finds you doing well and having a relaxing, creatively inspired day. I am pleased to share Issue #3 of the newsletter with you. Please enjoy and best wishes for a fun, productive week ahead.
Warm regards, Jeff
In the last few weeks — on “warmer days” — I’ve had two opportunities to visit Lake Street, a charming waterfront spot with shops, restaurants, and places to congregate near another one of our many Minnesota lakes. In this series, I thought I would share some black and white street moments I photographed while visiting Lake Street in the later afternoon hours.
It is always exciting to notice a potential street photography scene immediately after arriving at a location. Here, I parked my car in a covered garage. As I was departing the garage, I noticed the beautiful light and shadows cascading down the building across the street. Scenes like this are a great warm up photo opportunity for me. In this case, I got lucky when an unexpected subject entered my scene and was warming up too.
The storefronts on Lake Street get amazing sunlight in the late afternoon. I always walk by this shop as the mannikins are positioned to be in the light for hours and sometimes cast shadows on the wall adjacent to them. During this visit, the light was intense enough to cause quite a geometric scene full of textures, lines, shadows, and shapes. Unfortunately, this spot is pretty quiet and rarely attracts people to stop, congregate, or take a break. Driven by a fear of missing out, I visit this location every time I am taking photographs at Lake Street as I would hate to miss an unfolding magical moment.
This gentleman and I acted on the same observation. We both noticed the sun rays leaking through the moody clouds. He stepped forward to frame up the scene with his smartphone. I stayed back to take pretty much the same photo but included him in the scene to provide a human element. What can I say — during the frozen months in Minnesota, we have to take advantage of the few street moments available to us.
This photograph was a happy accident. I was looking to take a double exposure photograph with this scene being the initial image. I thought I lost the photograph when I turned the wrong dial. I wonder what I would have layered on top of it.
I guess we will never know…..
Nonetheless, I do like the sky and the sense of minimalism on the right 2/3 of the frame. Definitely a spot to revisit once the dirty snow melts in the foreground.
There is another large, covered, parking garage behind Lake street. The shadows produced by the light pouring through the massive garage windows with repeating metal slats are tremendous. I could literally spend all day in this location finding interesting compositions and points of view. On this day, foot traffic was minimal and so I didn’t have any opportunities to catch a person walking through the scene as a silhouette. I guess there is always next time…..
If you are enjoying A Twenty Percent Creative, please consider sharing the newsletter with your family and friends.
MICHAEL ABOYA
In 2020, I was introduced to the work of Michael Aboya via his Instagram account, @aboya.8. Michael is a super talented fine art and fashion photographer from Ghana, West Africa. His photographs are beautifully presented on his website (aboya8.com). Michael has a bold, distinctive style — full of energy, humanity, positivity, and joy. He uses perspective, sub-framing, and color so well. Michael has gained a lot of attention in the last few years after winning a large photography award and working with Adobe. Here is a video about Michael and his photography journey.
OLGA KARLOVAC
Olga Karlovac is a talented Croatian photographer and artist. I have been following Olga for several years on Instagram @olga.karlovac. Her body of work is unique, fascinating, and intriguing. Olga uses reflections, slow shutter exposures, and black and white aesthetics to transform everyday scenes and people into surreal moments, figures, spaces, and places. Olga’s photographs demand attention. She has exhibited her work internationally in recent years. Olga has published 3 photography books — Before Winter, The Disarray, and Escape. The video Before Dawn, a photo slideshow and music ensemble, brings Olga’s work to life. If you are interested in hearing Olga speak about her photography, do check out her interview with Jeffery Saddoris on his Process Driven podcast.
I would love to hear your feedback on the newsletter so far. Please email me directly at: jeff@jeffreymkarp.com
**Not an ad: I am not sponsored by any of the companies mentioned in this post.
I have a love-hate relationship with to-do lists and task managers.
I have tried and been unsuccessful using literally dozens of task managers.
A few months ago, I spent a whole day researching to-do apps and task managers in the iPhone app store. I was looking for the following features:
Simple yet flexible user interface
Visual display of tasks
Color code system to differentiate tasks by context (ie home, work)
Ability to move tasks easily with gestures not typing
Ability to remove tasks once complete
Nothing extra — no tags, no labels, no drop down menu, no attachments, no 3rd party integrations, etc.
Free version that would allow me to try it for several months and add 100s of tasks without requirement to do paid version
After reviewing the details and previews of more than 50 apps, I discovered Kanbana (https://kanbana.com/). Kanbana uses a kanban board style user interface where single tasks are added to color coded cards. These cards can be moved from column to column as projects progress or due dates are updated.
I have been using the free version of Kanbana for several months now and have more than 200 tasks in my system right now on my iPhone. Kanbana has been a joy to use, has worked seamlessly, and has really helped me to stay on top of many projects. Earlier today, I purchased a subscription so I can use Kanbana on my iPad and laptop too. I am thankful for this simple yet powerful app that has fixed a long standing pain point in my personal management system.
Please feel free to leave a comment if you have questions about how I specifically use Kanbana for my personal task management system.
If you are interested in learning more about kanban boards, here are some resources:
What is a kanban board? by Atlassian Agile Coach
This week, I found these resources to be interesting, informative, and instructive.
Lay Another Brick - A Beautiful Anarchy | Episode 80 - David duChemin
Masterpiece: The Making of Migrant Mother - Evan Puschak (“Nerdwriter”)
Dollar Store Creative Lighting - Lindsay Adler - Adorama
My One Year Black & White Challenge: What I‘ve Learned - Samuel Lintaro
Begrudgingly - Seth Godin
Website: https://www.jeffreymkarp.com
Instagram: @jeffreymkarp