Vision and Creativity

After posting an image per day for the last week I thought I would be more energized in taking photos. What I’ve discovered is that photography can’t be forced. It has to be something that just happens – at least for me. I like seeing things in a different light; in a fresh way, but it has to come naturally. Many of the photos from the past week have been from my archive. That’s not a bad thing, just something I didn’t expect. I wanted to take some new images, but the opportunity never seemed to present itself. Yes I did take my camera with me, but there was no real goal, no vision. I was looking at everything without really seeing anything. I felt forced to “produce” something.

Now I could have said, “I suck! I’ve lost all feeling for photography”. But this experience has helped me realize how I take photos and how my vision impacts my creativity. Vision should not get in the way of creativity. The two can, and should, go hand in hand. This is not something new for me, but it took a week’s worth of looking but not seeing to have it penetrate my conscience.



So, this past Saturday, I incorporated this new found realism into a photo shoot of two black labs owned my Karen Smith, a photo editor with The Discovery Channel. I had a vision of what I wanted, but didn’t let it get in the way of my creativity. If something didn’t look exactly the way I wanted, I adjusted my vision to compliment my creativity. I just let it happen.

Included here are some images from the shoot.