The Inspired Eye 3: A Review.

How the hell do you say a bad thing about a David DuChemin book? I've seen people try, but all it looks like, is sour grapes. With his new print book 'Photographically Speaking' on the way, it's a great time to get an ebook out. And boy has he. The Inspired Eye 3 is like boot in the ass to get moving. When any author starts to quote Stephen Pressfield's from The War of Art, you know it's gonna be a help. And this certainly is. The title gives away that this is the third in the Inspired Eye series. It's also the final book in the series, wrapping up David's thoughts on inspiration.Even though there's no doubt in my mind about the calibre of Craft and Vision ebooks, it's a different ball game when the founder chooses to write. There's just something about David's writing that's hard to put down. I really loved reading this book... and having it point out all my excuses to me.In this book David is talking about the imagination and how to flex it. Of course having ideas counts for nothing without execution. And so we get shown how to make it happen. And how's that? By starting of course. As Pressfield and a whole host of others would say, the muse is waiting on us. We need to jump in the water for her to appear. Standing on the bank will get us nowhere.There's also the concept of working to get better. We can understand and read as much as we like about photography, composition, lighting and art, but until we actually shoot, it's all pointless knowledge. Our creative muscles need to be trained, like an athlete, to get us to the top. Of course this is the nature of craft. The repetitious process of practice. Like a musician practicing scales, we need to get our fundamentals ingrained, so it's all second nature. Some of this process is shown as 'Sketch Photographs', where we get to see David's process as he works towards what became his Venice monograph cover.Another thing that creatives need is solitude. David quotes from many greats on this, with wonderful encouragement. I'm not here to give the game away, but suffice to say his detail on it is insightful. Next he talks about slowing down in our work. Take time with our photos. Even to the point of limiting what we shoot. These exercises are all to help us improve.Next we get to the topic of Play. And here we have a great connection to the photo art in this book. It's nearly all iPhone photography. David wants us to put aside our serious photography and play. Have fun, shoot with no consequences. He even has quotes to show it's good for you.Getting towards the end, and we look at the process of imitation to improve ourselves. The key though is to move on once we've done it. Our natural inclination is to move on anyway, but we're encouraged not to fall into the rut of merely copying. Of course, this isn't a required way to grow, but it is tried and true in the art world. The imitation can help build our process. David encourages us to trust our process. It's unique to each of us, and even if it's messy, it's still us. The final part of the book is on Talent. Or rather forgetting it. This brings us back to simple fact, it's all about the work. No amount of talent equals anything without work.The conclusion to the book sums it up well, with a beautiful quote from Todd Henry.Personally I love this kind of book. It's like the half time speech in the dressing room, rallying the team to press on in the face of adversity. It's about making us crack the shell to get to the nut. Worth reading? You betcha.You can get via this affiliate link: The Inspired Eye 3 or indeed any or the other ebooks from David at Craft and Vision. As usual, there's an offer for the first few days: Use the promotional code EYETHREE4 on checkout to get the PDF version of The Inspired Eye III for only $4 OR you can use the code EYETHREE20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more PDF ebooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST September 24th, 2011.