While this may sound very New Agey, sometimes it is the negative experiences that we learn the most from. This is as true in photography and business as it is in other aspects of life.

At one level or another, most of us resist change. For example, unless there is a damn good reason, we keep taking the same types of photos or printing on the same paper and at the same size. Or, we keep operating our business the way we always have.  

Two weeks ago, my main website was hacked into and vandalized. I spotted it very quickly and then spent three frustrating days trying to restore the site and close up the holes. During this time I kept finding more that the hackers had done. So after three days I decided I had no choice but to pull the site down.

Then the question was what to do? I had been considering moving the site to a new, underlying server technology but I hadn’t done so because of the issues involved in porting the site. Thus, I began to see the hacking event in a more positive light. The incident had motivated me to not only completely revamp the security aspects of my site, but also to move it to new technology that enabled me to add features that I had been wanting to add for quite some time. So now my site is back and better than ever.

Likewise, I have discovered that my photography improves if I set conditions that require me to use new tools. When I received a new lens, the Lensbaby Composer, I wanted to give it an extensive workout. So I decided to make it the only lens I would use during the next month of shooting. That decision really pushed me to be more creative.


Because the Lensbaby Composer has a single focal length, I had to overcome my comfort with my zoom lenses. My photography was enhanced as I discovered how to work with the tilting mechanism on the Lensbaby Composer. And, having the choice of a heavily distorting plastic lens, a less distorting single-element glass lens, a sharp double-element glass lens and a combined pinhole/zone plate ‘lens’ caused me to really explore how I felt about sharpness in my images.

In an ideal world, we would find ways to constantly stimulate the creative response without the need to be pushed by unpleasant situations such as the website hacking.

For example, going to a new location can be like a breath of fresh air to our creativity. Because it is a different place, we are forced to look at everything anew, and so we usually take a huge burst of images.One way to stimulate your creativity is to actually schedule time to do something different. Given the nature of contemporary life and current economic concerns, work and mundane life tasks will often grow to fill all available time.

So you may have to block out some time in your weekly schedule for a creative project, and actually do it come hell or high water. One way to make sure you follow through with creative pursuits is to make plans with other photographers to try new things or shoot somewhere new. Then, you won’t want to let them down if other mundane life tasks crop up. During the time blocked out for creativity, push yourself in various ways. Try a new technique, shoot a different subject, or go to a different location. Or, go to a highly familiar location but try to shoot from a different perspective, such as how a tourist might see it.

Forcing yourself to make the most of a negative situation, a new piece of equipment, or unfamiliar location can unlock the creative juices that may have become stagnant due to familiarity and repetition.