After an inspiring conversation with my homie Jeff Holt about finding things that inspire you, and putting them in once place. Being inspired is a huge piece of being creative, and being creative on a consistent basis.

This whole conversation inspired me to create http://inspired.nickonken.com, which is really a public scrapbook of imagery, videos, quotes, and other things that inspire me. I’ve talked a little bit about this in my Vision Board post a while back. Curating imagery that inspires you is a way to help you hone your visual style. I think it’s a great exercise that teaches you to see. Curating is similar to editing in the fact that you are culling together images that are appropriate for a certain outcome. This outcome being “what you’re inspired by”. You can then break down what it is you like about this palette of imagery and integrate elements into the way you see your for your work.

Jeff showed me his tumblr blog, and the tumblr blog engine finally made sense to me. It’s an extended version of twitter in the fact that you can follow people, reblog their posts, add your own posts, and search the tumblr databases. I had my tumblr interface custom coded by my friends in Mexico, GL Pepper. I wanted a mood board/magazine style format that has a lot of images on the page so it creates a feeling. The great thing about tumblr, is you can scroll through your past posts, and one of my favorites is viewing your archive. http://inspired.nickonken.com/archive It thumbnails everything (like this screenshot). You can find the archive here: http://inspired.nickonken.com/archive. Doing this in a public fashion will allow me to find imagery through the tumblr community, and be able to access it anywhere. I really found it great on this last editorial shoot we just did this weekend, in the fact I could pull it up on my iPad and have the images as reference right there for the team. I think it will be great to see as an ongoing log and evolution of what inspires me, and in turn, share that with a community.

http://inspired.nickonken.com

Through a few recent conversations, and even speaking at the Lara Casey’s MTH 2010 seminar, I’ve come to a harder realization that in any passion driven career, you’ve got to want it, and you’ve got to want it for the absolute right reasons. If you don’t, you won’t want to put in the ridiculous amount of work it takes to make it. The fact of the matter is, any art/passion driven career is WORK, and an extreme amount of it. On the flip side, if you absolutely LOVE your craft and doing it, then it actually isn’t work. I’ve seen a handful of people get into photography not necessarily because they love it, but because they like the acclaim that goes with it whatever that may be. It appears to be a highly glamorous job(as it is), but it is also a hell of a lot of work, and if you don’t love actually “making pictures” and creating art, then it in fact becomes work and to endure the longevity of getting to a sustainable point in a career, your passion has to drive you.

The lovely thing is, that if you actually do love it then you’ll never work a day in your life. (well, the dirty office work like accounting always seems like work, but you can keep working to the point that you can hire other people to do that stuff). I feel blessed to wake up every day and think “What can I create today?” My TO DO list is filled with things I love and want to be doing. That my friends is a personal choice, but along with putting in the hard work in the earlier years, things become easier as you grow.

I know realize that when I was a graphic designer, I never loved the actual craft as much as I do with photography. When I started doing photography, I knew exactly what I wanted to be doing in the end. That gave me the passion, and motivation to get there.

The artistic evolution and journey is a long one. If you truly love it, you will ride it and do what it takes to get there. Transitions, sacrifices, successes and all.

Thanks to all who entered the Photo Trekking contest. I sent the images in no order to the judges without them knowing the numbers of votes, and out of coincidence or maybe it’s just fate, the winners ended up being in the exact order of number of votes.

The winner is… Alejo Henao.

Alejo wins a trip to New York City for the Photo Trekking book release party, a night stay at the Ace Hotel, and a signed copy of Photo Trekking!

The runners up will also receive a prize. Congratulations to you all for making to the finals.
2nd Place: Nick Keating will receive a 1 hour phone consult and portfolio review with me, and a signed copy of Photo Trekking.
3rd Prize: Stephanie Mcbride, a signed copy of Photo Trekking
4th & 5th Prizes: Annie Fredrigo & Kathyrn Page A signed copy of Photo Trekking

If you didn’t see their photos, click to the previous post here to view them.

Thank you all who participated!

One of the biggest things I love about travel photography in 3rd world countries is that you see things that, well hopefully have an impact on the way you see the world. I know it does for me. To see people in dire circumstances who have little to nothing, yet are happy and content with their lives is eye opening and life changing.

In December, I had a chance to go with my friend in Manilla to a place called Smokey Mountain. I saw things I’ve never seen before. Smokey Mountain is a landfill where squatters live. They live on the landfill, so they can pull all the recyclables out of the trash to make money. Usually the happiest are the kids. They get creative with their toys. They make the best out of the situation they have. The squatters set up almost a small town within the landfill. They even have little stores, one of which have what’s called “brush off food” where they sell food items they’ve found in the trash and “brush off” the dirt. Definitely gives you an idea of the circumstances.

