The creativity challenge for my had become a struggle for me. I felt like I wasn’t able to come up with creative ideas. I started writing a blog several months ago with my daily thoughts. The blog entries as typically short and to the point. Since I have started on this site, this is my 89th post. Some days were difficult in getting something written but as time went along it became easier to get started. As you may tell from the image above, I am starting to do just as I have written about. I”m trying out some bizarre and different techniques. I also noticed last night as I was sitting watching a movie with my grandsons I came up with a photographic project to work on. I feel like I’m getting back in the creative groove. My inner muse is starting to awaken after a long rest.
Awaken your inner muse. It may take some time and some effort but it can pay off. I’m no longer afraid of blazing a trail on the wild side of my photographic art.
Do all your photographs have to look like photographs? I don’t believe so. I believe in creative vision. I may decide to take a photograph to an extreme and apply all sorts of techniques to it. Will everyone like it? Most likely not. Do I care if everyone likes it? No. I create art and photographs for myself. If others enjoy it that is a bonus. There are those who don’t believe in any post-processing and use images straight from that camera. Some are fantastic and some are not. It’s their vision. Likewise, I may choose to do a massive amount of work on a piece of art, even so far as combining elements from several images. That is my vision.
My mind is a fascinating place and can change visions at a moment’s notice. And my mind may notify me of the change without conscious thought. I like to explore many creative styles, I don’t like to lock myself into a pigeonhole of one style. This mindset may be attributed to being nearly forced into conformity in the past by photography groups and clubs that defined a good photograph as one that looked like everyone else’s photograph. Often the only thing we lacked was a uniform we had to wear to participate. Explore your creativity, try way out techniques, try bizarre styles. It will free your creative soul.
Photography records my world and my view of it so I can show others what I see and how I see it. Just like any other art form I decide what to show and how to show it. This is especially true with digital photography and programs like Photoshop. We can transform ourselves into superheroes or other worlds. Digital photography has become more of an art form than ever if we just open our minds and hone our skills. Go forth and create some magical art.
Yesterday, I wrote about photography as a metaphor. Not only do I believe photography is a metaphor but it is also a reflection of my perspective, my mood, my personality, and in fact me. I don’t believe any of us can be so dissociated from our art. This is why I believe it is important to accept both concepts of photography as a metaphor and a reflection of ourselves. Once we accept these concepts free expression of our intent in a photograph becomes easier. These are good things. It can be a bit frightening to knowingly let others see into our minds but doing so allows us to create fantastic art and isn’t that really what many of us want to do? Think about it, freedom to do your art as you want. Express our reality, our vision, our dreams, our hopes.
It’s time for some introspection and set your creativity free. I’ve done it and it has given me an entire new view of the world, my art, and my life.
A podcaster I listen to on a regular basis talked about a book by Minor White, Mirrors, Messages, Manifestations. His discussion led into photography may be a metaphor. Since listening to that podcast yesterdy, I have thought about this a bit. Merriam-Webster defines a metaphor as; an object, activity, or idea that is used as a symbol of something else. To me, that is essentially what photograph is, a symbol of something else. It isn’t the object represented. If that is the case then in most photography, realism doesn’t matter. The photograph is merely a symbol. Reality, or as close to it as we can get is only critical in documentary photography. Everything else becomes open to artistic creativity.
Having now come to this realization I finally have my arguement for creative expression of nearly all the photographs I will take. My work is a metaphor for this object represented in the image. I feel like I have been set free. Think about it. I believe it is hard to argue against photography as being a metaphor for the people, scenes, and objects we photograph.
Digital photography has made photography easier today than in the past. White balance can be set to auto or a number of presets and it can be changed multiple times per session using the same card. Film speed can be adjusted from photograph to photograph. In the past, using film we had very limited choices of white balance and film speeds and they couldn’t be changed on the same roll typically. I know we could push a film speed and we could add different filters to the lens to affect color temperatures. When I began photography it was unthinkable that I would be able to take a photograph with an ISO setting of 12,800. In fact, it was very difficult for me to even find film faster than 800. I know we don’t really have film speeds or white balances in digital it is all a program that makes some adjustments. While that may be true, it functions the same way in practice as the old film speeds and white balance.
Today, we can also store hundreds or thousands of photographs on a single card rather than be limited to 36 or so exposures. We can also quickly see our work through a screen on the back of the camera rather than wait until we got the film developed and prints made. Modern digital cameras will even “develop” my photograph and the image be completely usable straight out of the camera. While I may not instantly have a physical print in hand I can have portable devices that could make a print at the click of a button.
