Where did our creativity go?

Hey everyone!

This post will be an interesting one for me. A few weeks ago I finished reading Chris Orwig's beautiful book, "Visual Poetry". In the very beginning of the book, he talks of children and how their imaginations are limitless and unfettered by practicality and qualifications. I witness this everyday with my own children, as they pretend to be cheetahs, dragon slayers, draw and build things, dance, and are constantly awestruck by snails, ladybugs, butterflies, etc.

In the book, something Chris talks about really resonated with me. He speaks of walking into an elementary school classroom, and he asks the class, "How many of you can draw?" The entire class raised their hands. Then he asks, "How many of you can sing?" The entire class again raised their hands and began singing different songs.

Chris is a teacher at The Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara.After his experience at the elementary school, he came back to his own class and asked his college students the same questions. Only a couple of students raised their hands. The students added a self-imposed qualifier to the question. While Chris asked, "How many of you can sing/draw?", what they heard was, "How many of you can sing/draw well?".  Pablo Picasso said, "All children are artists. The problem is to remain one when you grow up."

So what do we do, if we have all of these self imposed qualifiers, filters, years of people telling us to "grow up" and get a real job, singing off key, drawing poorly, and staying between the lines? How do we work through all of those things, and start to begin being able to express ourselves in a way that pleases us? That allows us to be "creative"? What the hell does "creative" mean, anyway?

Dictionary.com describes creative as:  

Having the ability or power to create: Human beings are creative animals. 
Productive; creating. 
Characterized by originality and expressiveness; imaginative: creative writing

So, based on that definition, if you are making images, you are being creative. If they are also original and expressive, you are being creative. So stop telling yourself your not the creative type!

Now, what can we do to increase our creativity? To make ourselves be more creative? To practice being creative?

I think sometimes just by limiting our options, it forces us to be more creative. Take a cell phone camera, or a disposable camera. Stop wishing you had that 18-5000 f -22 and learn to really use what you have. Do you really think that if Van Gogh only had blue paint and a toothbrush, that he wouldn't find a way to make that work? Perhaps if you were to go out shooting for a day, with only a fixed lens, when you are used to using your zoom, you will force yourself to be creative. If you can't line up the shot you want because you can't zoom in or out, your forced to move your feet, and get "creative". I do this all the time. It also helps you justify having that little used lens in your bag.

What about lighting? How often have you had to improvise to get the look/feel you want? Have you ever shot your flash through a paper towel roll because you wanted a snoot? Used halogen work lights diffused with a shower curtain to look like studio lights shot through a soft box? Used a flash light or a Zippo?

Why don't you try this, grab a friend or family member, and go try some night time street portraiture. But don't bring any lights or flash. Try to find a street light, neon sign, car headlights, and improvise. See what you can come up with.

Bust out your old film camera and fire off a roll. Shoot for an hour setting your camera at 1/125 and shoot at whatever aperture your camera gives you. Cover up your LCD. Try macro shots. Go shoot with your 7 year old, and watch what she finds interesting. Give yourself a theme, like blue, or sad. Whatever you can do to get yourself thinking, and slowing down, and shooting. Have fun, relax, and be surprised by the results.

Spend an hour playing with 1 image in Lightroom or Photoshop. Find out what all those sliders or layers do. Download some free presets from Lightroom Killer Tips, or your website of choice. And let us see the results...

The images at the top of this post were going to be used for a post about vision, but since my experience at the Jerry Ghionis seminar, I have scrapped the original concept, and am working on something new. So what you see is the original scene, and how I interpreted said scene.

Creativeness often consists of merely turning up what is already there. - Bernice Fitz-Gibbon

We are all on a journey...

Hey there everyone! I hope to have a couple of posts this weekend, but since it's August 1st, I'm starting with this thought. When we met with David Jay last weekend, we talked about how we as photographers spend a lot of time looking at others work. Sometimes there are issues associated with this. If you are looking at others work and admiring it for what it is, or gaining inspiration, or learning techniques that is fabulous.

But how often are you looking at anothers' work, and comparing yourself to them? Are you putting yourself down because your work is not as good as theirs? Getting depressed because your portfolio is not nearly as nice, or you don't seem to be as creative? Maybe your Photoshop skills aren't on the same level? You aren't making as much as they are shooting weddings? Or any other number of reasons that you wind up thinking maybe you should hang up your camera, turn it into a paper weight.

Ron Dawson posted a blog yesterday about a similar subject to. He's a film maker, but many of his ideas directly relate to us. He's says "I’ve decided that for one month I will refrain from watching the videos of anyone who I consider a potential competitor. I’m calling it the “Comparison Kills Creativity Campaign.” It’s purpose, to rejuvenate the spirit and get your creative juices flowing as never before"

His post is here: http://bladeronner.com/?p=664

He would like us all to take the next 30 days. I agree. And here are some of my thoughts on the subject. I can expand here on some things I started on my Facebook page. Please add your thoughts in the comments below.

We are all on a journey, and we are at different waypoints along our travels. Let's not go backwards by comparing ourselves to people far ahead of us, or belittle people far behind us, just know that we are all hopefully still making progress. Some days the progress will be small, some days many miles will be traveled, and still other days we need to wait while some maintenance issues need to be dealt with.

Occasionally on your journey you will need to stop and refuel and refresh, maybe check the map to see where you are going, make sure you are not heading in the wrong direction. Consider these stops moments of reflection, and times to check on what other people are doing. And occasionally on your journey, you may find a place that you really love. Your going to stay there awhile, maybe put down some roots, find a place where you are comfortable and can call home. Then you have found your style. But don't forget to take a day trip now and then, or an extended vacation... I have a feeling I will be on my journey for a long time. There is just so much I want to see...

Some people started on their journey long before we ever did. They knew where they were headed, while some of us spent a long time figuring out where we wanted to go. Some people are traveling very fast on their journey, and some of us are taking the "scenic route". But we are still making progress, and still heading in the right direction. All of our journey's are taking a different road, there is no direct route from here to there. You need to know that that's okay. Even desirable. It's a lot of fun to occasionally sit down and reflect on where we have been, the things we have seen, and the people we have met along the way.

That's why we take pictures, after all, isn't it?

Frank