Ben McKeown

The new Ben at his secret outdoor fitness center.

It’s about time for me to get back on this.

Over the past year or so, I’ve made a lot of changes for myself.  Physically, mentally, spiritually - I’ve slowly revamped the way I do things.  In the process I’ve learned more than I could’ve ever imagined.  This process, though, is only beginning.  So this writing is by no means the marker of a conclusion or an end of a road.  It is, rather, an attempt to share with you some of the intriguing nuggets, tidbits, and factoids that I’ve found along the way.

The most visibly noticeable result of this life-revamping is the weight I’ve lost.  Since last spring, I’ve shed about 75 pounds and lots of folks have asked me about how I’ve done it.  Here ya go…

Firstly, the technical formula is incredibly simple:  To lose weight, burn more calories than you take in.  In a nutshell, that’s all you’ve got to know to get started.  Implementation, of course, presents a set of challenges, which I’ll address below.

For me, the performance comes down to three main areas of focus (in no particular order):
1. Dietary
2. Physical
3. Mental

I’d be willing to be that a majority of unsuccessful weight-loss ventures fail due to one or more of these facets being overlooked.  The truth is, I believe, that nothing sustainable can be achieved without equal emphasis placed on each area.  One cannot stand alone; two cannot stand without the third; the success of one is directly related to the implementation of the other two.  Think of the whole as a three-legged stool.  Each leg has to be the present at the same length as the others.  If one leg is longer than the other, the stool is wobbly.  If one leg is removed, the stool will not stand.

So…  As I write this, I realize that it might be overwhelming to put all this information in one enormous post.  I will expound upon each of these areas greatly in subsequent posts.  First, however, wrap your brain around the formula:

To lose weight, burn more calories than you take in.

Easy, right? More soon…

So I’ve mentioned that I’m working on a new project with a friend and colleague…  I’m not going to reveal too much here, as we still have plenty of loose ends that need to be tied up.  BUT, I will offer this quick audio clip as a teaser of sorts.  Stay tuned for more.

Greetings again from the land of Blogstoolittle!  I hesitate to even say it (because I seem to inevitably prove myself wrong), but I will make a genuine effort to change the name of this town from Blogstoolittle to Blogsalot.  Or at least Blogsenough.

At any rate, I simply wanted to share with you some thoughts and images from my most recent shoot for Vype Magazine, one of my favorite and consistently awesome clients.

The concept this time was simple: dynamic duos.  Involved were three pairs of footballing duos from the area.  We took shots of the individual pairs as well as some group shots.  Every single one of the guys was a pleasure to work with and meet.  I am constantly impressed by the charisma that emanates from the athletes I meet; these six footballers proved as impressive as any.

The challenges for the shoot were few, but tough nonetheless.  First, it was hot as hell outside, which was attributable to the fact that we were shooting outdoors at noon on a July afternoon in North Carolina.. which, of course leads me to the next challenge: god-awful light.  So solutions included copious consumption of H2O, utilizing shade as much as possible, and just sucking it the heck up and dealing with the fact that the light just really wasn’t going to improve.  All in all, it was a pretty successful afternoon.

Such, I guess, is the nature of life… Always assessing your surroundings, understanding your limitations and moving forward with the equipment you have, trying all the while to make something beautiful happen.

Peace y’all.

The last month or so has been slow. At least as far as “work” goes - that is, official, solicited jobs that add some money to my meager bank account. And much of that has to do with my own preparation, I’m well aware. I embedded so much of my mental energy into last basketball season that I neglected, to my own detriment, to adequately prepare for the coming summer.

That said, I’m not terribly worried. In fact, this open summer is a grand opportunity.

I’m continuously honing a plan for 2010, one which includes a studio, a revamped and reenergized Organic Exposure Photo, and a more focused approach to storytelling, meaningful photography, and freelance work. So keep your dial tuned right here for updates as they happen.

As I’ve grown as a photographer, one thing I’ve come to find is that I have a hard time being satisfied with a photo unless it’s supported by concrete meaning. Really, this goes for anything I create. A photo, a song, a poem, a paragraph.. if it’s only fluff, if it’s there just for the sake of being there, I generally hate it. For this reason, I’ve grown increasingly bored by flickr-style photography. That’s not to say, know you, that I disapprove or necessarily dislike this pretty-photo-pursuit. For the record, flickr was undeniably instrumental in inspiring and crafting me as a photographer. The people, the photos, the community, it was all invaluable. (Of course, that was back in the day before Yahoo, before Getty, before video and all that community-killing BS. Ah, the good ol’ days.) Ultimately, however, I am no longer completely satisfied with a photo unless it is a tool in the pursuit of a larger goal.

