IPA Award

“Photography is the easiest medium in which to be proficient, but the hardest in which to display personal vision."

Lorne is pleased to announce that his series for Jacuzzi has won first place in Advertising, Catalogues in the prestigious 2008 International Photography Awards. Here is some information on the awards from the IPA website:

The Pilsner Urquell International Photography Awards Competition is the world's most prestigious photography contest whose mission is to salute the achievements of the world's finest photographers, to discover new and emerging talent, and to promote the appreciation of photography. There were more than 22,000 entries submitted from 124 countries across the globe for this years competition.

To see Lorne's winning images from the IPA site go here.

To see the 2008 advertising photography winners page go here.

The Work of Creativity

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace. Making the complicated simple, that’s creativity." -Charles Mingus

Is every creative product the result of a single "creative process"? Many individuals and business training programs claim that they know what "creative thinking" consists of and that they can teach it. Creative individuals usually have their own theories-often quite different from one another. Robert Galvin says that creativity consists of anticipation and commitment. Anticipation involves having a vision of something that will become important in the future before anybody else has it; commitment is the belief that keeps one working to realize the vision despite doubt and discouragement.

The creative process starts with a sense that there is a puzzle somewhere, or a task to be accomplished. Perhaps something is not right, somewhere there is a conflict, a tension, a need to be satisfied. The problematic issue can be triggered by a personal experience, by a lack of fit in the symbolic system, by the stimulation of colleagues, or by public needs. In any case, without such a felt tension that attracts the psychic energy of the person, there is no need for a new response. Therefore, without a stimulus of this sort, the creative process is unlikely to start.

PRESENTED AND DISCOVERED PROBLEMS: Problems are not all alike in the way they come to a person's attention. Most problems are already formulated; everybody knows what is to be done and only the solution is missing. The person is expected by employers, patrons, or some other external pressure to apply his or her mind to the solution of a puzzle. These are "presented" problems. But there are also situations in which nobody has asked the question yet, nobody even knows that there is a problem. In this case the creative person identifies both the problem and the solution. Here we have a "discovered" problem. Einstein, among others, believed that the really important breakthroughs in science come as a result of reformulating old problems or discovering new ones, rather than by just solving existing problems. Or as Freeman Dyson said: "It is characteristic of scientific life that it is easy when you have a problem to work on. The hard part is finding your problem.”

Creativity Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Dimpled Balls

“The harder you work, the luckier you get.” -Gary Payer

Sparks of creativity often flow from new knowledge. Frequently it's information about things that are completely new to you. Sometimes, it's new facts about familiar things. And sometimes it's information about things that you didn't know you didn't know. This last category, usually filled with items that are silly and fanciful, can provide a platform for your imagination to jump from.

So here I present the: "Things you didn't know you didn't know" section (or the alternately titled: "Trivia to win bar bets" section).

Why Do Golf Balls Have Dimples?

Because dimples are cute? No. We should have known better than to think that golfers, who freely wear orange pants in public, would worry about cosmetic appearances. Golf balls have dimples because in 1908 a man named Taylor patented this cover design. Dimples provide greater aerodynamic lift and consistency of flight than a smooth ball. Jacque Hetric, director of Public Relations at Spalding, notes that the dimple pattern, regardless of where the ball is hit, provides a consistent rotation of the ball after it is struck. Janet Seagle, librarian and museum curator of the United States Golf Association, says that other types of patterned covers were also used at one time. One was called a "mesh," another the "bramble." Although all three were once commercially available, "the superiority of the dimpled cover in flight made it the dominant cover design." Although golfers love to feign that they are interested in accuracy, they lust after power. Dimpled golf balls travel farther as well as straighter than smooth balls. So those cute little dimples will stay in place until somebody builds a better mousetrap.

Life’s Imponderables. The Answers to Civilization’s Most Perplexing Questions.
-David Feldman