Another big realization is the waste of plastic bags. It made me really think of how many plastic bags we waste in the US, and how much they can actually recycle. The photo below is a grand illustration of the waste. I’ve made a better effort to not use plastic bags as much as I can, using reusable grocery tote bags, etc. It’s something I think we should all make an effort to do. Seeing all this really made me realize how wasteful we are, especially in a city like New York.

All in all, even photos don’t describe the experience of actually being there. The five senses really bring it to reality. The smell of the rotting trash decomposing in front of you, the sounds of the kids running around, the sight of trash for days, and the crunch of trash with each step. These photos don’t do justice to the actual experience, but you get the idea. Click here to see the whole story.

In lu of my January post “Only You Can Make S%#@ Happen“, I thought I’d take a second to talk about the Making Things Happen 2010 workshop that my friends Lara Casey and Jeff Holt are running around the US doing. From talking to them it’s been some pretty amazing experiences and time, with many people’s lives being changed to find their passion and go for it.

I am excited to be guest speaking at the New York workshop on March 22nd. I’ll be talking about my story of my journey over the last few years. The Transitions, Passion, and Sacrifices it took to get to where I’m at now, as well as a Q&A. We’ll be talking more about the artistic journey of doing what you love than the technical side of photography. I will also be giving away 2 signed copies of my Photo Trekking book at the workshop.

Check out the MTH 2010 site for more info. Would love to see you there!
http://laracasey.com/mth2010/

It's a new decade, and I'm ready to rock. Maybe that sounds cliche, but the last couple years of my life have I've learned that "I" am the only one that can decide make things happen for myself. I don't mean that in the "I am God and I decide all" sense by any stretch. What I do mean is that "I" meaning me, you, or whoever you are, am the only ones who can make the internal decision to pursue our passions with full hustle and work to make them happen. I approach my life in the lifestyle design sense in that crafting the lifestyle you want takes an approach of design, making conscious decisions to work hard, and sacrifice where needed to make your desired lifestyle priorities happen. My good friend Joy recently tweeted "good things come to those who don't wait & just make it happen." which sums this mantra up. I've realized that making things happen comes through your approach of moving through the world. We all have fears, insecurities, and issues, but in the end, it is all up to us to make the decision to approach life in the offense position.

My homey Jeff Holt turned me on to this book "Crush It"(an easy 130 page read), which speaks exactly to this point. The driving message of the book being "Make the decision to live your passion whole heartedly no matter what it is because in this day in age if you do it right, you can monezite it" but the point is that it has to be your passion. This idea resonates in one of my favorite quotes by Confucius "Choose a job you love, and you'll never work a day in your life." With technology these days, you can make a living creating a business out of anything you want to. You just have to have the ambition and hustle to do it. Now, I never said this would be easy, but if you are truly pursuing what you are passionate about then it will never feel like work. I feel lucky enough to do what I do. In reality? I work probably 60-80 hours a week without a blink of an eye. The thing is, I feel like my life is a vacation. (which many of my friends think it is too) The process to design this lifestyle took a big transitions, living my passion, and sacrificing like hell to get to this point, and it's an ongoing process.

Another key to making things happen is to surround yourself with the people that are motivated hustlers. The people that inspire you to be a better person, to be better at what you do, how you approach life. Your support system is key, but this in itself is a conscious decision to surround yourself with these people, and on the flip side, what are you doing to inspire others to want to hang out with you? I think attitude is a key factor. People like to spend time with other people that inspire, and encourage. Some have different styles of being more vocal, or just being inspiring by what they do. In fact, to me the act of "Doing" inspires the hell out of me. A big reason for my move to New York. My level of influence of people doing amazing things, hustling, and succeeding has upped significantly. Something that this city has in it's DNA. I'm a firm believer in moving the things and people in your life that bring you down, drain you, hold you back, etc. out of your life, or to a minimum. I believe in helping others and giving back as much as possible as well. Only you know when you're being the influencer or being influenced though. Take the victim role and you'll never get anywhere in life.

It's funny how conversing about these things brings with like minded friends creates inspiration and opportunities. I know many people have asked if I do workshops and such, and at this point I haven't planned any, but I will be guest speaking at my good friend Lara Casey's Make It Happen NYC seminar in March. I been hearing rave reviews from the last few. This seminar is for anyone in any industry wanting to "make it happen". Check out the seminar details here.

What do I want out of 2010? A well balanced passionate life with great people, great food, and great wine. I want to be a better photographer, grow my business, start more business, build better relationships, and much more. Live life for the epic moments. Life is short and who knows how long it will be.

Photo Editor posted this today. An interview with one of my favorite photographers, Ben Watts. It's pretty inspiring to see his progression and to know he's been shooting for 15 plus years. The one quote at the end is the best:

“There’s no such thing as luck, you create your own.”

