Jay Bowman wrote:
Hmmm, I've always wondered about this:  I'm ambidextrous.  So what does that mean for me?

Nothing, really.  There isn't a relationship between brain dominance and handedness.  There is a relationship between which hemisphere of the brain has motor control over which side of the body, but that's not the subject here.

-Don

Edit:  Jay's post had to do with his questioning of that handedness theory,  rather than a question of his own handedness.  I stand corrected.

D. Brian Nelson wrote:
Nothing, really.  There isn't a relationship between brain dominance and handedness.  There is a relationship between which hemisphere of the brain has motor control over which side of the body, but that's not the subject here.

-Don

Quoted me in the middle of an edit. 

I asked in response to Playful Media's statement on brain dominance and handedness.  I hadn't intended to steer the subject off...

Jay Bowman wrote:
Quoted me in the middle of an edit.

Don't you hate it when that happens?

-D

D. Brian Nelson wrote:
I am a right-brained person who found himself taking the sensible route through college studying mathematics.  This, after the military, led to engineering work in aerospace.  My wife convinced me that much of the frustration I was feeling with engineering was because I couldn't let the right brain do its thing. She almost forced me into photo school, and even there I approached things from the left brain perspective, continuing into commercial photography that way.

It wasn't until I found myself as frustrated with commercial photography as I'd been with engineering that I realized I had to separate the left brain talent for making money from the right brain need to create.

Today, when I step out of the office at 3:30PM, I'm an artist.  The guys at the office recognize it but don't understand it.  The artists I hang with can't figure it out at all.  But it works for me.  Thank God!

-Don

very close to my experience.  I too did the sensible college thing (B.S. in Physics and Math). Did the computer thing, till the DOT COM fell, then I switched to photography.  Now I'm torn between doing what I hate (senior portraits), to pay the bills.  I would love to do more creative work, but there is little money in, for me at least.

But my work tends to draw more towards the left-brain.

AlliPhotoGraphx wrote:
Leonardo DaVinci was a lefty !! He was a great painter, scientist and could draw amazingly awesome...

I thought Leonardo da Vinci was an ambidextrous, who was a genius like Michelangelo, who He often painted with both hands. When one got tired, he switched to the other.  Albert Einstein, who is another genius, was also Ambidextrous.

Actually, da Vinci could write backwards, in a mirror image, which suggesested he may have been a dyslexic genius.  I only know of one person who can write in a mirror image, and it's amazing.

JBPhoto wrote:
I'm left handed, so I'm in my right mind.
I read somewhere that we "see" better when we look @ things upside down, but I never got that.
And I can't stand on my head that long.

that's in the book mentioned above 'drawing on the right side of the brain'. she askes you to copy a line drawing freehand & then by looking at it upside down. the typical result is the upside down one turns out closer to the original (check forgers, take note ;-)

DAF Productions wrote:
A right brains work looks more like what you see in a gallary, and a left brains looks like what would be in a magazine.

So, I will have gallery showings shortly with different themes... but I am also shooting for publications and advertising work.

What does that mean?

I think all that right/left brain really means is what someone focuses on most to get the results.

UdoR wrote:
I think all that right/left brain really means is what someone focuses on most to get the results.

What someone focuses on, surely, but probably because it's more natural or comfortable. This whole thing is reminding me of Meyers-Briggs Type theory.

I can use my left hand for many things, though I choose not to when my right is available. That one is more comfortable for me doesn't mean the other is useless; same with brain hemispheres.

I think in some areas my right brain/left brain are nearly fused together, while in other areas they're barely acquaintances.

I learn things quickly and thoroughly, or not at all. I've been a spelling freak since I was 5. I can barely drive a car. I can read and write in a mirror image, but it never occurred to me until today that other people couldn't. I worked as a Mac tech for months before even seeking formal training. Being on time is an excruciating effort. Every few years I paint something, just to see if I still can... though I can't remember ever learning to paint. My brother is 100% right brain and thinks I'm a Vulcan; many (okay, all of them) former employers would see me as much more the eccentric artiste type. I've never lived by myself, and probably never will...

Here's a story, that may or may not have a point attached. I played music for many years with a standup bass player who I considered extremely left-brained. The fact that he wanted so badly to play a highly improvisatonal form of jazz struck me as highly ambitious. I couldn't imagine him succeeding, with his natural (comfortable) left brain approach. Guess what? He's booked solid, and I've come to see him as a "real artist" (like me - LOL). He's even taught me that I can learn a few left brain tricks to add to my musical palette.

So anyone can do whatever they are motivated enough to master; I'm sure I could learn to write with my left hand, if I really tried (but I don't see that happening; in this word-processing world of tomorrow, I can barely write with my right hand anymore...).

Read "Gifts Differing" by Isabel Briggs-Meyers (directed at nobody in particular). I think the trick is to identify the strengths in your cognitive style, and exercise them, plus identify your weaknesses, and pump them up a little too.

Or something.

