Musings on Creativity and Assignment Photography

Follow Your Own Path

While processing some older photos this morning, I came across the above image. It was taken in Hualien, on Taiwan’s east coast back in February but has sat in its RAW state ever since. I originally intended it to be one of the exposures in an HDR image, but thus far, I haven’t processed it (and it’s bracketed siblings) in that style. As I was scrolling through thumbnails in the Library module of Adobe Lightroom, this image jumped out at me and I could hear it telling me to make it a toned black and white. That’s the beauty of shooting in RAW. We can make multiple versions of a photograph while always maintaining the original with no quality loss.

I must have looked at this image numerous times in the eight months since it was first taken but it was only today that I was inspired to make a photograph out of it. It’s funny how that works. What was it particularly about today, this moment, this time that prompted me to make the image seen above? I really don’t know. Sometimes, as creatives, we need to wait until the time is right in order to bring about our vision.

Even the writing of this post as taken a similar path. I had the photograph and in my mind was the beginning of an idea for what I wanted to write about. Try as I might however, the words just weren’t flowing. Some things can’t be forced.

Creativity often follows it’s own pace. The more you try to force it, the harder it is to find. However, it may be possible to give it a helping hand at times, by doing things differently than you usually do. Alternatively, letting your projects sit to one side until the muse strikes may be the answer. It’s different for everyone.

How many of you remember being children or teenagers and looking through old issues of National Geographic, or Life or some other magazine and wishing you could be assigned to go out and take those photos, travel to exotic lands, record history in the making and meet famous people. With the seemingly imminent demise of traditional forms of media, the slashing of editorial budgets and the rise of social media, coupled with the willingness of people to give photos away for free (or close to), the chance to do such a thing is both more difficult and at the same time, easier.

While magazines may not be sending photographers on the road for months at a time to capture once in a lifetime stories, there’s no reason why you can’t send yourself on the road. Maybe not for months at a time, and maybe not even to exotic lands (and remember that exotic is subjective – to a villager in a developing nation, Wal-mart might be considered exotic), but a self-assigned project may be just what you need to get the creative juices flowing.

By this, I don’t mean simply heading out and taking pictures of a subject you usually avoid, although that can be a great exercise in itself. Instead, approach a local project with the same mindset as you would an assignment (or vacation) to foreign lands. Go to a library or bookstore and find a Lonely Planet or the like that covers your town or city or country. Borrow or buy a copy and look through it as you would if it were a place you’d never been. You’ll probably be amazed at how many potentially interesting subjects there are that you never knew about.

Now that you have a subject or two, approach it like you would a paying assignment. Instead of simply rushing down to the location and clicking away, do some research. A couple of hours online could yield a wealth of information that might help make your project that much stronger. Perhaps you’ve chosen to concentrate on a dance group. Rather than simply finding out when a performance in on, your research may produce a contact person who can get you backstage, or arrange an interview with the lead dancer. There’s no reason why you can’t introduce yourself as a photographer who’s working on a project about your chosen subject just as you might if someone were paying you to be there. An added advantage of a local attraction is that there’s probably no need for a translator like there might be in a foreign country.

Creative people often work best when they’re inspired by something new. Giving yourself a homegrown assignment may bring about this sense of discovery and spur your creativity to new heights. So give it a go.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 7th, 2009 at 06:00. It is filed under Learn, Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.