THE ART OF CREATING CREATIVITY

Am bored... yeah am bored I admit it. Am really bored... 

Whazzup Everybody! Boredom or being bored is part of human's life and no need to fear it.

I got bored with photography many times already. It's a feeling when you get tired of taking photos because of many factors including seeing the same photos photographed by different photographers and you see your images are also the same with them. It's boring.

But the state of being bored is an opportunity to open something great. Again, never fear it. If you feel bored with photography, take a time to rest, put down your main camera for a while, yeah put down your main camera because always bring with you your second camera, which is your smartphone, right? Or else you can't message or check your social media account. LOL! Seriously, never leave home without your camera.

Even if I am bored I keep a camera with me always because there are times in that boring moments that I get inspired and I take and make photographs. Being bored is the best time to be creative. I believe that it's better to do something than to do nothing.

I remember my professor, as well as my spiritual director once told me 4 steps to bring down boredom and make a success out of it. His steps were based on his experiences and I was grateful knowing his ideas on:

THE ART OF CREATING CREATIVITY

I am not going to tell you his ideas but am gonna share with you his steps from the eyes of a shutterbug.

1. SEEK INSPIRATION NOT INFLUENCES

When you are bored, do something. During this stage, you are not gonna be able to think what you really want/need to do nor feel something interesting. So, seek influences. Listen to music, read books, watch movies, or just be yourself with a cup of coffee. What I do sometimes is, if an internet is available, I search blog posts about photographer's stories or just simply look at some images. I watch videos on Youtube about photography but not the vids on how they edit their photos (unless I needed to learn something about how to do great skin retouching, how to remove or blur backgrounds... something like that). I love watching Chase Jarvis, Peter McKinnon's vids, so damn great and inspiring; Jessica Kobeissi and Irene Rudnik's Behind The Scene (BTS) photoshoot videos because they are so good at Creating creativity.

Now you have your inspiration, do not be influenced by what they do. Be inspired and create your own. Wondering what inspired me to write a post like this? It's Chase Jarvis' line "The Art of Creating More" I am not influenced by that but I was inspired by it.

2. SEEK IDEAS

My professor told me once you found inspiration, seek any ideas about that inspiration, then start sorting those ideas and put it together becuase sooner you are going to BREAK IT. Sounds crazy, right? Keep on reading...

Imagine yourself being with many tourists on a beautiful waterfall. You are here because you were inspired to take photographs of this waterfall, you were inspired. You did research on this waterfall, you've seen tons of photos of it when you did your research. Now, you are standing in front of the waterfall together with your fellow tourists aiming their camera at the subject; think like how they see and how they take an image of that waterfall. Remember that.


3. PLANNING AND SENSE OF AWARENESS

After having inspiration and having all those ideas, plan how you are gonna work it out. Plan your images. Visualize what kind of image you are going to take. Feel it. If you are looking at the waterfall, having in mind how others will take images of it, feel your emotions towards the waterfall, feel your surroundings, and apply it in your composition. Avoid pre-conceived ideas,
see these links for your reference: 

The Artist's Eye: Ideology vs. Influence
The Artist's Eye: Sharingan 
The Artist's Eye: Byakugan

This is where I get bored. I am always taking photos out of pain and sufferings (see my week 14 compendium of 365 images). Why not do the opposite? Yes, I thought of that many times but I can't get a photo out of it. Emotions play a big role in photography. I am a dark shooter and my photos were yielded from my darkest emotions. (Maybe am gonna write a post how and why my photos are abstracted from my darkest emotions. What ya think?)

Enough of that, let's proceed... Be aware of what you have and your capabilities. Be aware of your emotions again, be aware of your emotions. How will you gonna apply emotions to your composition? How will you gonna take the image you planned? Do you have enough resources (tripod, filters, light, and any materials needed for your desired image) for your envisioned image?  If you do not have, how will you adapt and improvise your limitations to achieve your desired photograph?

4. WORKING IT OUT

You have the inspiration, you have the ideas, you have planned your desired image all you have to do is work it out. Honestly, working it out is not that easy as it is said. One of the biggest obstacles that crash Creativity is the WILL to do it. 

Go out and do it!

To create creativity is to break all your ideas. Yeah, you heard it right, those ideas in your mind, BREAK IT! Don't do what they do.  Again, avoid pre-conceived ideas. Look for something they haven't seen. If they take an image on their eye level, go low, go left, go right, go up. Go beyond the basics. Make the old place looks like new; make what is commonly seen unique.