Encouraging latent creativity...

I have a friend, who I'm convinced has a latent creativity and will to be creative, but either doesn't know it, or doesn't know how to embrace it (or worse, doesn't think it should be embraced). He's an analytical thinker, and his job involves pretty much zero creativity. And we, as a crew (though I am trying hard to change it these days) also largely play down the arts and whatnot, so there's no real positive encouragement there if he did want to explore it further.

He loves to take pictures with his little point-and-shoot digital though. You can hear the pride and excitement in his voice when he's showing you the pictures he took and isolating which aspects of each of them he thinks came out well vs. those that didn't.

This is my favourite shot that he took during Matt Good's last Massey Hall show.

He tracks his finances in Microsoft Excel and colourizes/stylizes it to both make it more functional and appealing to the eye.

He loves music, though he doesn't play an instrument - I keep telling him he should.

Anyway, his birthday is in about a month and a half and I'm thinking of buying him a nice digital SLR to try to spark further interest in photography. I know pretty much nothing about photography or cameras, but this guy seems keen on them and he's the best photographer I know.

Since I've started this blog and really picked up the guitar, I've really come to appreciate having these creative outlets. I'm pretty sure this guy won't start blogging (no matter how much I may encourage it) and so far he hasn't taken to picking up an instrument, so I figure if there's a latent interest in photography there, that's probably the best way to go. I only wish I was more into myself so I could point him more in the right direction.

We'll see how it goes. Hopefully the money I spend won't end up being a waste. :)