shoutout to the words "overmorrow" and "ereyesterday". english losing these words was stupid. "the day after tomorrow" "the day before yesterday" clunky-ass constructions. revolting. i'm bringing overmorrow and ereyesterday back in my idiolect and there is nothing you can do about it
I keep wanting to start projects, finish ones I have going now, or learn new things. I just can't right now. I don't have the energy. I can't concentrate.
I keep waffling between wanting to talk about my story in the hopes that it can help other people, and protecting myself from oversharing because I'm still in the midst of it.
I think I'm okay with doing nothing right now. But it is boring.
I always think of the description I saw years ago: Self-imposed deadlines don't help me, because I know the person who set them, and they're full of shit.
Give yourself the treat before you start. I'm serious. And ideally during the task and afterwards too.
Executive dysfunction comes from a lack of available dopamine. Common advice is wrong. You need to provide your own dopamine before you can start. Otherwise you're trying to run your car on empty.
"But what if I still don't do it" well you already weren't getting it done anyway. Now you have a little treat. Try again later.
You deserve kindness and care even when you aren't being productive.
(Also read How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis)
I give my students a LOT of techniques for starting writing when it feels overwhelming or daunting, but one of them is exactly this: dopamine load BEFOREHAND. It may sound weird to people on tumblr dot com, but a lot of people seriously struggle with executive dysfunction when it comes to writing literally anything, to the extent that it can cause such symptoms as panic, depression, and AI chatbot use.
I usually suggest this technique as a "Reverse Pomodoro." In the original Pomodoro, you work for 25 minutes and then take a break for 5 minutes (the times vary, but that's the essential ratio). People with executive dysfunction often find this insurmountable, and they get even more frustrated, and then the task seems even more difficult. So instead, flip those times.
FIRST, spend 25 minutes doing something energizing and engaging that you like to do. Not scrolling social media passively, not watching tv, not napping. Try something like colouring, doing yoga, running/walking around the block, talking about your favourite tv show with someone in real time, playing with the dog or cat, making and eating a lovely sandwich, hula hooping, something active. Having a little treat absolutely falls in this category!
(on the subject of little treats: refusing yourself food until you do work is for fucking Puritans and you can be kinder to yourself)
Then, after 25 minutes (or however long it takes to eat the sandwich or finish the yoga routine, it doesn't have to be exact), spend 5 minutes writing (or doing whatever you're struggling to start). Most people can coax themselves into doing something they find difficult for five minutes, if they have already filled up the joy/energy/engagement bucket. You can put a timer on for the 5 minutes if you want, or if you find that annoying, just work for as long as you like.
The other key is: don't push yourself to keep going when you're frustrated or tired—that will just reinforce the negative belief that you already have, which tells you that this task is painful to do, and needs to be avoided. If you've commonly had to force yourself to do this kind of task, that's likely part of why you think of it as painful and have trouble starting it now. Also, you should just, at a basic level, try not to put yourself in pain for the sake of productivity. So just do it till the good feelings run out. Then start hula hooping or colouring again for another 25 minutes. When the tank's refilled, try another 5 minutes of work, if you can. Adjust times to taste.
Not every technique works for everyone, but I've seen this one work for many students who are genuinely and seriously disabled by executive dysfunction. And many people find themselves getting more and more excited and engaged in the "difficult" task—because the good feelings from the hula hooping carry over, and because they're suddenly able to do the task without feeling pain, and feel accomplishment without feeling pain.
I've been following your blog for... oh god maybe a decade now? It's been so cool to see your photography grow. I'd like to try my hand at doing miniature and diorama photography. Your posts about photography are always so insightful, I was wondering if you had any advice for someone just getting started. I have a lightbox from Amazon, a phone stand, and my phone. Is there anything big I should know about taking photos of very small things? What mistakes do people usually make when they're taking pictures of very small things? Any advice would be absolutely amazing.
(Also thank you for your advice on ring lights and naughty photos -- it definitely helped my self-esteem to know it was the lighting that was weird and unseemingly, not my bits)
There are generally three ways people go about photographing miniatures and dioramas.
