Professional Photography : creativity

The Value of Photography Events: Finding the Unexpected

Eileen Fritsch — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:22:00 GMT

As I write this, I am in the middle of the month-long Ballarat International Foto Biennale (BFB). It got me thinking about all the various ways in which we can benefit from participating in events such as this.

There is one annual photo event I regularly attend, the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) trade show here in Australia, as well as the Ballarat International Foto Biennale (BFB) every second year.

The PMA Conference and Exposition: PMA in Australia (as I believe it is in the US and with similar shows in other countries) is actually a composite event. While the core activity is to enable photo-industry suppliers to meet with photo retailers and end customers, many other events run concurrently. While PMA runs workshops relevant to its members, two professional photography associations run meetings and print awards, and the Photo Imaging Educators Association runs their own sessions. Plus, various organizations take the opportunity to exhibit photography.

No matter which group is conducting the sessions, the training events at PMA not only provide great information but are also timed to enable you to network with other participants. Each of PMA’s affiliate organizations holds cocktail parties and get-togethers.

The best part of these networking opportunities is that you never know what will come out of meeting another photographer. I’ve discovered great ideas about new directions for my work, great workflow suggestions, selling tips, and much more.

Examining exhibitions of photography can provide similar benefits. You can learn something from looking at any photography, even if you simply learn what you don’t want to try.

The Ballarat International Foto Biennale: BIFB is a month-long festival of photography, with a core exhibition program, a fringe festival of associated photography exhibitions, and a workshop program. Workshops run at two locations and exhibitions are spread over the city of Ballarat (a regional city of about 80,000 people) and nearby towns, including major concentrations in Daylesford and Trentham. Various talks are also given.

Like the PMA event, the BIFB provides lots of stimulation for the creative juices. The workshops not only provide training but also networking and the opportunity to learn from other photographers. The exhibition program at BFB is extensive and if you can’t learn something from any group of exhibitions you are not trying.

Similar events to BFB are conducted all over the world. I attended Arles in France once and found it to be a similar, but more intense, experience. There are so many others events, including the New York Photo Festival.

At any such photo festival there will be many exhibitions from which to choose. Some will appeal to you, some will not, and others you will find by happy accident.

Plan Some, But Not All, Your Time: One good way to maximize the return on the time and money invested in attending a conference is to look through the program in advance and choose which workshops you must attend and the exhibits you must see.

At some festivals, you can buy a package that allows you attend a certain number of workshops. In this case, choose the ones you must but if you are allowed some extras, then I’d suggest almost choosing at random. Since you want to experience the happy accident (and you can’t predict in advance just what you will get out of it), almost any workshop will do if you don’t have to pay extra for it.

In the case of PMA, allocate enough time to see the trade show. Then in the time you have left, try wandering into exhibits or seminars that weren’t included on your “must-do” list.

Often, you will discover that exhibitions or seminars that don’t sound particularly worthwhile from the conference program will actually offer you something of value if you go.

At most festivals, it’s impossible to see every event, but if you leave some free time in your schedule, you’ll at least have the opportunity to discover something you weren’t expecting. And it could be something the changes your creative life. Believe me, it happens.

If you derive some or all of your income from photography, then attending some of these events can be tax deductible. Since they are usually held in interesting locations, your spouse may enjoy going along, too.

It is hard to overstate just how valuable these events can be to your career and development as a photographer. So make the time and travel if you have to.

Sometimes the greatest value of attending a festival comes from something small. It could be one part of an image in one exhibition that haunts you and pushes you in a new direction once you return home. Or, a discussion with a photographer might open up a whole new possibility. You never know quite just what will happen. But I do know that I am always stimulated and something unexpected always happens whenever I attend one of these photography events. Give it a go.

Photography Is Not a Separate Activity

Eileen Fritsch — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:21:00 GMT

By Wayne Cosshall

A lot of rapid progress can come in your photography when you integrate it with the other things you do in life.

Photography can seem to be a very distinct activity in our lives. We shoot on social occasions, vacation, and on deliberate photo trips (such as my long trips into the country to shoot landscapes) or for work as a portrait or event photographer. But it is rare to find someone who only has one thing as their entire life focus or as their only ability.

Many of us have hobbies in other areas than photography. We may be into model trains, wargaming, historical recreation, quilting, sewing, gardening, cooking, cars, spiritual practices, social work, model making or whatever.

