How do you create your best work. Do you plan and think about what you want to achieve, do you previsualise the end result in your mind before you even start, do you let your environment inspire you and make the decision on the spot. Do you tune out and go into a diffrent place to get inspiration. Does your art or photography just happen. I am normally going out with a very general idea and then let the environment inspire me. My best work or best shots happen when I stop thinking and start being. This may sound extremely cheesy but it is like the camera dissapears and there is just me and the subject left.
When do you create your best work?
thickblackoutline
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about 1 year ago
hey alex, this is cool i really dig what you’ve said.
i think i usually have a bit of a plan, and which along the way, i get inspired/distracted – call it what you will – and sometimes the finished product comes out totally different to what i had pictured.
i like the little ideas that develop along the way also, most of the time i don’t really have much of a “final piece” in mind from the get-go… sometimes i start a whole new piece, to feed that little how-about-doing-it-this-way-monster… he’s good value most of the time, but it sometimes makes me neglect the orginal piece/idea i had going.
will have to have a few words with him later.
Adrian Rachele, about 1 year ago
Yes a bit of everything comes to play.
Sometimes it’s luck, sometimes it’s planned, sometimes the light is just right.
Jienn Heibloem, about 1 year ago
I am a planner, I have to research and look and then when im there i just forget and go with the environment, thats for photography for my other work, drawing, painting and cartooning, everything is carefully researched and planned out….....then in execution of the work the spontaneity and creativity emerges and takes over…
georgiegirl, about 1 year ago
I just take the camera everywhere I go and click at everything, whether it moves or not!
/ Like yesterday, we took the train to the city and hung around the River Torrens for a while… cruised aboard the Popeye, snapped some happy snaps, and then found that with every photo I took was constantly thinking ‘how would that look on a wall or tshirt?’.
/ So consequently I found some swans that loved to pose for the camera.
/ I also carry a notebook around everywhere as well and sketch ideas for stories, drawings and tshirts.
/
Jienn, Webgrrl, Kseriphyn, Whirligig, LostBoy1, Thickblackoutline and many others are just talented creative people!!!
David Smith, about 1 year ago
Like Georgiegirl I tend to take my camera everywhere too. I don’t put much planning into it – if I’m going somewhere, my camera is usually there too. But I use the camera itself to store ideas, shooting away during the day at all sorts of things. I use it like a location scout, where I can return someday to a scene in more attractive light.
And never underestimate your local neighbourhood. One of my favourite images, of Cabbage Tree Bay is literally 5 minutes down the road. I must’ve walked past it a thousand times but it was only after I’d snapped it during the day that I thought of it’s potential for a dawn scene. The things you take for granted.
But I tend to find that the more I plan for something, the worse the results. Or not so much “worse”, but more frustrating when you put all the planning into and don’t get the results you were after. Often, the only planning I’ll do is to get up at a ridiculous hour, but only decide what I’m doing once I’m out and about. It still needs some flexibility and spontaneity there.
Tara Brownett, about 1 year ago
I am the same, i like to take my camera everywhere… even to work for the day…. lol, some days i use it to snap up random things, sometimes i can go a week without using it at all, and then ill clean out my handbag and think “o.. thats where my lil camera is..hehe”
But, i have to admit, whenever i try to plan a great shot, and i have an idea in my mind, it doesnt turn out as well as i thought. I think its due to the high expectations perhaps. I remember we were in Melb last yr with my gf’s on a lil holiday, and i just started snapping away in Melb central shopping complex, and one of my all time fav photos came from that day. I didnt even have my slr with me, just a lil dig minolta. I never expected it to turn out so amazing.
I believe planning is essential most the time, but when u dont plan, its more like a free spirit capturing something wonderful. I hope that makes sense.
Georgia Forbes, about 1 year ago
Funnily enough, I don’t actually have a camera!(yet), I borrow one now and again- hang it around my neck, walk & shoot anything that looks remotely interesting.
I have had a brief love affair with the darkroom, but really, the only difference between film & digital is patience, my surprises come from learning the mac.
