Personal projects true creativity
Taking on a personal photography project. The true reward is complete creativity and free thinking. Freedom from assignment, deadline, or other factors that may inhibit complete free thinking. The results are often stunning images, and personal expression in its truest forum. I encourage you to start a personal photography project today.
For example, the above image. The idea came to me on a dark raining morning. It was too dark to capture birds or sunrises. Living in the Pacific Northwest there are many gloomy days. As a result of being inside, I was looking at camera equipment online. Scrolling through all of the slick images of new gear, I got the idea to set up a small studio. The initial idea, create commercial style images of classic gear.
The Process
To begin with, the idea. Where do your ideas come from? In general, my ideas for projects come from things I find fascinating. In particular, I found the architecture of these classic cameras the most compelling feature. With this in mind, the texture and structure of each item drove the lighting and composition.
The Set up
It is important to realize, to create beautiful images, one does not need a fancy commercial studio style set up. Please do not overlook this point when embarking on a personal project. My studio consisted of the following simple items. First, the background is simply a black velvet dress. I find that black velvet is the best material to grab light and just get rid of it. Second, the lighting is coming from a Godex external strobe with a tiny diffuser. To create the lighting, I am using a long exposure, and firing the strobe at different angles to pull out the texture and detail.
Start a personal project today
To summarize, start a personal project. Ultimately, these projects make us better at what we do, what ever that may happen to be. Most importantly, they allow for experimentation, contemplation and, above all, creativity.
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