This may not come as much of a shock to you, but I’m a big time dreamer. Not just at night, when my eyes are closed and my brain takes over, but all day long!
I think I’ve always been the kind of person that was perfectly content being by myself. While my brothers would be off playing basketball or hockey, I would be inside drawing or reading or playing with lego. I think I didn’t mind being alone because I enjoyed being inside my own head, day dreaming. Dreams and one’s imagination are so close to each other that I think (at least for me) that they are almost exactly the same, I think that because I was such a dreamer growing up, my imagination and creative side of my head remained wide open instead of shutting down when I got to high school or into adulthood. There’s a quote by Neil Gaiman that really sums up the connection between dreaming and imagination and creativity:
“You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we’re doing it. ~Neil Gaiman”
I think that it’s totally true. Ideas come from thinking, but not just thinking in constructed time but when your mind is wandering. When I was younger I had a paper route that would take me about an hour to walk through each day after school. That hour was almost entirely filled by daydreaming while I walked. I remember dreaming up this scenario in which I found a calculator type device that printed out money, I must have spent a few days dreaming up all the stuff I was going to do if I ever had that calculator!
Every so often, I’ll get a message on Flickr or Facebook from someone that asks me where I get my ideas for concepts. I feel like it’s a bit of a dumb answer to say “my own imagination” but it’s true. Typically I start daydreaming and my mind will just wander from thought to thought, almost like a bumblebee going from flower to flower until I find that one image that fits what I want to do. The best time it seems, for ideas to come into my head is either when I’m just about to fall asleep and there’s a relaxed environment for me to start dreaming or while I’m running. I think my creativity is in hypermode when I’m able to get outside and run, that’s when my brain just turns into “running mode” and can dream away while my legs do their thing, it’s strange but it works! Even in the winter or when the weather isn’t so great, if I just suck it up and go for a walk I feel such a sense of clarity that I start daydreaming within minutes.
I wish that my night time dreams were as vivid and had as much productivity as my daydreaming but unfortunately it seems like I dream of rather boring things at night. Typcially I find that I dream mainly of people or events that occured during my day, but nothing really crazy or whimsical seems to happen in those dreams. I try to analyze them a bit when I wake up but there doesn’t seem to be much there, maybe my brain is just so busy during the day that it goes into boring mode while I sleep!
What are your dreaming experiences like? Do you daydream?
maybe you get so busy during your daydreaming that then you dream about ordinary things during the night.
my daydreams happen when i’m in the bus. when i was going to university (i left it) theres a place so greenfull, besides a train-way… i like to imagine a lot of things happening in that endless green field, with mountains and houses so far away.
my house is surrounded by muntains and my family has a great garden. my favourite daydreams are about what kind of magical creatures may live there, hidden in the flowers and plants.
but well, its just one part of the things that makes me dream of. theres much more, everyday almost a new thing.
im really enjoying to read your updates in here. 🙂
I can’t remember my night dreams,maybe that’s why my mind have chosen to dream during the day, and..as you, I can say I love that.
Love your quote of Neil Gaiman, I totally agree with it!
Daydreams specially come when I drive, walk or run. In fact, I dream when I see some landscapes, with sunlight or clouds in it…and the best way to see more and more landscape is to move by feet or wheels 🙂
Sometimes daydreams catch my mind and people who want to speak to me have to do noise to remember to me that reality is here, not in my head:)
Reading your blog is like a piece of chocolate cake;thank you Joel!
Ok, that’s weird to say but I know exactly the same spot that Henrique told about. What a small world. My daydream time is also on the bus, I mean, I spend almost 4 hours a day in it… What i like to do most is to imagine photoshoots on the road.
I can’t remember my nightdreams either… which is kinda sad because I think they are pretty cool.
This post fits really well the concept in which I have your photos: “Dreamy”.
I’ve been enjoying your blog so much, is a place where I can actually feel like I’m with someone who loves doing what I love doing and that’s amazing.
Well, I’m gonna tell you about my dreaming experiences, the first thing that came to my mind when I read the question at the end of the post was music. Yeah, most of my best day-dreams come from listening to music I like. To be honest, I can barely describe how it feels, there’s only a few things I can say about it: It makes me feel happy and then a thousands of images come to me, like little pieces of surrealistic movies.
I like to think I’m made of dreams. Now I’d like to share with you a quote by
“We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter’s evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true. The best thing in every noble dream is the dreamer… Dreams are the touchstones of our character. When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality. NOTHING HAPPENS UNLESS FIRST WE DREAM.”
*quote by Woodrow Wilson
I saw this movie when I was a kid – The Magic Marble. It was about a kid that walking down the street one day and saw a marble – he rubs it and makes a wish and it comes true. The movie was old and B&W but it totally fired up my imagination!!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049573/
To this day I always keep and eye out for a Magic Marble on the sidewalk. {g}
And that is usually how my dreams start – I find a magic marble and……
I’m flying
I’m creating new worlds
I’m a super hero
I’m helping other people
I’m running marathons
It’s like my ‘once upon a time’. {g} That’s when my creative process for pictures fires up too. Sometimes the full picture pops into my head. Sometimes it’s a mood I want to create with a general pose or color. Then I look through my library of shots and find one that will work.
– Michael
Unique and Powerful Male Artwork
Michael Taggart Photography
I don’t have night dreams very often but when I do, they seem to always be moments in my past that had no closure especially past relationships and friendships, mixed in with places I’ve never been or seen and people I’ve never met, or I dream of the things I fear and it being out of my control. As for the question about daydreaming, many of my report cards as far back as kindergarten always read something like ” she is doing well, but daydreams too much”…I am still a daydreamer. As a kid, I had an imaginary friend who stayed with me for many years . I think being an only child had something to do with that. It took reading your blogs and seeing your wonderful photos to spark something. I’m not 100% of what that is yet, but I am seeing my daydreams and my dreams in a different light. Thank you for that.