Years ago, a good friend of mine, Lamar, gave me some of the best photography advice I’ve ever received. “When I am about to take a photo of something, I think to myself, ‘what do I want to say about this thing’? If I’m shooting a flower, I try to figure out what makes this flower important to me.”

More and more, I’ve tried to implement this philosophy in my own work. Now, if I’m walking with my camera through town, my goal is to minimize the frivolous photos. I try to continuously ask myself why I care about a particular shot or series. If I can’t come up with a good answer to that question, I don’t shoot. And all in all, it feels much better. The work I do produce is less clouded by superfluousness. And really, this philosophy works well in the rest of my life also. By working to eliminate the superfluous and non-essential, I create for myself an environment that is much richer, much purer, much more satisfying.

As a result, I’ve been working on a few projects that attempt to use my skills - photography and other - as tools in the pursuit of a larger goal. At this time, I’m working particularly intensely on an ever-evolving project with my good friend, Phil Bailey. This project is a part of a larger undertaking that’s been floating around my mind for a while, involving persons who I greatly admire. “Heroes” is the working title. In lieu of a verbose description of the project (as I said, it’s ever-evolving), I’ll share with you a short audio clip that will become part of the final product.

Phil is an incredibly engaging, sincere, and interesting individual. I am enamored by his stories and I cannot wait to continue to work with him on this project. The audio will be accompanied by photos, eventually. I’ve contemplated making this sort of piece a product available to customers, and in time I think that will come. In the meantime, my time involves work, saving money, enjoying the hell out of the summer, and continuing to search for meaning in all that I do. I recommend all the preceding to each of you. Enrich your life. And drink lots of coffee.

Peace.

If you know me, you’re familiar with my propensity to speak and write with verbosity.  It is true, I write poetry.  There are times when I speak slowly and with a lilt (surprisingly, sometimes) more akin to Garrison Keillor than Scott Van Pelt.  Recently, I was told by a special someone that I come across as too “mushy”.  Though I understand it’s a fair assessment, I disagree.

I wanted to share with you an excerpt from a bit of thinking I did on this.  Additionally, my thoughts address the silliness I find in worrying about the implications of “mushiness”, which is at the heart of why most folks (including myself) find mushiness off-putting.  Here you go:

—
I decided about two years ago that I was going to live with a vivid appreciation of the present, the now, the facts that actually exist, the truth. For really, the past and the future are mere fabrications of our feeble human brains.

The past is nothing more than a recollection, which, as science shows, is actually a process of mental creation as much as it is of actual retrieval. As such, when we think of the past, we aren’t actually remembering it perfectly. Instead, we are simply creating a personal version of reality that is inherently imperfect.

The future, similarly, is an obvious fabrication of reality. Just as our brains rely on evidence, cues, and instinct to re-create an image of the past, we use the same materials to create an image of the future. And of course, the image we create of the future is in no way immaculate.

Both the past and the present, then, contain no perfect truth. The present, however, does. It is only the present that offers us an accurate, reliable, infallible picture of what actually exists. And worrying about the mental fabrications that surround it is absolutely futile, for this is in essence as useful as worrying about a bad dream.

So for this reason, I take great care to bask in the present. This isn’t to say that I don’t try to be prepared for the future, to be groomed and ready, learned and primed. It simply means that I try to let my emotions live in the reality of now rather than in the speculations of my mind. I try to react to what happens now rather than to what I recall happened in the past or to what I think might happen in the future. When I meet a beautiful girl, the verses and poetry that come to me are not hyperbolic or imprudent, for they are simply a product of my reaction to the now. Thus, they are organic, real, and reliable reflections of the state of my Being at any given moment in time.

Mushiness, to me, implies poetry or floweriness that is intended as a means to an end. If I forced myself to write a poem or a song for you because I wanted it to make you fall for me, that would be mushy. What I do, however, I try hard to do for no purpose other than capturing the truth of Now. So when I tell you you’re beautiful or close my eyes while I play you a piano, it is utterly real. It is true. It is now.

Take it and savor it.

Because really, worrying about what its implications might be is, as I said, futile. My poetry, my truth, it doesn’t even reach the point of being affected by implications. It’s way too raw for that. Way too now.

And it’s this whole philosophy that makes me shudder at the thought of simply “seeing what happens”.

Because of the fact that Now is all that actually exists, it is consequently the only time in which we’re really able to affect things. So when I think of simply sitting back and seeing what comes without applying some kind of affect to it all, it seems depressing. If I do this, I effectively sit out reality. And I can’t swallow the thought of simply being an observer of my own life. I need to be an affecter, a conductor, a doer in my own existence. I, as I say often, like to make to shit happen.

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Keep in touch, y’all.

Best to you.