Colleen Miniuk - Creativity as a Visual Artist

Episode 056 of F-Stop Collaborate and Listen with Colleen Miniuk!

I had an absolute blast talking to Colleen this week. She is incredibly well-spoken, thoughtful, and just an all-around pleasure to listen to. At times our discussion felt like two friends sitting around a camp-fire chatting about our inner struggles. That's what the podcast is all about!

Colleen is a corporate-America-escapee-turned-full-time-freelance-outdoor-photographer-and-writer, supporting a wide range of assignments for editorial and commercial clients. Specializing in nature and outdoor recreation, her purpose as an outdoor communicator is to inspire and help others enjoy the Great Outdoors. Her work has been published in National Geographic calendars, Arizona Highways magazine, books, and calendars, Outdoor Photographer, AAA Highroads, AAA VIA, Extraordinary Vision, National Parks Traveler, Smith-Southwestern calendars, and a broad variety of other publications.In November 2011, she co-authored and published the award-winning book, Wild in Arizona: Photographing Arizona’s Wildflowers, A Guide to When, Where, and How with her good friend and fellow photographer, Paul Gill. After selling out the 1st edition, they published the 2nd edition of this title in March 2015. In addition, she's been selected three times as an Artist-in-Residence with Acadia National Park in Maine (November 2010, October 2011, and January 2013) which enabled her to author and publish her second award-winning guidebook, Photographing Acadia National Park: The Essential Guide to When, Where, and How in February 2014. In July 2015, she published her first instructional photography eBook titled, Seeing the Light in Outdoor Photography. Her next book (due out in 2018), Going with the Flow, will share the inspirational true story and life lessons learned from her experience attempting to paddle the 141-mile length of Lake Powell in November 2015 with her mom.

I know you'll like this week's podcast! I found it to be quite inspiring myself.

We covered some great topics this week, including:

1. How Colleen got into landscape photography.

2. Her transition from shooting icons to being a creative visual artist.

3. The creative process in landscape photography.

4. Her artist-in-residencies at Acadia National Park.

5. Her women-only workshops called "Sheography."

6. Staying competitive as a business in photography.

7. Active non-judgment as a skill to observe and grow as a photographer.

Over on Patreon this week, Colleen and I had a fabulous conversation about "Shosin" and the beginner's mind and how that relates to landscape photography.

Please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon! There's a ton of bonus content over there for subscribers! Your support is critical - it helps with production costs and to improve the podcast over time. Thanks!

To learn more about Colleen, check out her online presence:

Website.

Instagram.

Facebook.

Here are the artists that Colleen recommended for the podcast:

1. Michael Gordon.

2. Chuck Kimmerle.

3. Paul Gill.

4. Floris Van Breugel.

5. Kathleen Clemons.

Some examples of Colleen's photography can be seen below. 

I love hearing from the podcast listeners! Reach out to me via email, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter if you'd like to be on the podcast or if you have an idea of a topic we can talk about. You can also join the conversation on our Facebook Group! We've also started an Instagram page and a Facebook page for the podcast, where we'll be sharing updates as we go!