In art, we talk about inspiration. That thing that gets you all jazzed, throws you into a new creative realm and unleashes your inner being (whatever that is). I’ve been fiddle faddling around for the last few years with photography. Many years ago I studied art photography at college. I loved creating images. Light and dark, negative space, give me a few glasses of wine and I can espouse for hours about the beauty of negative space. A photo is a moment that can last a lifetime. But how do we find inspiration as photographers?
It isn’t like being a painter, where you can stare at your canvas and take hours to put the first stroke. As a painter you can choose to make great art at 6am, midday, 6pm or midnight. As a painter you are not held captive to outside influences. I know, I used to paint oils. I acknowledge there are exceptions - landscape painters who go out in the field and those who paint portraits from a live sitter.
The delight and the burden of photography on the other hand, is that if we want to photograph outside, we are at the mercy of day and night, seasons, rain, wind, sun and shade. Of course if you go into a closed studio with no natural light you command complete control of your environment. You could choose to have rain – but only if someone brought a rain machine inside!
So as a photographer, I have found there are three stages to a great photo. Sometimes all the stages coincide at once and you wander past, snap! and there is your magical photo. I have a few of those photos over the years. But while sometimes they were planned, often they were lucky. To be consistent, to produce repeatable results – you need the three Ps. Planning, Patience, and Practice. (more…)
