Do you create art or pictures?

When I go out to take photographs I always strive to create art, not just take pictures. It doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes I come back home and look at my bounty of photographs and think, eh. Other times I come back home and I am amazed at my ability to find artistic photographs, or at least I’m able to bring the art out.

I haven’t always done this when I include people. I often get too distracted by the people I forget to set up something artistically. One of my goals is to fix that and think more creatively and artistically when photographing people.

While the photograph above may be a decent portrait, I don’t think it is all that creative or artistic. There was significant thought and planning put into setting up the lighting, props, and pose it just doesn’t strike me as art.

My challenge to myself is to obtain a better feel for creating artist photographs with people. So onward to study more about artistic portraits.