Get Creative

"To me, photography is an art of observation, It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them."

- Elliott Erwitt

    My favorite photo assignments in college were obviously any assignment that didn't have a person as the subject. (Ironically, people are my favorite thing to photograph...) However, I found some particularly creative ways to approach both the human subject and the not so human subject. My favorite non-human subject was food. The assignment was literally "creative food" and creative I got. As I was commuting an hour to campus, I had to pick all my food subjects from home. I raided my parent's kitchen and left with a few eggs, some sprinkles, and some potato chips. I remember thinking after taking a picture of an egg and red sprinkles that it looked as if it were bleeding, so I added a crack after the fact in photoshop. As fun and easy as it is to get creative with food, creativity goes a lot further in a portrait.

    As a photographer, I am often told things like, "anyone can be a photographer" or "I can take photos like that on my iPhone." And as diminishing as that is when I have a BS in photography (and I worked really hard to get it!), I know that I will always have something that just anyone with an iPhone doesn't have; my creativity. Trying new and different things with lighting is the most exciting way to spruce up any photoshoot. You can't just pick up any old camera and expect to perform lighting magic tricks though. It does take some sort of knowledge of how a camera interacts with light and how to manipulate that interaction. My advice for anyone who wants to try new things but doesn't want to pay the $160K college tuition for it, just binge watch Youtube tutorials until you have a basic understanding. It's just trial and error from there! (I just saved you a lot of $$$ on college tuition...) And of course, don't forget to look for inspiration before you head out to shoot! I usually make, what my design professor would call, an inspo board on Pinterest. I also save photos from Tumblr into a special inspiration album on my phone, so I have it for easy reference. Other inspirational sites I browse, (besides blogs, of course), include Flickr, Instagram and any other source of photography, really. My best advice for anyone, new or old to the game, is to always do your research before you head out to shoot. There is always so much to learn and you can only get better, the more you know. Best of luck!