Documentary, professional product photos, and cinematic storytelling.
So if you are just trying to get high quality documentation of your miniature stuff, then something like a light box would be fine. You just want to make sure you get soft, even light and good coverage of your subject. Think Amazon product photos.
I wrote a post about how to document 3D museum objects that covers the basics.
And the last style is a more cinematic approach where you photograph your subjects like an actual miniature scene in a movie.
My favorite cinematic toy photographer is Sgt. Bananas (Johnny Wu).
This style of toy photography requires smaller and more precise lighting. You have to remember that a small light for a human is a big light for a toy. And dramatic falloff is determined by distance.
So if you want to get these moody noir shots with gradient falloff, you need to get your lighting very close.
Sgt. Bananas has some videos he did with Tested where he shows off some of his lighting techniques.
He uses small LED lights to create his cinematic style.
If I were putting together a kit I would get a couple of these cube lights.
Amazon.com : SmallRig RM01 Mini LED Video Light Waterproof Portable Lighting Kit with 8 Color Filters, Dimmable Fill Photography Light 5600K
They sell a 3 pack kit with a bunch of helpful accessories.
I would also get an RGB pocket video light.
This is like a softbox for toy sized stuff. The light can stand up on its side so you can get very creative with where you place it. You can make it a window light or a backlight. And it does colors so you can create fun effects with that.
And then I'd probably get one of these LED panel lights so I can get really soft light but still move it in very close to the subjects. This can even work as a background.
Amazon.com : RALENO 19.5W LED Video Soft Light Panel, 650Lux/m Camera Panel Light Built-in 8000mAh Battery, CRI>95 2500-6500K Photography St
And you could put a shoot-through white umbrella in front of it if you want extra super duper soft light.
Again, these are representative examples. I am not saying you need to get the exact items. Always look for deals, read reviews, and do your research.
Additional tips for photographing small things...
Work in a very dark space. Small lights are not very powerful and they do not compete well with ambient light. You will also need to take longer exposures, which will intensify any ambient light. So block out the windows, close the door, and turn off any lights that aren't contributing to your photo.
You said you have a phone stand, which is good. If it doesn't let you play with angles and heights, you might want to get a cheap tripod with a ball head. You need to make sure your phone doesn't move when taking photos. If you notice your images are a bit blurry, you may need to set a timer so you don't shake the phone.
If your phone allows, lock your ISO to its lowest setting for cleaner photos. Since you are on a stand, you can use a long shutter speed without any issues. If it takes 5 seconds to take a photo, so be it. Keeping that ISO low will help your phone photos look like they were taken with a big camera.
Since you are using your phone and it has a smaller sensor, you will have decent depth of field. But even so, close-up photos of small things are going to shrink your depth of field considerably. Background blur can be a good thing, but if you have a deeper diorama, you may struggle to get everything in focus. For an interchangeable lens camera, I'd normally suggest learning how to focus stack. This is where you take the same picture with multiple focus points. So you could do a close focus, medium focus, and deep focus and then combine them in Photoshop. However, there are smartphone apps that allow you to bracket your focus as well. There is one called Open Camera. That is something to look into. I have not tried it myself, but if you search for "smartphone focus stack" you will probably find guides to help you. I wouldn't worry about this initially, but if you run into this issue in the future, this is how you'd address it.
Put some thought into your background. Do you just want it bright white? Dark gray? Black? Do you want a gradient ball like in my photos? One popular method is to actually put a screen behind your scene and use an image of a sky or cityscape. Putting effort into the background is often ignored and one of the best ways to get better photos.
One of the most powerful creative tools you can use on miniature photography is perspective. If you get your camera super close, you can exaggerate the size of your toys. If you use a farther perspective and zoom in, you can enlarge background elements.
I wrote a big post about perspective. All of the examples are of big stuff, but the same principles apply.