I want to be a computer nerd! ! always have.
but for me, with anything creative, it is usually being given or being triggered by something, object, idea or otherwise,
getting a visual in my minds eye
and working towards bringing it into the physical, being reasonably flexible along the way.
this relating to photography involves costume & props most of the time.
it’s actually a great question, I’ve enjoyed reading all of your responses :)
Bernd Jansons, about 1 year ago
I’m not a photographer but I like to take pictures when I see something intriguing. When they first came out I thought mobile phones with integrated cameras were a gimmick but I’m starting to lose count of how many times I’ve whipped out the phone to capture a scene I would otherwise have missed. The resolution doesn’t really matter because I end up manipulating the image extensively anyway. It’s my source “sketch”. I work with digital pictures, some of which may start life as a photo and others which begin as a sketch in Artrage. I find drawing with a mouse challenging.
Like Talo, I don’t usually set out to try and achieve a preconceived result, either in form or content. There are exceptions, but I find it works better for me to “have a conversation” with some source material until it starts to evolve into something. This conversation takes place in Paintshop Pro, Artrage and PhotoImpact. There’s usually a point when suddenly I can see where the thing is going and from that moment on I know where I’m trying to get to.
For me, generally, creating an image is not something I can pre-plan. It’s very much an iterative “try it and see” process waiting for that moment of inspiration when it all falls into place.
Georgia Forbes, about 1 year ago
“ella”
Georgia Forbes, about 1 year ago
http://redbubble.com/ella
Georgia Forbes, about 1 year ago
“http://redbubble.com/ella”
Georgia Forbes, about 1 year ago
ok, I give up! waaaaaa….i can’t even be a nerd!! I thought I would try figure out that link thing, but I’m screwing up the thread!
sorry guys
Amanda J Slack..., about 1 year ago
Georgia – don’t worry about it! Screwing something up a few times is the best way to learn I think. Give it a couple of weeks and we will start calling you ‘Georgia the wise’ and pester you for help :)
As for the creative process like many of you, mine it is a mixture of planning and luck. Planning gets you to a certain point but if you hang on to tightly you crush the life out of what you are trying to achieve. Luck is the inspiration imp that sits on your shoulder and helps you nail what you want if you listen. It also gives you that silly grin when it all comes together :)
LostBoy1, about 1 year ago
a broken brain.
Susan Trigg, about 1 year ago
Most of my art comprises many layers of images, and I find that the less I think about what I’m doing the better, so I often doodle, in a digital sense, when I’m on the phone, or in breaks from editing. That way I give my right brain a chance to take over – it can get bullied a lot by my left brain, or maybe it’s just lazy ;)
Making art is really the best thing, isn’t it – it has all the highs, but doesn’t have the damaging side effects of other drugs, and you have something slightly useful to show for it the next day :D
Graeme Pettit ..., 9 months ago
Sheer Luck usually!
For the most part, it is a combination of the right place, right time, right technique, right frame of mind all coming together for one brief and transient moment. Blink, and Ive missed it!
I have ideas, but these ALWAYS get changed on the way…...Having my eyes and mind open helps, and its a click. If it works, great – if not, then theres a delete button used somewhere.
Post production to any image, depends on the mood of the day. I study the image first, and wait for something to come to mind. The works in progress folder has over 100 images in – some years old. The ready to post folder has about 20 at any given time – but I wont be rushed. If its not right, then its not finished.
Vonnie Murfin, 9 months ago
When I take a picture, I look around me. If there’s something that catches my eyes I will take several different pictures at different angles. When I’m done taking pictures, I will look at the final results and decide which pictures I like the best. I like to keep things simple. There are beauty all around us. You just have to slow down and look around. This is just like my poem “Beauty”.
Beauty is in our minds
Beauty is in our hearts
Beauty is all around us.
Beauty is everywhere.
Close your eyes
Beauty is in our dreams.
Open your eyes
Beauty is everywhere.
No matter who you are
or what you are
Beauty is what makes us
who we are.