Hi ,

I just got back from two weeks in England, much of which was spent exploring the beautiful and rugged Cornwall coast. I'd only been to England once before in my life, and that was in July 1994, when I gave myself a few short days in London on my way back from my Baltoro Glacier trek in the Karakoram Himalayas of Pakistan.

That was the trip where I shot my iconic "Sunrise on K2" image, which you can see below. (Click this link to read the story about how I got this shot.)

Anyway, after all these years, I finally decided that it was time to go see some other parts of England, so after flying into Heathrow and renting a little tiny Renault, we headed west and spent over a week on the coast, staying in Minehead, Bude, Port Isaac, (Doc Martin, anyone?) and St. Ives, with three days in London at the end.

Fortunately, I'd had some practice with left-had drive during my New Zealand trip earlier this year, so while it was quite exciting at times, I did pretty darn well.

I took minimal camera gear for this trip, only my Fujifilm X-T5 and two lenses, the XF35mm f/2 and XF70-300. 

As with my Barcelona trip, which I did back in May, I spent a significant amount of time filling my sketchbook with drawing and watercolor paintings. I've been totally captured by this new creative outlet, and have been discovering many parallels  that exist between sketching/painting and photography. 

Of course, both are built around color theory, but having shot color imagery for over 30 years, I've got that part pretty dialed. Even so, there are aspects about painting and watercolors that I've never explored with photography, and I find that really intriguing.

Most importantly, they both require a certain sense of "abbreviation" when composing and creating images or paintings. You can't show too much stuff, or else you'll lose the viewer and the piece will lose visual impact. Also, with both, your job is to "represent" the scene in a compelling and unique way, not just perfectly "recreate" it. 

These are things 've stressed a lot over the years with photography, and now I'm having to relearn these ideas in different ways with my sketching. And, I think that the simple practice of exploring them in a different medium will certainly translate back over to the camera. 

Another thing I've noticed is that both require a strong sense of looking and seeing, which is integral to the process of composition, no matter what you're doing. 

However, I discovered on this trip, especially when trying to paint water, that photographing waves and trying to sketch them are very different. When we look through the camera, We need to pay attention to a variety of components to help us create a strong image. 

However, all the shapes in the scene are already fixed; in addition to studying the light and framing, we don't need to try and assemble our subject matter before we capture it. This becomes even more apparent when the subject is moving.

I've photographed a lot of waves over the years, but when I tried to draw them, I suddenly realized that I needed to understand what a moving subject looks like in a specific moment in time. That hit me like a ton of bricks. Having shot action my entire career, that's something I've never had to consider. 

What does a wave actually look like when it's breaking? We don't have to worry about that if we're just taking a picture, but it's absolutely imperative if you've got a paintbrush in your hand instead of a camera. 

In a sense, this fact has opened up a whole new set of creative challenges for me, and I look forward to embracing all of these new aspects of looking and seeing, both with the camera, and with my sketching and painting. 

Do you have other artistic outlets that compliment or contrast with the creative skills you use with your photography? If so, how do the two blend?

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I this 30-lesson tutorial, I explore a wide range of ideas and creative exercises that are guaranteed to help you learn to see more effectively and shoot more dynamic, exciting images that match your own individual personal vision.

Learning to compose great photographs is a lifelong journey that will adapt with your own evolution of ideas and life experience, but no matter what you shoot, creative photography is a product that pushes both sides of our brain.

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One more thing... 

Since we're talking about creativity and different ways to explore it in our lives...

As many of you know, I'm a guitar player and trained recording producer/engineer with a degree from Berklee College of Music, and I occasionally like to write and record my own music. 

You've probably heard some of it in my YouTube videos. Almost all of them feature my own music in the beginning and ending bumps, and a few of them even feature full musical compositions.

Well, I'm proud to say that I released a brand new song today, which you hear on all the streaming services. 

A love song for the ages, it's a rock and roll track called Genevieve, and I think it's the best song I've ever written. I'm so proud about how it turned out, from the songwriting, to my guitar and vocal performances, to all the production and mixing decisions I made, so if you decide to give it a listen, I hope you like it. 

Plus, I just think with all the trouble in the world, we definitely need more love songs. 

That's all for now. I realize I've been a bit AWOL during the past few months, but with traveling, bike riding, watercolors and writing and recording new music, I've  been a little bit busy and often times away from my computer. 

Thanks for reading, have fun with your creativity this weekend, and happy Fall Equinox on Monday!