Any other activity we are involved in, either for hobby or work, can not only provide subject matter for our photography but may also bring talents that can be applied in our photography. Let’s have a look at some people doing just this.

David Leventhal has moved from shooting toy soldiers, cowboy and Indian figurines, religious statues and sports models to adult toys. Using shallow depth of field and a large-format Polaroid camera, he creates dioramas that explore American culture. The result is a strong body of work that has achieved great success.

David Lambert mixes a passion for the landscape and environmental concerns with an ability to create model landscapes in a series of works with a strong conceptual basis and great visuals.

Edward Weston’s Pepper image from 1930 should inspire any photographer with an interest in cooking or vegetable gardening to start shooting some of their vegetables before, while, or after they are in the pot.

Anyone who has burned a lot of incense will have seen the amazing patterns the smoke makes in the air. Why not try photographing this, as Mehmet Ozgur did.

Ron Von Dongen and Karl Blossfeldt both produced great portfolios of flower photography. In the case of Karl Blossfeldt it was all he photographed throughout his life.

Albert Koetsier translated a job as an x-ray technician into stunning x-ray art photography. Likewise, Dr. Dain L.Tasker, a radiologist, did the same. Another is retired Professor Bert Myers.

I hope you are starting to get the idea. No matter what your other interests, professional or hobby, you can apply them to photography.

If you are a passionate computer game player, set up the camera pointing at the screen, set a long exposure, and capture the movement as dynamic blurs.

A skateboarder could tape on a suitable camera to their board, set to take a picture every five seconds and shoot while in action. Similarly an amateur rally driver or off-roader could affix a camera securely to the car and capture action shots.

Someone with great people-handling skills, such as a psychologist or sales person, could persuade people to pose in unusual ways or in challenging situations.

A lab technician or scientist could take great images of equipment setups in the lab.

A mother could choose to document suburban life, do abstract shots in the supermarket, or serve as an event photographer at their kid’s activities.

A student could create great images of other students or abstracts of study materials or even books in the library.

It is when you draw diverse things together that you have the opportunity to make some unique creative choices. While lots of people shoot landscapes, how many shoot model landscapes seriously? There are many who shoot flowers, how many shoot flowers with bugs from their bug collection? While many shoot insect macros, how many do so using the endoscopy equipment that doctors use?

When you combine very different areas you limit your competition, making it more likely for you to get noticed. You also end up seeing images in situations that no one else does, thus sharing your unique vision with the world.

So try combining your interests. Your life will be easier when you can share time on several passions and your work will have a unique quality.

Necessity is the Mother of Creativity

Eileen Fritsch — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:50:00 GMT

By Wayne Cosshall

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.

Pre-visualization or Experimentation? Which Way Do You Work?

Eileen Fritsch — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:47:00 GMT

By Wayne Cosshall

Do most of your images start with pre-visualization? Or experimentation? Do you only work only one way or the other? Or do you swing both ways, photographically speaking?

Pre-visualization is big in the arts. In your mind, you see beforehand what you want to show, capture or create and then you set out to do so. Pre-visualization can occur in a momentary flash of inspiration or slowly develop over a long period of time. (The image on the right was created through previsualization.)

Experimentation is a sophisticated term for play. Photographically, it means simply doing for the sake of doing, and then seeing what the results are later. Play can be deeply focused, totally absorbing your attention for awhile. Or, play can be sporadic and interrupted. Whatever form experimentation takes, it’s still play.

Pre-visualization is a result-oriented approach. You envision the end result and then set out to make your vision real.

Experimentation is process oriented. You are absorbed in the process and care little for the end result because the result is essentially a byproduct of the process. (The image shown below was created through experimentation.)

Some of us work exclusively one way, some of us the other. Still others of us mix and match our methods depending on the situation.

Despite what some photographers might tell you, there is no right or wrong way. It depends partly on your personality and how you think. Some personality types are best suited to only one way of working and thinking. Others will be able to choose or change how they work depending on their moods or circumstances.

Personally, I think it is good if you can work both ways. So if you have a strong tendency to only pre-visualize or only to experiment, try to develop the other way too. The value comes from the fact that the two different ways of working are not really that far apart. Pre-visualization can be regarded as experimentation ‘in the head.’ When you experiment (play), you try different things, examine the results, and choose what worked best for you. In pre-visualization all this still happens, but it happens in your mind before you go near the camera, computer or darkroom.

