For those of you who don’t know > blogger extraordinaire sfgirlbybay thought up, organized and publicized her first-ever-blogger-mashup. Kind of a blog it forward, chain letter type series of blog posts from 300 bloggers.

This event really tries to minimize competition between bloggers and encourage collaboration and support.  I’m super excited to be part of it!

click here for the full schedule of all 300 blogs and dates

For this first event > our assigned topic is ‘What Inspires Me Most’

<sarcasm> Oh, yea, like THAT is going to be easy to narrow down </sarcasm>

There are so many things that inspire me. Ask my husband. Any time I’m sitting quietly, you can bet my mind is whirring with ideas and projects and plans.

The other day, he (jokingly) offered to come sit in the bathroom with a pen and paper while I’m taking a shower so I could just dictate to him all the ideas and things that I think of during those 10 or so minutes of non-stop thinking.

Every Wednesday, here at Teegan Photography, I post a short list of links to things that are inspiring me that week. Just fun things that I’ve found on the interwebs.

But on a day-to-day basis, there are some things that I know will always inspire me or spark some idea.

Some of the things I love:

• American History (I loved reading about the ins and outs of our Constitution and the writing of it)
• photography (taking photos and viewing photos, learning new techniques, etc)
• weddings (obviously)
• travel (God bless Rick Steves and his travel podcasts)
• musicals (The Last 5 years, Wicked, etc)
• the 1960s (fashion, music, passion, movies, etc)
• reading (fiction, non-fiction, everything from Harry Potter to academic analysis of gifting)
• Vanity Fair
• film-making (I’ve watched the Lord of the Rings appendices more than the actual films)

But what really inspires me most … is people.

Specifically people with a passion.

More specifically, people who pursue their passion regardless of what other people might say, regardless of whether their mother thinks its a viable career, regardless of any roadblock or obstacle that they come across.

People like Peter Jackson, Jim Henson or my husband.

Peter Jackson:

I know what you’re thinking: “Man, this girl is a GEEK.”

I know. Peter Jackson. Of Lord of the Rings fame. But truthfully, while I do really like the movies, I’m not obsessive about them. Or the books. I just genuinely think the film-making aspect is fascinating. Let’s remember that even if you do not like the movies or the story, the films themselves are VERY well made. Very.

We are so lucky that Peter Jackson is the kind of filmmaker who wants to help other filmmakers. The 6 discs worth of behind-the-scenes special features of the 3 movies really give you a picture of the kind of filmmaker he is. The kind of work ethic he has. The kind of work ethic and creative vision you would need to have to create the 3 huge films that he is most well-known for.

And, you know what, he had a lot (A LOT) working against him to get those movies to the level of quality he did.

“He could have only had, what? About 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night for about 14 months.” – John Rhys Davies

It could have been a lot easier for him. Peter Jackson didn’t HAVE to make 3 movies – the original studio only approved a budget for 2. He didn’t HAVE to make them all 3 at the same time. He didn’t HAVE to use a special effects studio in New Zealand that was just getting its feet wet. He didn’t HAVE to find ridiculously out-of-the-way set locations. He didn’t HAVE to keep revising the script, on a daily basis. He didn’t HAVE to recast his lead actor after filming had already started.

He did all these things because of his artistic vision. Because of his ambition to make this the best film (or collection of 3 films) he could make. The best that anyone could make.

And that really inspires me. The action and intent and leadership he showed.

In fact, the second half of the last disc of appendices chronicles the insurmountable pile of work that the whole team has to do in not nearly enough time. Can you imagine Peter Jackson’s daily (hourly) battles with everyone from his wife (co-producer and screenwriter, but also mother of his children) wanting him to eat better or get more sleep to the grumbles and tears of frustration from the digital effects artist who simply did not have enough time to accomplish what he was asking. There are members of the Lord of the Rings crew who literally went home to sleep every other day.

And Peter Jackson had to be the one inspiring these thousands of people to give more than they thought they had and work harder than they may have ever worked before.

He did that.

Watching these film-making behind the scenes really moves me. I don’t know if I can put it into words. Peter Jackson fearlessly led thousands of people in making this film. This honored-by-the-Academy fantasy film. This film whose story is close to so many people’s hearts from reading the book.

Jim Henson:

Literally one of my favorite people ever – you probably know that Jim Henson created the Muppets (and Sesame Street and other related characters).

Who on earth would have ever thought that puppets were the way to make a living in the entertainment industry?

Jim Henson did.

And you know what? He didn’t even care that they were puppets – He wanted to work in the television industry (way back in the 1950s) and puppets were his way in.

He spent the better part of 20 years working in television (mostly commercials) until he was finally able to realize his dream (and created Sesame Street and The Muppet Show).

20 years.

Is there anything that you love enough to work for 20 years towards that?

20 years of self-doubt, 20 years of supporting a family with the income from something that might sound crazy. 20 years of creating and playing as his job. 20 years of experimenting. 20 years of trying to convince more powerful people in the industry to take a chance on you and your puppets.

Can you imagine the naysayers he had to deal with?

And now, I can’t even imagine the history of 20th century entertainment without Jim Henson.

Not to mention education. Where did you first learn Spanish? Counting to 10 with Bert and Ernie, right?

Jim Henson and his creations have touched so many lives (see: Denbow, Sebastian) even now 20 years after his death.

He never ever stopped working. Never stopped pushing boundaries. Never stopped imagining the impossible.

I find that incredibly inspiring.

(sidenote: I strongly recommend searching out footage from his memorial service to see the kind of people and work that Jim Henson inspired.)

My amazing husband, Andrew:

Andrew is always a source of inspiration to me – which is actually pretty remarkable considering he’s been in my life every day for over 10 years. You would think that the constant exposure would dull the effect a bit.

Here’s the thing : Andrew is one of the only people I know who genuinely love love love their job and are grateful every day for the opportunity to do it (even though he only *just* started making a living wage).

He is an aspiring recording engineer and spends nearly all his time when he’s not at work, looking for more work, or planning side projects or reading about his industry.

But even in addition to all of that, he is always (always) wanting to learn new things. I taught him how to crochet just a couple weeks ago. He gets documentaries from Netflix to learn about the moon landing or Yellowstone National Park. He reads true crime books because I’ve been talking about them.

Part of Andrew’s desire to learn new things spills over to his genuinely interested in what I’m doing and what I care about.

Andrew is my constant source of support – and THAT is more inspiring than anything else.

It doesn’t matter how many gorgeous photos I see, how many books I read, or how many plans I can come up with. I couldn’t accomplish ANYTHING without Andrew’s unfailing faith in me and unyielding support of what I want to do.

Thanks for reading all of that!! I didn’t realize it would turn into a whole thesis when I started!

Tomorrow (2/23), make sure to turn in to tenthings (http://tenthings-tenthings.blogspot.com/) for her post about what inspires her most!

P.S. You wouldn’t believe the tears I cried just from researching this post. True story. Embarrassing but true. I am genuinely moved by the work of these 3 people.

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