Of course these are pressing concerns for the jobbing 'tog but this can very quickly move you from the free and expressive 'right brain' thinking into the logical and functional 'left brain' thinking, which for us creative types can feel quite painful if we dwell there too long.
So, it's important to balance both parts of our grey matter; to nourish our spontaneous, child-like wonder of the world; to keep learning and expressing ourselves but to give it purpose, structure and direction.
A great way of doing this is, I have found is through personal projects.
Now these can be long term, on-going projects and it's always a good idea to have at least one of these on the go if you haven't already.
If you haven't started a long term project then simply imagine you are creating a book,what excites you? what would you like to 'say' to the world using photographs? then set about making time to create the images you will need for that book.
One of my long term projects 'I am master of my body' is that of capturing dance in all it's forms, I have started off with Break dancers and will add to this as I go..
However, just as important are quick, short projects that can really give you a burst of creativity and shake you out of your comfort zone.
I had wanted to photograph people on their lunch break in a busy city for a while, I knew that if was going to do it properly, then I would need to approach them and ask for permission as otherwise I wouldn't be able to legally display the pictures if I wanted to turn them into an exhibition later or even use them for my stock library (bit of left brain logic there!)
The thought of printing off the model release forms and actually having to interact with my subjects instead of just capturing them in the moment, had made me stall on starting this but one day, I just thought, the light is good, I have got some free time, let's just do this in the next 2 hours!
So, that's what I did...
As the natural light was very strong, I hunted down a shaded area with a large, plain white background. Eventually I found the perfect spot, right in the middle of the City center and waited for approachable looking people to walk past. (For those of you in Birmingham, it was opposite Rackhams on Corporation St. where the new metro stop is being built)
The shoot went well and in fact the interacting with the people I approached became the BEST thing about this project and really allowed me to connect with these people, which for me gave the pictures more depth and a substance to what could have been just a standard portrait session
I am happy with the results and think that I will turn this mini project into an ongoing larger one, shooting different times of the day in different areas and asking different questions.
So, if you have a good idea for a project and have been sitting on it for a while, ask yourself: WHY? what's stopping me starting this?
I'd love to see your projects...