Gary L. wrote:
I thought Leonardo da Vinci was an ambidextrous, who was a genius like Michelangelo, who He often painted with both hands. When one got tired, he switched to the other.  Albert Einstein, who is another genius, was also Ambidextrous.

Actually, da Vinci could write backwards, in a mirror image, which suggesested he may have been a dyslexic genius.  I only know of one person who can write in a mirror image, and it's amazing.

Its funny how this was brought up...I take art history right now, and JUST finished reading about the high renaissance and Da Vinci....and for the assignment this week was to visit a site about either Da Vinci, Michaelangelo or Raphael...and I visited one site on Da Vinci provided by my professor that brought me to the page, where they mentioned him being a lefty...heres the link

http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/Leonard … oLeft.html

and his mirror writing is pretty fascinating i agree...if i could only do that and not confuse the hell out of myself....

JBPhoto wrote:
I'm left handed, so I'm in my right mind.
I read somewhere that we "see" better when we look @ things upside down, but I never got that.
And I can't stand on my head that long.

Try using a view camera.

henry

DragonFlyImage wrote:
I thought eye dominants was more of a factor for what side of the brain we use
its like a big X in the brain if you are right eye dominant you use your left brain more... and etc..

My right eye is dominant, but due to a medical problem I lost part of my vision in that eye. :-(

Henry

easyonthe eyes wrote:

What someone focuses on, surely, but probably because it's more natural or comfortable. This whole thing is reminding me of Meyers-Briggs Type theory.

I can use my left hand for many things, though I choose not to when my right is available. That one is more comfortable for me doesn't mean the other is useless; same with brain hemispheres.

I think in some areas my right brain/left brain are nearly fused together, while in other areas they're barely acquaintances.

I learn things quickly and thoroughly, or not at all. I've been a spelling freak since I was 5. I can barely drive a car. I can read and write in a mirror image, but it never occurred to me until today that other people couldn't. I worked as a Mac tech for months before even seeking formal training. Being on time is an excruciating effort. Every few years I paint something, just to see if I still can... though I can't remember ever learning to paint. My brother is 100% right brain and thinks I'm a Vulcan; many (okay, all of them) former employers would see me as much more the eccentric artiste type. I've never lived by myself, and probably never will...

Here's a story, that may or may not have a point attached. I played music for many years with a standup bass player who I considered extremely left-brained. The fact that he wanted so badly to play a highly improvisatonal form of jazz struck me as highly ambitious. I couldn't imagine him succeeding, with his natural (comfortable) left brain approach. Guess what? He's booked solid, and I've come to see him as a "real artist" (like me - LOL). He's even taught me that I can learn a few left brain tricks to add to my musical palette.

So anyone can do whatever they are motivated enough to master; I'm sure I could learn to write with my left hand, if I really tried (but I don't see that happening; in this word-processing world of tomorrow, I can barely write with my right hand anymore...).

Read "Gifts Differing" by Isabel Briggs-Meyers (directed at nobody in particular). I think the trick is to identify the strengths in your cognitive style, and exercise them, plus identify your weaknesses, and pump them up a little too.

Or something.

Good points. The two halves of the brain talk to each other (except for rare diseases, accidents, or surgical procedures). One of the main points of books like "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" is to learn to let the Right "intuitive" side kick in. To learn to sense the difference. Now with some people both sides may have about equal input in what they do. Some people need to learn no relax on and let the other one have some fun. Ussually I think my photography comes out better when I have a more relaxed, playful, and "timeless" attitude. (Which is why I hate paying models by the hour.)

Although a technical person I like to see the "art" in what I do and have always had trouble being at work on time.

Heard something about music. There was a brain scan study of musically talented people and "normal" people. (No insult intended.) But, musicians' brains had the same basic activity in just thinking about music as non-musicians did when listening to actual music. So the musicians could "hear" the music in their mind as if they were hearing it. Not sure what this means for photography.r

Henry

Henry Tjernlund wrote:
Good points. The two halves of the brain talk to each other (except for rare diseases, accidents, or surgical procedures). One of the main points of books like "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" is to learn to let the Right "intuitive" side kick in. To learn to sense the difference. Now with some people both sides may have about equal input in what they do. Some people need to learn no relax on and let the other one have some fun. Ussually I think my photography comes out better when I have a more relaxed, playful, and "timeless" attitude. (Which is why I hate paying models by the hour.)

Although a technical person I like to see the "art" in what I do and have always had trouble being at work on time.

Heard something about music. There was a brain scan study of musically talented people and "normal" people. (No insult intended.) But, musicians' brains had the same basic activity in just thinking about music as non-musicians did when listening to actual music. So the musicians could "hear" the music in their mind as if they were hearing it. Not sure what this means for photography.r

Henry

Never occurred to me that "normal" people didn't listen to music in their heads. Explains a thing or two, though...

What does it mean to photography? I think some artists paint with their cameras... I mean first they see the picture, then paint it onto the film. I'm certainly not there; I lack the mastery of light, the flexibility-to-decisiveness ratio, and definitely the self-confidence.

In other words, what does it mean to photography? I don't know ;-J