I can also take my images and process them in ways that were well beyond most photographers in the past using programs such as Photoshop and the myriad of similar programs and applications available, some for free.
I suspect this is why some “old-timers” in photography or those who want to be like an “old-timer” thumb their noses at modern digital photography. I love the look of photographic film. It is different than digital. I love that there are those who want to keep film alive, albeit I believe film will eventually die except for a few very niche photographers. Because of all these things we can spend more time on composition, content, creativity, and people who may have never ventured into photography. I’ve come to a point where I don’t to discount anyone’s choice of medium to do their photography because I may just learn something new or be inspired by their creativity.
Photography workshops, do you really need one or do you just need a guide? It has started to appear as if the workshops being offered are really just guided photography trips. To me, a workshop is an event that provides training. Merriam-Webster defines a workshop as; “a usually brief intensive educational program for a relatively small group of people that focuses especially on techniques and skills in a particular field.”
Years ago, I went on a photography trip that was billed as a workshop. While the guys who were the workshop hosts were nice guys and had scouted the locations well I didn’t believe either one was a much better photographer than I. The problem I often found was there were about 12 of us who paid for the workshop and in many of the shots I wanted to take there often appeared to be a photographer standing somewhere in the frame. The other problem I found was there were so many of us that when we all, or at least several of us, found a composition we liked we lined up like we were at the firing line of a shooting range. When we traveled between locations it was a convoy of vehicles. I’m almost certain that most of us all came away with a number of nearly identical images.
A few months ago, a friend and I went on another photography trip. It was just two of us. We had, as best as we could, scouted out locations virtually. We could also decide on the fly to try a location. We still got a decent number of photographs and this time we weren’t in each other’s way. At one time I saw there was a service that you could sign up to be or hire a local photographer to be a guide. You could offer your services as a guide to your area and if you were traveling to another area you could search for a guide. Maybe we need more guides and fewer group trips billed as a workshop.
I’ve heard this so many times and it has been from people with cameras. You often hear this when the weather doesn’t meet their expectation. Too many clouds, flat grey clouds, no clouds, raining, snowing, etcetera. In reality, there is no bad day for photography. Just because the weather doesn’t meet my expectation or provide the conditions I wanted to photograph doesn’t mean it is a bad day for photography. The true sign of photographic artists is that they are able to adjust to the conditions. A photographic artist can visualize the art. Is the weather not doing what you hoped? Take a moment or two, study your scene and subject and adapt.
Some of the most compelling photographs I have been under what many of those “it’s a bad day for photography” people would say it’s a bad day. Under some weather conditions, it may be necessary to use precautions because it’s dangerous, and I may have to wait a bit but, to me, it’s still not a bad day. Embrace what nature gives us to photograph you may actually be surprised and able to get one of the best photographs you’ve ever taken.
Yesterday, I wrote about photography as an art. Today, I want to talk about photography as fine art. There are many genres of photography and of all those genres the vast majority can be fine art. Fine art is often defined as work that is purely created to be aesthetically pleasing. Wow! Based on that definition most of what I and likely you create is fine art! Isn’t that awesome!
I used to dislike the terms, art is subjective and my photography, my art. The more I have thought about it, these terms are true regardless of whether or not I like or dislike them. Have you ever walked around a museum of art? I have many times. There are all sorts of art inside. Have you ever had a small child draw a picture for you? Was that art? And many of these works were created purely to be aesthetically pleasing. Of course, it was. See where I’m going with this? Art is in the eye of the beholder.
We are many times fine artists. We create works to be pleasing to the eye. Don’t let others define you, we have already done so. Go create my friend, you are truly a fine artist.
It has been debated and it is still somewhat of a debate whether or not photography is an art form. To me, it is definitely an art form, but many others claim it is not the same as painting and sculpture. Those who claim photography isn’t art often cite things like it isn’t creative, it doesn’t take skill, anyone can do it, blah blah blah. Much the same could be said for any art form. Anyone can splash paint on a canvas, anyone can create a sculpture. Given the trends in the traditional art forms with abstract art forms, ready-mades, etc.
Those of us who are photographers know none of those comments are true. Photography done properly is creative and takes a lot of skill. Photography is different than painting just as painting is different from sculpting which is different than dance. Will this end the debate? I doubt it. It won’t end because there are those who believe their art form is above and beyond that of other forms of art. I don’t care what those naysayers believe, not in the least. All I can do is to do my photographic art and promote it as best as I can. Let’s get out there and create some photographic art.
Photographer Clay 