Notes from 48th International STC Conference
Chicago, Illinois, May 13-16, 2001

Keynote Address

Dewitt Jones

Jones is one of America's top photographers. His photographs have been featured in National Geographic for twenty years, and his work has earned him a reputation as a world-class photojournalist. Before he turned 30, Jones had directed two films that were nominated for Academy Awards in 1975: "Climb", for Best Live Action Short Film, and "John Muir's High Sierra", for Best Short Subject Documentary. His successes have included marketing campaigns for clients such as Dewar's Scotch, Canon, United Airlines, and Nikon.

Session Description: One of America's top professional photographers discusses creativity in clear, inspiring terms. Using photography as a metaphor for the creative process, Jones argues that creation can occur only when people have learned how to "frame problems into opportunities." According to Jones, for creation to be possible, people must learn how to see what others do not.

• Vision, passion, purpose, and creativity.
• Jones began with a story about two stone carvers working on a huge medieval construction project. Both were hunched over huge blocks of granite, soaked in sweat, chipping away. A priest happened by and asked one of the workers what he was doing. The worker looked up with a pained expression as if to say "what does it look like I'm doing?" and replied, "I'm chipping stone." The priest repeated the inquiry to the second worker. The second worker looked up, a smile radiating through his sweat-soaked face, and said, "I'm building a cathedral." The difference was vision.
• Passion helps conform the ordinary into the extraordinary...that is the key to creativity.
• Frost: "My object in life is to unite my vocation and my avocation." Loving your work is a key factor in creativity, not to mention enjoyment of life.
• Jones withdrew from Harvard Business School and enrolled in UCLA film school and sold National Geographic on filming a kayak trip up the coast of Japan. He had to appeal an initial rejection of his idea to a senior executive of the magazine before getting funding...persistence in pursuing one's purpose is a key part of getting opportunity. The film was highly successful and launched Jones' career.
• National Geographic's vision was to celebrate what's right with the world rather than what's wrong. Jones grew to share that vision.
• Positive attitude had a great deal to do with his success...he expected to find the great images, the wonderful places, the memorable people...and he did.
• Passion and creativity make discipline and commitment a non-issue.
• He saw a sign that said, "Second place is just the first loser." What a terrible philosophy with which to approach life! Nature taught him there is more than one right answer. There is an abundance of wonderful images -- not just one image hiding in the forest that only one photographer can find and the rest are all losers.
• Creativity means finding many right answers to the same question. Jones showed an example of three different perspectives on a field of lilies... one involving a boy picking flowers, one at ground level, one from above. Don't stop at the first right answer. Look for the next right answer.
• Embrace change rather than fear it.
• Hit the ground running each morning, with a sense of abundance rather than scarcity.
• A field of dandelions produced no inspiration...a few days later he found puffballs, which led to one of his most famous shots... a close-up of a dandelion puffball backlit by the rising sun.
• The average Geographic article has 400 rolls of film and 14,400 images shot to get the 30 images that actually appear in print
• Somebody once asked Jones, "How many good ones do you get in a roll of 36?" That's the amateur question. The professional question is, "Did you get it?"
• There are 4 steps in the creative process:
   
1. Focus the vision. Start not with what's wrong with an image, but what's right with it. Michelangelo once said, "I saw an angel in the stone and carved to set it free."
2. Perfect your technique. Vision without technique is blind. He had to be ready when nature provided the opportunity; he couldn't be fiddling with f-stops and the like.
3. Put yourself in the place of most potential. He frequently spent 90% of his effort getting to the best place to take the shot, getting to the place where nobody else had been or would take the trouble to go.
4. Be open to possibilities. Don't lock in on the first right answer. Look around the corner for the new wrinkle that will change a good frame into a great frame. The difference between a good frame and a great frame is often a matter of millimeters or milliseconds. He gave several slides exemplifying that fact. Don't ever rest on what you have shot... an even better opportunity might be just around the corner. Look not for the right answer, not even the other right answer, but the next right answer.
• Ask yourself, not what picture will l take today but what will I be given?... and will I be open enough to see it?
• Change is possibility. The times of most change hold the most potential.
• He was inspired by sea kites in Hawaii who could traverse great distances without ever flapping their wings, simply by gliding on the thermals. The moral of the story is to quit your flapping and ride your thermals. This is a life lesson, not just a way to take great pictures. To reach your full potential as a person as well as as a professional, you have to be willing to step off the edge and ride the thermals.
• An instructor in a meditation class gave Jones (who was not very good at meditating), one simple mantra: Life is like taking a breath. Take it all in and give it all back.
• Jones closed with another metaphor, involving white water rafting. To run the river of life, you first have to know your own boat, hone your technique, and ride your own ride. Great possibiilities are always fraught with turbulence. The river is always changing. But if you never let go and ride, you will never experience life.
• In closing, Jones returned to the theme of one of his favorite films, Dead Poets Society: Carpe diem...Seize the day.