Here are some tips to get you started:

Experimentation: Let go of any expectations about future results. Allow yourself to become totally absorbed in the moment. Shoot with different settings, lenses, and angles just for the sake of the trying it, not for what you hope to get. This in-the-moment thinking can be difficult because results-oriented thinking has become so ingrained in us as business people. So, expect to keep pulling yourself back from considering future results and quieting that internal evaluative voice.

Pre-visualization: Develop the final image in your head before you even pick up your camera. This process may be so quick that you are not conscious of all the stages that occur. But there are still stages. It usually starts with a brainstorming period during which you generate a number of ideas. During the evaluative stage that follows you consider the results of brainstorming stage, editing and eliminating some ideas. A development process of fine-tuning can follow the idea-evaluation stage. In the end, you have a pretty clear picture in your mind of the image your want to create. The issue then becomes a matter of using your photography and image-editing skills to translate the image in your head into an image or print.

Give both methods of working a go and you will find that there is a time and place for both in your photography. Both can be extremely productive and creative and either can be the key to getting yourself to that next level of creative output.

Defining Your Style

Eileen Fritsch — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:08:00 GMT

By Jon Canfield

Most of us got started in photography as a hobby—as a way to express ourselves creatively. Some were lucky enough to know what they were attracted to from the beginning, whether it was landscape, wildlife, wedding, or portrait photography. Others, myself included, had no firm idea of what compelled us to pick up a camera.

I know that in my case, I was interested in nature photography. But I spent quite a bit of time working with a variety of subjects before deciding it was landscape and macro photography that I wanted to concentrate on. I have a great deal of admiration for wildlife photographers, and love to view their work, but I don’t have the patience to do it myself. So, having decided what interested me the most, I wanted to find what it was that made for a successful photograph.

Along with reviewing work from other photographers that I admire, I made sure to take the time to find what it was about a scene that attracted me to the scene to begin with, and how to turn the image I had in my head to one on paper.

If you haven’t taken the time to find what draws you to pick up a camera, whether it’s for pleasure or profit, I suggest going through your existing images to look for trends. Do you see a pattern developing in your shots?

Once you start to identify these patterns or trends you can begin to concentrate on improving your compositions with an eye toward defining your own style. Hey, it worked for Ansel!

Boredom Can Be a Great Tool for Inspiring Creativity

Eileen Fritsch — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:31:00 GMT

By Wayne Cosshall

We all get bored sometimes: bored with ourselves, bored with others, and bored with what we're doing. Boredom with our photography can be a great kick to a new start.

The other day I was bored. I was feeling somewhat agitated. I wanted to shoot something (with a camera), but had no idea what. After some hours of pacing around the house and annoying my wife I realized what was going on. I had the need to do something new. So I went into the studio, looked around and started brainstorming in my head.

Some time ago I had been experimenting with LED lighting and fiber optics. I didn't have those accessible at the time, so I kept looking for alternative ways to create the same effects. Then the light bulb went on in my head and I put it all together.

I grabbed some black thin cardboard, a craft knife, my camera and macro lens (also a lensbaby for fun) and my portable flash unit, along with some flowers. I cut slits in the cardboard to let light only to parts of the flower, then propped up the cardboard on books with the flash underneath. I used some aluminum foil to limit the light to just the holes and slits I had cut. With the flowers covering the holes completely and the camera above, the resulting image looks as if the flower is lit from within.

The technique works simply by allowing you to control exactly where the light goes to backlight your subject. It works with anything that is translucent. I used flowers, but this technique can work with other things.

You don't want the light holes to be directly visible to the camera. With many translucent objects the amount of light you need to pump through would only cause massive underexposure if any of the light source was directly visible to the camera.

The effects can be interesting. I was shooting white lilies, but if I put the green end of the flower through a small hole and lit through the stem, the green of this part of the flower acted as a filter on the light, turning the whole flower green.

Now the point of this post isn't the particular technique I've described above (though it is worth trying). What matters is that, having identified what was wrong with me, I set in motion a creative process that I know works for my personality. It not only got me out of my mental state, but also helped me find a new technique (new to me, at least) that worked well. In fact, it has opened up a new series of work that may be interesting. We will see.

Creative people are often at their happiest when they create. Conversely, they are at their lowest when, for one reason or another, they cannot.

