Do you feel that you aren’t creative? Do you get intimidated by those who you feel are more “creative” than you? I think we all feel that way at times. I know that for myself, months can go by when I feel absolutely bone-dry of any creative energy. Sometimes I feel the pressure of expectations, both from myself and others. Boy I hate when I do that! Well, I have the answer…because I know where creativity comes from and I know how to get it. This will be a short post because the answer is really simple. In fact, as adults we are almost completely unaware of how simple it is.
The Answer
Do you know how to have fun? Try to remember how it felt when you were very small, say, around 5 or 6 years old. Remember how you had fun….how you played. THAT is the source of ALL creativity! If you simply substitute the word “creativity” with “fun” or “play”, you’ll understand what I mean. Yea, it really is that simple. REALLY! The pure act of having fun breeds creativity. It is that energy, that excitement, that fuels the creative process. You can tap into this at any time. The only difficult part is FINDING the time for pure, unadulterated FUN!
Ya Gotta Work At it!
I love photography. I love making something out of nothing….which to me is what photography is. I’ve paid my dues in terms of getting comfortable shooting manually to get proper exposure, so I don’t even think about that very much when I’m shooting. I’ve paid my dues in terms of knowing what Photoshop is capable of doing for a photograph too. So now I can simply have fun with the tools I know how to use! So you have to make the effort. You have to practice. Go out and shoot….the more you shoot, the better you get. Know your gear and what it can do for you. When you don’t need to think about your gear, you can think about your shot!
Ways to not have fun
If you aren’t having fun, it may be because yo are learning a new skill……though this can be it’s own kind of fun. I can’t say that I was having a blast lugging around a big view camera shooting with these gigantic 4″ x 5″ negatives, setting everything up, metering, figuring out exposure……it was a lot of effort. Worse, because I was learning, the images I was making were, well, pretty boring. But looking back, it still was fun, and I actually miss that camera! So learning can be fun, but it’s also a lot of work so the fun part kind of gets buried. So that’s one way to look at things when you aren’t having fun.
Another reason you may not have fun with whatever it is you’re doing is because, well, you’re just not that into it. You can’t expect everything to be equally amazing to you. Go find the thing that resonates with you. Photography clicked with me and I love it……but that’s me. You may find another thing that resonates within you. How do you know? Well, you’re having FUN with it!
What About Talent?
The fact is, we are not all created equal. There are some people that seem to effortlessly create amazing images with a camera. They are more talented than me. What can I say? Life isn’t fair. There will always be super gifted people doing everything. So what? All I really care about is having fun. If you keep it in that light, it doesn’t really matter what the other person is doing, does it? Maybe you’ll never get rich and famous………so what. That ain’t all it’s cracked up to be, or so I’m told. Ya gotta be true to yourself, find your own vision, and pretty much stay with that.
