The Creative Process

The Creative Process

What is your ‘wait time’ between capturing one truly compelling image until the next; one hour, one day, one week, one month? 

If you are experiencing giant gaps between the loud gasps from your audience, you are probably a photographer who TAKES pictures versus being a photographer who MAKES  pictures, and let me stress, really stress, that chances are extremely high that you have heard or been told that you should NOT mess with or disturb the scene before you because in doing so, it is no longer ‘natural’! (Whatever the hell that is supposed to mean!) Unless you commit to taking an active role IN THE CREATIVE PROCESS, you will be waiting ‘forever’ until you find your next compelling shot! Be a picture maker not a picture taker! 

While walking the streets of Agra, India, my students and  I came upon a PVC pipe supply store, where we were confronted with a wonderful pattern of circles ! “A great background”, I thought. All that was missing was a person and after some pleading I got one of the employees at this shop to sit down in the lower left of the overall composition and with the addition of a RED water bottle from one of my students, I was able to add a wee bit of color to a very monochromatic scene! 

As a creative photographer your focus should be on MAKING photographs and that should include the need to ‘disturb’ a scene in order to bring your ideas to fruition. It has been well documented that creative people ARE quite ‘disturbed’ so embrace the disturbed photographer that you are and start projecting your creativity into your work with much greater frequency which will result in a greater frequency of compelling compositions. Nikon D500, Nikkor 18-300mm@35mm, F/11@1/400 sec, 200ISO

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