Making Creative Images - Random Search vs. Self Expression

[Ganesh H Shankar]

From dictionary.com -

Creative
- adjective
1. Having the quality or power of creating.
2. Resulting from originality of thought, expression, etc.; imaginative: creative writing.
3. Originative; productive (usually fol. by of).
4. Facetious. using or creating exaggerated or skewed data, information, etc.: creative bookkeeping.

moorhen_motion.jpg (71.25 KiB) Viewed 11807 times

A few years back (slide days) I posted this above image to one of the well known nature photography forum and received some interesting views! The summary being - "You are brave to post this image here". These views did not discourage me from making more such images since I was very eager to make images of nature which looked different. While some of those blurred images appeared original later I realized I may be on a wrong path to make creative images. The precise issue was I was doing the random search of unique looking images by doing some random experiments vs. sitting back and thinking about my emotional response towards a subject in front of. It is said that - Beauty lies in the eyes of beholder . Everyone of us react differently to a scene or subject in front of us. Every one of us resolve our subjects differently. But all those are in our own mind - I think analysis of those may result in more productive translations and creative images.

cactus_vgood1.jpg (104.85 KiB) Viewed 11800 times

Just my thoughts - Love know your views.

[Shankar Kiragi]

Ganesh, You are on dot. It's takes beating to be different. Takes time to get noticed and realise your intentions. Feel left out when if you do not see positive responses to your creative image. Any story on Cactus image below?

[Ganesh H Shankar]

Ganesh, You are on dot. It's takes beating to be different. Takes time to get noticed and realise your intentions. Feel left out when if you do not see positive responses to your creative image. Any story on Cactus image below?

Shankar,

I should have posted it in larger size - thought of saving some space. In this post details in the leaf is less vissible. May be you want to see this one. Basically, I found this perspective very unique and it is designed that way compared to the approach of random imaging and hoping to see one good one as in the case of swamphen above.

[Ashwini Kumar Bhat]

I would say making a very creative image has two aspects. One is to see creatively and the other is to capture it effectively. Even though they both look slightly mutually exclusive entities if we think a little more then we realise that both are equally important in making a successful creative image.
In the above two aspects the first one is the process of the right brain and the second is more on the left. In the actual fact mastering the second aspect [effective capture] is relatively easier and faster than the first one [creatively seeing]. Sometimes it so happens that we get into the interest of photography only because of the stimulus that we got when we had taken some good compositional pictures from a very normal camera. But when we start dipping into the realm of the exposures and the focal lengths, we slowly start deviating from our original taste which had made us to learn how to cature effectively! So in the process of learning what we learnt was just how to 'capture' effectively. The real challenge is to keep our right brain also active and trying to develop the habit of looking at the things in a different way. If this process goes in parallel with the other then one starts creating some creative marvels right from the very beginning.
Coming back to my initial point, in these two aspects, for me the important one is the first one, to see creatively. Whether it has been catured effectively or not depends on the technical knowledge of the person and his economics! What stands out is the attempt to see creatively and an urge to become unique.

[sharon333]

I would have to agree with you on those two elements.

[sanjeev]

Let me define creativity as I see....I mean generally not specific to photography ......"taking reality and moulding it to express your own perception or emotional response, not necessarily of that reality." Seen this way, I believe your creation should by definition express reaction to something. Now that I have typed those lines, I see that I have basically restated what you have said in your post.

Photography is a very difficult medium for creative expression. It is easy to write about something and convey your emotions or reactions. I have still not understood how to go about doing that in nature photography. I have stopped making images for sometime now, as I no longer feel the satisfaction of having created something anymore. Satisfaction was easier about a year ago when I first got my DSLR, as any decently sharp image with a fair composition(mostly by cropping in pp) was enough to make me happy.

I have found that I am not creating anything nor expressing what I feel. Many times I dont even think I feel anything, or atleast anything that can be expressed in a picture. So I have more or less rested my camera and spend more time looking, hearing and feeling. Looking at all these pictures here, I hope I will find a way to finally create an image. Must pick up my camera again.

[Ganesh H Shankar]

Interesting thoughts there Sanjeev. Personally I think having taking reality and moulding... as part of the definition is very restrictive for creative expressions. We need not start with reality in the first place.

- Regards,
Ganesh H Shankar.