…an award winning and outstanding photographer who has covered Royal Weddings, Ashes Tours, Glastonbury and much, much more [including Matt’s wedding!]
“Thanks for letting me share my story, it was great to have such an engaged and interactive audience. What I found most interesting was the way in which people listened to my story and examples of dangerous thinking, and how they were then able to see how to apply the same kind of thinking to their specific line of work, or everyday life.”
Spring [verb] to move or jump suddenly or rapidly upwards or forwards
Break [verb] to interrupt
In August we usually down tools and focus on keeping ourselves fresh, relevant and suitably diverted. We call it Summer School. It’s a time when we connect with interesting and wonderful people and things.
So…… with things changing moment to moment, and life as we know it on pause, we’ve declared (to anyone listening) that it’s time for Spring Break!
Spring Break Mini Conference #5
As part of our Spring Break, we’ve been hosting a series of mini conferences via Zoom. The theme of the conference series is ‘Being dangerous as a force for good’, inspired by something we did for International Women’s Day some weeks back.
The purpose of each conference is to hear real tales of human endeavour to afford people the time and space to reflect and wonder.
Each week we hear from an amazing guest speaker about a topic that is close to their hearts. This way, our thinking is kept at its freshest and we get to link up & collaborate with some fabulous people.
Our guest speaker for the fifth mini conference in the series was Anthony Devlin, an award winning and outstanding photographer who has covered Royal Weddings, Ashes Tours and Glastonbury and much, much more [including Matt’s wedding!]
‘Extra time to reflect”
“I particularly like the variety and quirkiness of the sessions. It’s a nice way to step out of your own world and experience something totally different and someone else’s experiences and perspective.
I usually follow the session with a dog walk so I have some extra time to reflect on what has been shared and to think about what I can learn from it and what I can do differently going forward.”
Insights & Appreciation
At the end of each mini conference we show our appreciation and share our freshest thinking; here are the highlights:
“That was absolutely amazing. I think that for me, I really appreciate your mindset towards risks…..and it just shows to me that by taking that risk it pays off because those photos were absolutely stunning.”
“I just want to say thank you so much, Anthony. For me, it was just the sheer variety of perspectives and the purity of the shot, and I really appreciated that.”
“I really enjoyed today. I did look at your website before coming on today and seeing some of those photographs again, and your dialogue around it, really brought them to life. It was absolutely fascinating. Thank you.”
“Thank you, Anthony. I really enjoyed it. What stood out for me is about ‘not following the crowd’ but going with your instinct, trust your gut.”
“Thank you massively. I loved the multi exposure picture and I just think it would be amazing to have a multi exposure of the time that we’re going through just now, because there’s just been so many changes and different perspectives. It would be amazing just in this sort of space of time. Thank you so much.”
“Thank you. I was really impressed with all of the photos. I was really struck with the way that you tried to put an angle on the story. I thought that the picture of all the policemen was really powerful – you’d obviously done a lot of thinking behind the story to bring it to life.”
“I’ve known Anthony for 30 years nearly and it was so nice to see him summarise all that. ….I really enjoyed it.“
“I wrote down anticipation, but there’s all sorts of spontaneity too, so it’s like holding those two things in balance. It was so interesting that you’ve got to be thinking ahead, but you’ve also got to be just reacting and taking risks and, and then you’ve also got the creativity and the composition and holding all of those things in mind all at the same time. It gave me a lot of food for thought….so interesting.”
“I loved it. I find photographs so powerful anyway, so to hear the stories behind them just made them even more powerful and thought is amazing. There were three things that struck me and that was your vision. your patience and your bravery. I think they came out really strongly.”
“That was absolutely amazing. Thank you for sharing it Anthony. One of the things that I wrote down quite early on when you were talking about the fact that you’ve quit your job, sold your car, and then you quit another job, were the words you used ‘being exposed to possibilities’. You didn’t know what those possibilities were until you’d actually made that brave decision and then the exposure to those possibilities, and that kind of stuck with me throughout.“
“I think the thing that I’m going to add was something that you said right towards the end, which was you try your best, but sometimes you’re in the wrong place. And I think it’s important that we all remember that.”
“I absolutely loved it. ….I think the thing that stood out for me was your sense of imagination. And the fact that ….. your thinking is just out there outside the box and to look for all those different angles. I think it’s just a reminder to not narrow our focus in terms of when we’re trying to do things”.
“What I really appreciate is your preparedness to think independently and then to stand your ground. That is something to emulate. “
“I love the fact there was so much in every frame. I found myself I was darting around because there was almost so much going on……..I’d call it may-be busy in a good way. It was like dense and lots going on and I quite like that.”
“Your patience struck me….I’m a communications manager so quite often I’ll have to go out and get photos or film video of various different things ……but if someone asked me to sit on top of some scaffolding for 12 hours, just get one picture, I’d probably tell them where to jog on. So I think that’s made me rethink a little bit around just what you can achieve if you put a little bit more hard work and probably do something you’re not that keen on. It can really pay off.”
“I also really admire your patience and it was the firework story in the being chained to the Admiralty Arch. The thing that I have learned from listening to you is about looking for the opportunities between the big moments. You shared that photo of Andy Murray and Cameron, and it was it wasn’t the big moment, it was the bit in-between that was the thing that really captured a moment that then appeals to people. I absolutely love that. And I think that’s a big, big takeaway for me.”
“It was brilliant. Thank you… I love that balance between being uber prepared, but then uber open minded. So, having that structure to allow you to be creative…… there’s got to be some process, but from that all of the imagination and creativity just flows.“
“The thing that really struck me ……was about the relationship stuff you do really well. I love that you were talking to the security guards to get the lowdown of where Pete Doherty and Kate Moss were. And I love the fact that you almost hijacked the old fellow’s bin to get that amazing shot of the moon. It made me think about all that subtlety of relationship and what that can really bring.”
A final thought from Anthony …….
This has certainly made me realise I can apply this kind of thinking to all aspects of my life, and not just my attitude to work.
Want to get involved?
If you’ve been inspired by Anthony’s story please do leave a comment or get in touch with us as we’d love you to hear from you.
To see more of Anthony’s fantastic photographs, you can visit his website https://anthonydevlin.com/albums
At the time of posting this we’ve just finished our ninth and final episode in this Spring Break series. The ‘Back to School’ series (that’s it’s working title for the time being) will be hosted from September 2020, and before that, we will be delving a little more into the stories that have been a part of this series.
The Spring Break Mini Conference Series is a collaboration between The Clear Thinking Partnership and Performance Tree https://www.performancetree.co.uk/