It's so true. You have to be a hustler to be successful in life. Talent will only get you so far.

Went to an art show party last night for Arielle Pytka, my friend Sacha's sister. You'll find Arielle modeling in a lot of the Roxy campaigns and many others. I enjoyed her work, especially the typography driven pieces.

My director friend Omri(who I collaborate with on a lot of projects ie: The Legend of Santi), got into a conversation with their dad, Joe Pytka who is one of the most famous commercial directors. He's directed over 5,000 commercials in his career. He had some great words of wisdom.

The thing I walked away with, is staying true to spontenaity and real moments which something. It is the element that we as humans connect with in films, and imagery. So many times, big productions get convoluted and art directed to the point where you lose spontenaity of real moments because there's not room to let them happen. It's part of the process. Authentic moments are a big part of my work, and something I want to strive to keep and try to infuse as much as possible into commerical shoots. When I shoot I like to create scenarios and let moments happen, then snap the photograph at the right moment.

The conversation was a good inspiration to keep looking for those moments.

Just wrapped The 99 Percent Conference here in New York. This conference was about making creative ideas happen, and it was definitely inspiration in that respect. Overall it was great, and a lot of the speakers were inspiring which made it worth it, but I don’t feel they connected the dots as much as I would have liked to hear. I was hoping to hear more stories, and methods of how to get from A to B, but it was more so just motivating you to go from A to B without any HOW to get from A to B. How do I move an idea forward by creating a product, business plan, and raise capital to implement? (If any 99% people reading this, that would be my only constructive feedback) Would I go back again? Yeah, if the processes were refined. It would have been great to hear how the speakers went from point A to point B. It was great to be with a group of creative professionals. The branding of the conference was fantastic.

Ok, so that said, I did get a lot of really great nuggets of wisdom. Of which, Here are a few to impart to you that really stuck out to me.

1. “Surround yourself with people that motivate you.” -Scott Thomas(Design Director for the Obama Campaign) “You are who you hang out with.” -Jason Randall This was a big common thread of the conference, and something that was a great reminder to myself. I’ve always believed in aligning and spending most of your time with people that motivate and inspire you. It’s a key to being successful. Hanging out with people that inspire you to be a better person and motivate you creates a synergy that propels your dreams. What does your close circle of friends look like? In the same respect, how much do you give to inspire others?

2. “Write everything down.” -Scott Thomas Another great reminder that makes you commit to getting things done. I recently started writing my to do list down on with a sharpie on a piece of paper. It’s definitely helped me to be more productive.

3. “Personal & Professional projects compliment each other.” -Ji Lee(Creative Director, Google Labs) This is so true, and something that completely translates into the world of photography. I’ve always been a big advocator in shooting your own projects. If anything, you are building portfolio work that will get you hired for your vision in the future. Sometimes they will translate into money down the road. (experiencing that now) Ji talked a lot about personal projects and how they are an essential part of the creative journey. They challenge you, and create a personal motivation. They are always fun, and give you a purpose in life even if its for a short period of time. Previous Related Posts: Testing For Your Book, ABS Theory, Expanding your Default

4. “Sharing is Rewarding.” -Ji Lee Always the case. Sharing is always personally rewarding. Besides, what goes around comes around. Give and it shall be given to you. I believe that. This blog is a way for me to give back in a broad casted platform. Life in this world gets busy, so gets hard to answer everyones questions as much as I’d like to.

5. “I cannot depend on others to make things happen.” -Ji Lee So true. You can only depend on yourself to make things happen. Make the decisions to get’er done! Do Work!

6. “Reduce everything to an action you can do RIGHT now.” -Scott Belsky This simplified things for me. Sometimes we get so bogged down in the grand scheme that it gets too overwhelming to even begin. Reducing to a single action that you can do right now make it easy to get that ball rolling.

One of my greatest inspirations are great films. I'm sure you've heard the rave about Slumdog Millionaire by this point, and if you haven't then let this be the start. This film for me was hands down one of the most amazing films I've seen. It was amazing in all aspects, but most of all, the cinematography. Every clip from the film was a beautiful photograph. If you've ever photographed in India, you'll know what a crazy place it is to photograph. It reminds me of shooting there. Here are a couple stories from my shoots in India:

http://nickonken.com/Asia/Varanassi/
http://nickonken.com/Asia/SouthIndia/

I'm definitely inspired to push my travel work even further. The soundtrack to Slumdog, was pretty amazing too. A lot of it was by MIA. The story was a wonderful one that kept you on the edge of your seat the whole time? I mean, it's not everyday someone can write a great lovestory based on Who Wants to be a Millionaire..

So, if you haven't seen it, go see it.Watch the trailer here.

Here are a few of some of the beautiful stills from the movie: