I have never considered myself a creative person. This may surprise some people. I went to school for Interior Design, took several art classes in college, I have a whole file cabinet filled with art supplies, and (of course) I enjoy photography.
How am I not a creative person? Well, I went to school for interior design because I am an analytical person who enjoys problem solving. I hate picking out finishes and if you ask me to help design your house there will be more than a few expletives running through my head. And the art classes, they were required. While I took the art classes to satisfy a requirement, something about them was therapeutic. I got to work with my hands and see progress at the end of the day. I could focus on what I was creating and take my mind off of all the things that were causing stress and anxiety. I also was not very good, in fact, I was terrible. I would look around the room and see all the other students creating these incredible things (of course they had all taken art in high school and had years of practice on me). Mine, on the other hand, looked like they were created by a 3rd grader (and not an artistic one). I was trying to copy what others were doing, or what I thought the professor wanted to see. It wasn't until I started playing around with finding my own style that I began to improve (or at least, not be quite as terrible). This revelation spilled over to my design classes, where hand rendering and sketching were frequently required.
I don't come up with ideas easily. A lot of what I do is trial and error until I get something I am reasonably happy with. I will spend days trying to come up with things to take pictures of, I even joined a few groups that have weekly themes to help with the process. I look at other people’s photos where everything is perfectly staged with lots of little details, and while those images look great, I know I will never create anything like that. My images tend to be simple, focused on a specific subject or idea. There is nothing going on in the background, there are no supporting details like a dusting of flour or a perfectly placed spoon. Just thinking about trying to create an image like that stresses me out!
I approach photography as a problem-solving activity. If the weekly theme is "Orange", I start by gathering all the orange things I can find. I then narrow that down to what I think is the most interesting or unique. At that point, it is trial and error. Laying the objects out, taking pictures, reviewing the image, rearranging the composition, and starting the process over. I usually will end up taking close to 100 images by the time I am done. All of that for two or three images that I will actually use.
It’s not about being creative, and it’s not about being as good as all the people on Instagram. I will never be those things. It’s problem-solving, it’s therapeutic, and it’s something I enjoy. That is all that matters.
