PHOTOGRAPHY

Getting Your Groove Back

Creative photography can be the hardest.  This is because, unlike with commercial photography, your boss is your imagination and the art world.  It's hard to say what is considered art and what isn't from one week to the next.

When we talk about you following your creative muse and using your photography to express your art, we're not just using poetic licence.  You can look at a hundred settings and scenes, and only you can know if any of them have the raw materials for a great artistic piece using your camera.  It uses up a lot of your energy and can be tough on your emotions, but it's also incredibly rewarding.  And if you can make a living from it, even better.

But artists sometimes find it hard to get inspired.  Don't worry if you have to be creative at a certain time, like if you have orders to finish or deadlines to meet.  She just won't cooperate.  We need to find ways to deal with these times when we don't feel inspired and get that creative spark back.

One trick is to use the normal ups and downs of your imagination.  When it comes to inspiration, it's either really good or really bad.  Sometimes you get a lot of ideas at once and you have to choose the best ones to work on.  When you're feeling inspired, take some time to write down your thoughts.  A journal can help you capture your thoughts straight away. It can be used on paper or on tape.

This is where you are showing that you are more intelligent than your subconscious.  When you're feeling uninspired, that inspiration journal can help.  You can start to think about the ideas and develop them.  Don't worry if you don't feel like being creative.  You can use the energy from your creative ideas to keep working on your project.

Another great thing about using your journal is that you can read about the things that inspired you when you were having a lot of new ideas. This will get you thinking again and help you to have more new ideas.

Most importantly, don't worry if you feel like you can't think of anything.  Sometimes, if you rest for a day or so, things will get better.  Or you could go and see some art by other people at the local museum.  If you see the best work of your fellow artists, it can give you lots of new ideas.

Creative funks are as important as the flow of ideas when it comes to creativity.  So don't worry if you have a few rough days, and don't let yourself get too down about it.  Looking at old work can also help you remember that you are a creative person who has done good work in the past, and will do good work again.

The most important thing is to give yourself permission to make mistakes.  In other words, don't make it hard for your creative mind to come up with new ideas by only thinking that every idea has to be of very high quality.  You know from times in the past when you were very creative that good ideas come out with the bad ones.  It's not helpful to try to edit them as you go.  Tell yourself, "I'm going to make some bad art" to free your creative side and let it express itself.  This might be the trick that unstops the pipe and gets the creativity flowing again.

But it will flow again, and you need to have the confidence that it will.  When you start taking creative photos, you will produce work that is as good as, or better than, anything you have done before.