Recognize this trait in yourself and find ways to overcome it. Build a file of good ideas you come across. Or clip out images you'd love to figure out how to do for yourself. Keep these files handy. Have stimulating books around to give you a creative kick. Do whatever works for you.

You will find ways to turn a negative day into a positive one. Your photography and your life will benefit.

The Creative Blahs: What Do You Do When the Ideas Dry Up?

BlogArchive — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:15:00 GMT

By Wayne Cosshall

We all have them, the Creative Blahs, or CBs. Lugging the camera bag seems like hard work. You can’t be bothered going out. Or you go to a normally fertile place photographically, and nothing happens. Maybe you take one or two bad shots just so you can say you shot something. Even worse, you have a client shoot tomorrow and you have absolutely no idea what you will do. What do you do?

All creative people go through dry spells. It is natural not to be on your game all the time. The important thing is to not allow the CBs to pull you down even deeper or set you up for a long creative outage. Most of us who are old enough to have dealt with many episodes of the CBs will have developed one or more breakout strategies. What are yours?

Keep an Idea Book. If you’re like some people, you may keep a scrapbook or clippings book where you put inspiring images as you come across them. When experiencing the CBs you flick through your clipping book, looking for something, anything, that will break you loose and make you want to create. A variation on the clipping book is the ideas book, where you write all the great photographic ideas that you don’t currently have time to shoot. Whatever you do, great ideas or inspiration need to be captured somehow. This is a digital age, so rather than clip, why not scan and organize?

Visit the Library or Magazine Store. Another variation is to visit the library (either your personal one or a local public or university library), and flip through the books and magazines. Or, check out the magazine store. This is a breakout method I use a lot. I usually head off to Borders (which has a good selection of Australian, US and UK photo and art mags), flick through, and see if anything inspires. If so, I buy the magazine, take it home, and analyze the images that caught my attention. Suddenly, instead of feeling the CBs, I’m in problem-solving mode.

As a magazine writer and publisher myself, I don’t buy lots of photo mags on a regular basis. There are just too many of them and most tend to repeat the same ideas if you read them for too long. (Of course I am not talking about my magazine.)

You know the deal: If it is fall there will be articles on shooting leaves, autumn colors, etc. But certain mags can usually inspire me. Those I check out and buy. And new magazines are always arriving on the scene. I also look through art magazines and certain interior-decorating magazines. Many of these show great art, in use, and can be very inspiring.

Go someplace new. Sometimes all you need to do is go somewhere new. Holidays always seem to stimulate the photographic urge, but even in your own city or town there will be places where you have not shot. Go seek them out.

Try shooting differently. If you can’t go somewhere new, try shooting in a new way. Try crawling around your house with your camera at ground level. Shoot everything with flash or everything with the lens focused at two feet away. Try shooting at that 3200ISO setting you never use. You get the idea. If you normally go out shooting with a bag of lenses, pick one (ideally a single focal length lens) and go out only with that.

When you are shooting somewhere new, or doing things in a different way, or shooting with some limitation, you automatically shift into problem-solving mode.

Problem solving is the key to getting unstuck and motivated again. Why? Because the process of problem solving requires concentration and focus. It forces you to stop thinking about having the CBs. If you can forget about the CBs long enough, you won’t have them anymore. This is a mental trick I’ve taught over the years to both workshop participants and university students. It usually works. Even if the cause of your CBs is something outside of yourself or photography, problem solving still works because the concentration and focus move you away from worrying about paying bills, getting fired, the state of the world, or that argument with your partner.

CBs may be a fact of life but you don’t have to be stuck with them. In fact, I’ve found that sometimes the CBs can be the trigger to a new level of work, because in seeking something new to release the CBs, I open up something new in myself.’

This image came out of an episode of the Creative Blahs (CBs). After forcing myself to visit a part of the city edge I’d never been to before, I discovered some interesting sites. When I returned the next day with a camera, I captured the 10 or so images that make up this composite image and broke free of the Creative Blahs.

The Real Joy of Photography

BlogArchive — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:14:00 GMT

By Marc Aguilera

Photography is one of the most joyful activities you can do with your time on this planet. I love seeing the world in its perpetual present moment and then capturing that moment as a digital memory.

The Real Joy of Photography to me is capturing presence. I still need to learn how to shoot in late evening when the only light sources are the moon, scattered and distant lights, and the reflections and atmosphere. But low-light photography is a different post. This post is about The Real Joy of Photography, and how it can free us from the stresses of our daily routines and challenge us to look at the world in a whole new light.

