Mind The Gap

I kind of wish Ira Glass would just follow me around all day and say inspiring things. 

In the meantime, this video below is a solid alternative. Anyone pursuing creative endeavors of any kind should watch this every now and then to remind them that it takes a lot of practice and determination to get to the place you want to be.

I think it was in the time of spring 2012, when I came across David Shiyang Liu's lovely piece of work about Ira Glass. It was the most inspiring and motivating video I had ever seen in my life. I watched it over and over again, listened to Ira Glass' voice, and told myself, that I am not the only person who is constantly disappointed about the gap between one's taste and one's skills. Later in 2012, I decided to do my own filmed version of Ira's interview - using my own language to tell his message. It took me about a year from concept to upload. I made it for myself and for anybody who is in doubt about his/her creative career. I also think that Ira Glass' message isn't only limited to the creative industry. It can be applied to everyone who starts out in a new environment and is willing to improve. THANK YOU Ira Glass, whom I've never met in real life, but who had such a big influence on my development. Thank you for telling beginners what nobody else does. David Shiyang Liu for the video that inspired me to start the project. You all should watch his awesome kineticTypo-version here: http://vimeo.com/24715531 The people from current.tv who originally recorded the interview with Ira Glass. See the relevant part here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI23U7U2aUY The people from Magic Lantern who gave DSLR videography a new dimension (I chose this project to be a test run with the RAW plugin)! Steven Sasseville for painting the "taste" painting for me. Pedro Sousa for his advice and working his ass off at the "creative work" chalkboard. Wolfgang Kraus for letting me borrow his sound equipment. Kai Löhnert for working out on his birthday in the "fight" take. Wolfgang Hendrik Schnabel for giving me the museum-like atmosphere and his silhouette in the painting takes. Hermiyas Ötztürk for his hairy "good enough" hand. Orange Hive Studio for light equipment and location. Mima and Heinz Sax-Schmitz for the location of the "ambitions" take and finding me the "finish 1 story" typewriter. Joyce Chen (https://vimeo.com/clownmori), Soufiane Mabrouki (http://vimeo.com/user21466567), Damien Tsenkoff (https://www.behance.net/damtsnkff), Nikita Samutin (www.baselinedesign.ru) and Andrej Mikula (http://amara.org/en/profiles/profile/65015/) for taking the time and patience to create Chinese, Arabic, French, Russian and Slovak subtitles and dissolving language barriers to make even more people understand Ira's words. A SPECIAL THANK YOU Solveig Gold for being the most patient and supporting person in my life. She appears in a lot of scenes in this video. Jutta and Uwe Sax for several pieces of equipment and their support.

Did you watch it? Okay, good.

As I'm starting to pursue this blog and the photography/videography/styling side of food a little more seriously in my personal and professional life, I really identify with "the gap." I'm pretty sure my taste is still about a Grand Canyon away from my skill level — it's a significant gap. It's the kind of gap that made me shy away from practicing for long time, because I was never very happy with the results. And because, in general, I don't like being bad at things. Even hobbies.

But I picked the camera back up again and again, took more pictures and fell in love with the process so much that I would completely lose track of time. Now a lot less of those pictures suck (progress!).

I thought the image at the top of this post would be fitting because it was the first photo I took where I was like, "Hey, this is pretty good." For the first time ever, I didn't pick it apart. I genuinely liked the composition and the light (and — bonus — it wasn't blurry or overexposed!). I even liked the way I edited it, which is saying something because I am constantly looking at older photos on this blog and wondering WTF I was thinking.

For the first time, a photo was good enough to get a gold star from my stodgiest critic — me.

Now, almost two years after I took that photo en route to Kansas City for The Midwestival, I find myself wanting to re-edit it. Like, just a liiiiiittle bit. And that might be picky, but I'm calling it progress. I've come to accept that I'm constantly embarrassed by my first drafts, and that's okay because it means I'm getting better.

Anyway, I thought this would be a good way to celebrate the new year and a new approach to Worthy Pause.

Cheers to doing more of the things that make you lose track of time, punching self-doubt in the face and slowly narrowing that gap.