Building a Creative Habit

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see” – Henry David Thoreau

You've no doubt picked up by now that I'm probably not going to write about photographic gear or technology. My slant here is on helping you think about your photographic life in new and creative ways. The way I figure it, if we approach photography as a life style, not hindered by the gear, but instead motivated by creativity, everything else will follow, and you will find your path to making the images you envision in your mind's eye.

And how is that best accomplished? Creativity is the chief aspect, discipline is another, and then there is practice. Creativity, discipline, practice--that is our triad. Creativity for most of us does not come easily. Furthermore, it is heavily dependent on the other two aspects of our triad, discipline and practice.

Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. ~ Chuck Close

I am a fan of Arthur C. Brooks. He has a popular podcast and his monthly columns in The Atlantic I find to be a consistent source of inspiration and encouragement. Specific to this post Brooks wrote a piece in a recent Atlantic called "The Tchaikovsky Cure for Worry" that I want to reference.

His piece reviews the positive effects of creativity on mental health. That's not our theme here today, but it is interesting nonetheless. His research indicates that "For best effect, make creativity a life habit. That means working at your creative practice regularly, not just when you feel like it."

I've written previously about photography as a practice. If we were musicians we would likely practice every day. I recognize, however, that as a creative pursuit, to develop the practice of photography is challenging. Daily photographic material is difficult to come by for most of us. That is why I suggest we build into our daily life various ways of "touching" our photography effort. Brooks writes:

"Think of the matter this way: If you were prescribed a medication to treat anxiety, your doctor would emphasize the importance of taking your daily dose, whether you feel that you need it or not at that moment. This is because, for the drug to work properly, your brain needs a certain, constant level of the active chemical.

The same principle surely applies if you are using creativity to improve your well-being—which almost certainly involves modifying your brain chemistry. Some days, it’s true, you won’t feel the effect. Inspiration 'is a guest who does not always appear at the first summons,' Tchaikovsky admitted to his patroness. Nevertheless, he wrote every day, starting at nine in the morning. Make a habit of your creative pursuit, and feel better as a result—and maybe even inspired."

I invite you to think about how to build a daily photography habit. Just before sitting down to write this post I developed two rolls of film. They are rinsing in a wash bath now. In that respect I touched my photographic life today. But you don't have to be an analog photographer to find a way of doing this. Start going through your digital archives, for instance. Add keywords, sort, cull. Study your images, asking yourself what works and why? Scour the web and find opportunities or invitations to submit your work. Lenscratch, for instance, lists regular calls for entry under their resources tab. When was the last time you printed some of your favorite images? And lastly, I cannot emphasize enough, study photography books. Purchase or check out of your library monographs by photographers you admire--or photographers you've never heard of. Musicians listen to music, photographers must look at photographs. Train your eye, go to a museum or gallery. Ours is a rich discipline and there are many ways you can return to it daily, building a regular routine of photographic creativity.

The take-away is simple: make photography a habit, a daily creative discipline, and deepen those neural pathways to creativity. 

You can find me at Doug Bruns Photography and at Glass Photo. Please forward this post to any of your photography friends who might be interested. Thanks for reading.

A quick note: I am setting out on a bit of travel. The next post will appear in one month, rather than the usual two weeks.