I recently took time off from my graphic-design business and technology teaching work to travel with my family to Washington, the Evergreen State. We visited dear friends and family. We were tourists and explorers. I shot lots of images of places and things.

I shot everything from public art at SEATAC airport to early afternoon light hitting Mt. Rainier. It felt so good to be present and simply looking to see what was around me. For me this was real joy.

When I have the time to consciously look for something to shoot, it pays off in many ways. For one thing, I am constantly amazed at the beauty that presents itself when I just take time to look.

I especially like how architecture looks from different positions in a given environment. The Seattle Space Needle from its base yields wonderful architectural geometry. I had a similar experience visiting the Eiffel Tower in Paris for the first time. It can also be surprising to see what gets captured when I look through the camera viewfinder and point it at the subject of interest.

What makes the Real Joy of Photography complete is being able to share my images with others. For me (and thousands of others), this is where flickr comes in. If you don't know what flickr is (or think it's just a bunch of tweens posting images from their cellphones), then please take note. Flickr is not just for amateurs. It's for everyone. You will be pleasantly surprised to see how many accomplished photographers use the site to share their work (and their own joy of photography). I will mention some of my favorite groups on flickr in a future post. It's a great community!

If you visit this link to flickr, you'll see everything from images I took of Archaeology in Israel to my four-year-old shooting a digital camera for the first time. (Now that's the real joy of photography!)

Great Images Require Layers of Refinement

Eileen Fritsch — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 18:31:00 GMT

By Wayne Cosshall

As a kid, I was fascinated by the image. At first, I tried painting. But I was never satisfied with the results. As I attempted to teach myself painting from books at a young age, I had the mistaken notion that a painting was painted in a complete state from one corner and spread across the canvas until it was done. Of course this is not how one paints. Rather, one builds it up in layers of refinement.

During this period of frustration with painting, I became entranced with the view through telescopes. I went through several telescopes as a kid until I had a decent one. It was for this that I was given my first camera, a secondhand Petri SLR. My first shots were both through the telescope and using the camera on a tripod to take wide shots of the night sky. Over time my photography came down to earth.

Strangely enough (and in parallel with the photography), my introduction to computer graphics was also through astronomy. As part of my undergraduate work, I chose to produce an astronomy planetarium program for a computer graphics project. While computer-graphics technology in 1979 was primitive, I was completely hooked and progressed to a steady focus on computer graphics. I loved the precision, the control and the challenge of making it work. I wrote all my own code, using a variety of languages and different types of computers.

After almost 10 years of pursuing both photography and computer graphics, I had achieved a happy schizophrenia. I was pursuing both interests, but hadn’t yet brought them together. A new woman in my life, an artist, helped me to see that both these interests, plus my ongoing, but low intensity, interest in painting, were just all different facets of the same thing--my desire for self expression and fascination with the created image.

That was 20 years ago. Since then, I’ve had time to reflect more on how photography, painting, art and computer graphics are related. At the obvious level, they are all concerned with the visual image and personal expression. In their most common forms, they all result in a two-dimensional image. And they all offer a huge amount of control over the process.

Even more significant--just as I learned from my early experiments with painting--they all require “layers of refinement.” Layers of refinement are the key to greatness in photography, painting and other forms of art and computer graphics. When everything is on the surface and obvious, the work is shallow. It may be effective commercially, but it does not engage.

Great paintings, photographs and digital art all have layers upon layers within them. These can be layers of symbolic meaning, layers of detail (so that there is always more to find no matter how close you get), or layers of emotional response just waiting to be revealed.

These layers give an image lasting engagement value, making the image worth hanging on your wall for everyday viewing. Just as with a long-term personal relationship, a long-term relationship with an image only deepens over time as familiarity washes away the surface, superficial detail and allows us to relate at a much deeper level.

Hence my standard advice to photographers and artists is to get your work in progress up on the wall and live with it for awhile. Only then can you get a feeling for whether the piece has enough depth. Don’t confuse depth with busyness. A busy image may just be superficially detailed, with little depth. On the other hand, the most abstract, superficially simple image may have great depth.

So that is the basis of my love of the image: depth or richness. In astronomy, depth comes not only from the beauty of what can be seen in the night sky, but also from the physics, chemistry and math underlying what is visible. That same level of depth and richness applies to photography, digital art and painting.

I guess you could call me a deep image diver.