Two quick announcements, that is I’m doing one more gear giveaway for the remainder of November, 2018. All you have to do is share the show on one of your social media channels, your blog, an email to some friends, any way that you can share the show and let folks know you enjoy it will be good. I then need a screen capture of that share to be emailed to me at my email address, brent@latitudephotographypodcast.com and you’ll be entered to win either the Exposure 13 or the FirstLight 20 by ThinkTank Photo. Both are great bags, I love them and I’m sure you will to. One entry per person please, and you must reside in the US and be 18 or older to participate. Also, I’m doing a listener meetup on April 14, 2019 in San Francisco. I’ll fly in to town and get there by mid afternoon, so I’ll be looking for a place to shoot sunset, and maybe we can grab a bite to eat afterwards as well. Shoot me an email or find me on Facebook and let me know you’re interested and I’ll keep you informed as I make plans on where to shoot. I’ll be staying close in, probably about a 2-hour limit from the airport. Shooting the golden gate bridge would be rather fun, I’ve never done that before, so we’ll see. I’m still making plans. Alright, on with the show where I speak with Richard Bernabe about the Creative Principle… Topic 1: Interview with Richard Bernabe: Creative Principle Today my guest is Richard Bernabe. He’s a prolific photographer and traveler focusing on nature, wildlife and travel photography. Richard, welcome to the show…. The first thing I want to talk about is your article on the Creative Principle. It’s a blog post found on your website and the link is found in the show notes, or folks can just look up your site and find the article titled “Essential Photography: The Creative Principle” Article Link: https://www.richardbernabe.com/essential-photography-creative-principle/ Main Points of interest: Creativity is the process of making something new and useful. And therefore, the photograph needs to be new and useful. Help us understand what you mean by that. You also make a point about how following the “rules” of photography is useful, but there’s nothing new in any of them. This is an excellent concept. And you go on to encourage people to break the rules. Let’s talk about that for a moment. I’m going to read a quote from the post, and let’s talk about it a bit. “Knowing why the rules work will lead to something akin to a higher state of compositional enlightenment: knowing when your photo is successful when not using the rules, or better yet, purposely breaking them. Once you get to that happy place, you will be on the path to true creative synthesis.” Let’s talk about creative failures and the risks involved in the pursuit of creativity and something new and useful. You mention how you’re not thinking about the “rules” of photography when you’re out shooting. That you defer to what feels right. I think I know what you’re saying here. When I was in Hong Kong recently with a friend, I was shooting the clouds coming in on the buildings in Victoria Harbor. We were at an overview at the peak area and I was talking about the meaning of the cloud forms and what they were doing to the buildings. Composition was not my concern. I was looking to express what that meant to me and he was just looking at me a bit oddly. Is that kind of what you mean though when you say you’re not thinking about the rules? You end the post with another great quote, “Learn the rules, adopt the Creative Principle, then follow your heart and intuition to a life of creative expression. Enjoy the journey.” It seems simple. And it probably is for some, but what “hang-ups” can keep us from fully achieving this? The second topic is your blog titled “Travel Photography: It’s About the Destination” Article Link: https://www.richardbernabe.com/travel-photography-destination/ Use this link for excellent gear at the Peak Design website. It helps support my podcasting effor