Seeing Creatively - When It Happens/When It Doesn't & Why?

DF · Aug 4, 2013

When I'm out and about in and around the city, or of course anywhere else. I notice so many instances/scenes that would make great photos. This is usually when I'm WITHOUT my camera. When I've got my gear with me, "this" doesn't happen ( not merely as much)
What's going on here?
Is creativity a phantom, a jinn, or genie that evades human control?

stradibarrius · Aug 4, 2013

I can relate...maybe we're trying to hard???

jkwhinfrey · Aug 4, 2013

The camera's a distraction, it's easy to worry about the technical issues and stop seeing what's around you. Sometimes I find myself missing the really obvious because my vision is impaired by the camera clamped to my face ;-)

Worker 11811 · Aug 4, 2013

Get a cheap-ass point and shoot digital camera and carry it with you at all times when you don't have a real camera.
Throw it in the glove compartment of your car, keep it in your knapsack or your coat pocket. If you have an iPhone, use that.

Whenever the creative spirit hits you, snap a digipic. When you get home, download the pictures and look at them. When you see them on the screen, decide if they are really what you wanted. If they are, pick an appropriate day and time to go back and shoot with a real camera.

Back in the day, lots of pros and serious amateurs carried instamatics, Polaroids or single-use, disposable cameras to do the same thing. Now you can do the same thing with a digicam.

Nobody said digicams weren't good for anything. Just not for serious pictures.

Gerald C Koch · Aug 4, 2013

I would actually go out without a camera but with a notebook to take notes of possible photos. I record a detailed description of the site and position of the camera, time of day, lighting, etc. Later I would revisit a site and take the pictures. As mentioned above you can really focus your creativity when you are not mentally weighed down by the camera.

benjiboy · Aug 4, 2013

Welcome to the wonderful World of photography.

DF · Aug 5, 2013

I suppose when one consciously knows their camera is at hand, they're unconsciously not as free as they are when without.

Archimedes the Dog · May 15, 2014

This is why I have spent a couple years obsessing over technical details and trying lots of equipment: I want to get to the point I have a comfortable device and the technical aspects are second-nature. I feel I freeze up in those.

yulia_s_rey · May 15, 2014

DF said:
Is creativity a phantom, a jinn, or genie that evades human control?

Sticking with the genie idea as a metaphor for photographic visualization, I like to put it back in the oil lamp so I can use it later. I recommend use a pocket memo, as Gerald recommends versus a digi cam. Generally from my notes I write down one photo op/idea and then by the time I go to take the photograph I've come up with half dozen or more ideas. Kinda' like one genie sprouting even more genies.

markbarendt · May 15, 2014

I rethink many times the difference is "enjoying the world around you" vs "going out to take pictures".

The other thing I think is that many times what we see is a composite our brain puts together that no camera can match. For example I typically remember the moon being bigger than what ends up on film.

Alan Klein · May 15, 2014

My wife yells at me when I want to stop the car and take a picture.

yulia_s_rey · May 15, 2014

markbarendt said:
I rethink many times the difference is "enjoying the world around you" vs "going out to take pictures".

The other thing I think is that many times what we see is a composite our brain puts together that no camera can match. For example I typically remember the moon being bigger than what ends up on film.

totally agree. A psychology prof of mine once gave an entire four hour lecture on how we tend to recall fond memories with more intense colors, sounds and smells.

dasBlute · May 16, 2014

markbarendt said:
I rethink many times the difference is "enjoying the world around you" vs "going out to take pictures".

I also agree [+1], sometimes, it's like I have to surrender, to give up 'trying to be a *Photographer*' and just be a dude, walking with a camera.
No matter what, it eventually passes and the good work returns... at least so far... I think

-Tim

benjiboy · May 16, 2014

I used to ask myself when my children were young what sort.of.picture's would Ansel Adams have taken if he had to trail a wife and two kids with him when he went our shooting.

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cliveh · May 16, 2014

If you had a camera with you, could you really record those great instances/scenes? The seeing and ability to capture with a camera are miles apart and that is perhaps the answer to your question of whats going on here. Try to carry a camera with you more often take these shots.

MattKing · May 16, 2014

benjiboy said:
I used to ask myself when my children were young what sort.of.picture's would Ansel Adams have taken if he had to trail a wife and two kids with him when he went our shooting.

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"Moonrise, Hernandez"?

Not a wife, and only one kid, but still .

Seeing Creatively - When It Happens/When It Doesn't & Why?

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