I love it when people blog and use the photography I post up on flickr. This has got to be one of the best uses of flickr around, and as long as people aren’t posting my silly mug up on posterboards or commercials without my consent I have practically no concern on the matter. Some of my photos have even been on pages supporting political groups that I don’t, but it was clear from the article that the photo was used to set a visual tone rather than to say that the photographer promoted the material.

The latest blog to use one of my photos is Alan Morantz’s Leading Thoughts. In this article he discusses how art can be used to develop leadership skills! Cool! That’s actually one of the reasons for the many photographs up on flickr and blogposts lately. I’m trying hard to learn a certain level of diligence that will hopefully lead to better leadership and organizational skills. I’m also trying to put something creative out there that can be used to enrich the world and bring happiness to others. I’m not good enough to make blogging or photography a full-time business, but someday I might learn some great hidden nugget of wisdom and become a world-renown motivational speaker to twelve-year-olds that will allow me to indulge in supplimenting the task with photography and blogs. Then again, reality tells me I should get back to work – lunch break is over!

Ok. So I suck at photoshop. The latest few flickr photos show my shame. But this is interesting – it gives me an opportunity. I could either say “eww, this is too embarrassing” and give up on making fantasy photoshop shots or I could say “eww, this isn’t what I wanted” and keep trying until I get it right.

Every time I get these choices I tend to pick the safer and less embarrassing of the two. I wonder which way I’ll turn this time.

Another creative venue is photography. There are some amazingly brilliant works on Flickr and I’ve long enjoyed it, but the 200 picture limit on free accounts caused me to pull back almost entirely. I shelled out the $25 and am going in deep.

I thought about going into portrait photography, but my skills there are so limited. I’ve got to think about new forms of expression, and need to learn work flow. So the skills I expect to acquire from this experience will propel me into new ideas, better management of content and more enjoyment than anything the digital airways has to offer.

This is the second of the “365 days” group entries. Not only do I have to take a picture every day, it has to be of myself. That’s a tough subject because I’ve always hated portraits of myself – and now I have to step out of that comfort zone and take one every day.

This picture was inspired from thinking about biblical times and wishing I were any one of those disciples that surrounded Jesus. Well… maybe not Judas Iscariot, but one of those other ones.