💬 7 🔁 140 ❤️ 364 · Some additional perspectives on perspective... · My health has not been great and so I was working on this post since O
All of that holds true, but on a much smaller scale. 5 inches might be a close perspective and 2 feet might be a far one.
And my last tip, look at other photos. Find people who do miniature photography and figure out what you like. Don't just start taking photos. Plan them. Find references and do sketches and figure out how you want things to look. You may not be able to duplicate what you've imagined perfectly, but having a well thought out concept will always get you better results.
Hopefully this was helpful. I wish you luck on your miniature endeavors.
I've been thinking for a while and I've decided I would like to come back to Tumblr fully. Still not entirely sure what I want to do. But I've missed it. It feels more comfortable again.
I wanna say something about the Hank Green AI thing I don't see very many people talking about.
Let me say first it's not good at all that he's been using ChatGPT for research, especially as a science youtuber. But that's obvious. We know why that's bad. I don't want to go into that.
"I appreciate the pushback." If what he said about that being ad-libbed is true, then that means he's been using ChatGPT often enough to internalize it's language.
That feels worse than what he's admitting. Even if the scripts for his videos aren't written by AI, the language of it has probably been seeping in without him even realizing.
Today round ass puppy revealed to me, exhausted, at the end of my rope, that her training wasn't working not because she didn't understand, she did, she did, but instead because treats, chicken, turkey and pork apparently weren't enough motivation. She began obeying every word with startling accuracy as soon as she was offered something else. Doing backflips and stunts with pyrotechnics as prompted for the promise of a pea. A pea. She's a dog. A pea. A pea. A pea. I have to carry peas around now. On my person. Personal peas. 🫛 peas
Hey, man, c'mere. Listen. Get in real close, this is important.
You're gonna make stuff again. You're gonna make stuff you're proud of. You're gonna make stuff you're excited to share. You're going to feel that overwhelming drive to create, not just the frantic I want to want to you're stuck in now. You're going to have awesome ideas, and you're going to make them into reality. You're going to create again. You're still an artist. You're still a writer. You're still home to the same passion you had before. You'll find it again. It's not gone. It's just resting. Let it rest. You're going to make stuff again. I promise.
also btw. if you start drawing and (physical limitations such as injury or illness aside) all your art is inexplicably feeling stiff or uninspired when you were fine before. the reason is not that youre suddenly just bad at art. its because youve just started drawing for the day/session. nobody wakes up and immediately starts sprinting around full speed to work out, theres a reason 'warmups' are a thing both in sports and art.
basically, dont quit just yet if your 'light jog' art isnt the same as your 'full sprint' art was yesterday. youll get back into it.
hello, i hope you are well! i was wondering what do you use as to digitize your traditional art - whether it be a scanner, photographing it, or some other method. thank you!
I photograph my drawings with both the drawing and the phone angled at a light source to eliminate the shadow of the phone. I just aim for clean, focused lines
Then I stick it in ibispaint, extract lineart, and do any clean up + editing necessary. I used to be more precious with preserving the lineart but these days I don't want to spend so much time Not drawing
I don't have a good whiteout pen and redrawing whole panels is too much work, so the editing can be quite extensive, especially in comics
This I had to take pictures of individual "panels" and stitch them together
truly some people have no genre savviness whatsoever. A girl came back from the dead the other day and fresh out of the grave she laughed and laughed and lay down on the grass nearby to watch the sky, dirt still under her nails. I asked her if she’s sad about anything and she asked me why she should be. I asked her if she’s perhaps worried she’s a shadow of who she used to be and she said that if she is a shadow she is a joyous one, and anyway whoever she was she is her, now, and that’s enough. I inquired about revenge, about unfinished business, about what had filled her with the incessant need to claw her way out from beneath but she just said she’s here to live. I told her about ghosts, about zombies, tried to explain to her how her options lie between horror and tragedy but she just said if those are the stories meant for her then she’ll make another one. I said “isn’t it terribly lonely how in your triumph over death nobody was here to greet you?” and she just looked at me funny and said “what do you mean? The whole world was here, waiting”. Some people, I tell you.
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