Location and creativity

Four Somewhat Unrelated Elements. Barcelona, 2011

I know when I find myself in a new place, I feel my senses bombarded by hundreds of potential images. On the other hand, too long in one spot, and my senses tend to become inured to my surroundings unless I make special efforts to avoid that trap.

Over the past years (but not lately, unfortunately) we have been able to travel to places where we have family–Barcelona in Catalunya, Mendoza in the land of the Argentine gauchos, Tucson, Arizona of the West, San Antonio of the Lone Star State, and various local sites around Colorado, our current home. For me, each trip to a new and relatively unfamiliar place brings on that sensory overload that can be translated into creative new images.

An extreme example of the travel fanatic, is our buddy, “Gunga Jim Downs“, of the local Flatirons Photo Club and an excellent travel photographer. He is on track to visit pretty much every country and continent on the face of the Earth that is not in the midst of some dangerous conflict (and he has been to some of those places, too!). He comes back with some truly inspiring photographs and I’m sure his creativity gets a huge adrenalin shot whenever he disembarks at a new destination. I’m certainly envious!

But what if one is starting to lose that creative energy but travel to far-off exotic locales to stimulate the juices is not in the cards? That is the situation we find ourselves in right now, so we try to be creative.

Here are five suggestions if you–like us– have to stay local:

1) Have you really checked out all of your local tourist traps? Are there parks, gardens, zoos, animal rescue shelters, or historic buildings nearby you haven’t seen? Go check them out, and bring your camera!

2) How about local areas that aren’t tourist traps, but might be photographically interesting? How about…unusual buildings, abandoned buildings, strange factories, open spaces, viewpoints, vacant lots, a wash or gully, a farm, a tall building with roof access, a parking garage, an area of town you have never visited…?

3) OK, you say you’ve visited every square inch of your local area–but, have you done so at all times of the day? Try visiting some of the above mentioned areas before first light, then watch the transformation of the city/landscape as the sun rises. Try visiting on an overcast day…a rainy day…a snowy day… How about a sunset visit? Then stay for the appearance of the stars and moon.

4) Getting bored with outdoor photography? OK, then set up a little natural light studio in a room in your house or apartment. Try photographing various still lifes, or doing portraits of spouse, friends and family. Just throw up a black or white sheet or blanket in the background to eliminate distractions…then, maybe go a step beyond and practice with combinations of whatever other lighting you have on hand–on-camera flash, off-camera flash, table lamps, reflectors, strobes, umbrellas, etc. (See The Strobist for loads of great info and tutorials on lighting.)

5) Finally, given that this is wintertime and some of you may be trapped inside–and you have exhausted the still life and portrait idea–then give yourself another challenge. How about confining yourself to one room of the house, then see how many abstract, macro, wide angle, whatever, but creative!, images you can come up with? You’ll be amazed at what possibilities you’ll find, even in such familiar territory.

Hopefully, the above ideas will keep you busy until you can splurge on those tickets to Oshkosh…or Seattle…or Florida…or Nepal… Have fun!