Creativity in 30 Days (Day 21) — Take a Photograph
“We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us.”
- Ralph Hattersley
These days, most people have access to a camera in their pocket in the form of a mobile phone. A lot of phones cameras are now of high enough quality and are advanced enough in technological capabilities to make any one, with the commitment, capable of learning to take extraordinary photographs (do a Google image search for “iPhone photography examples” to see the capabilities).
But how often do you look at the world around you (particularly the world you know well), in a different way?
Have you ever seen it an inch above the ground? How often have you noticed the texture of paint on your garden fence? Have you ever seen the rooms you live in from above?
The problem is, is that you can get so used to your surroundings that everything eventually becomes familiar, and so you fail to notice the extraordinary and the beautiful that surrounds you. Think of the curiosity of children, who often notice and are drawn to things that would completely bypass us. It’s because the world is new to them, everything is interesting.
Look closely enough and you’ll begin to find things that you’ve never noticed before.
Look closer at the world around you and you’ll find a beauty that you didn’t know existed before.
Creative photography can help us to see the world differently, from a different perspective.
Your Task:
Take a camera (the one on your phone, tablet, etc., will do just fine), and spend some time photographing things you never really noticed before. Look beyond that which you usually see.
So, instead of standing on top of a mountain and taking a photo of the landscape that sprawls before you, notice the ground beneath you. Look at the textures of the path.
Rather than take a photo of a building, focus on that which you wouldn’t normally focus on. Maybe it’s the lock on the door or the spaces between the bricks.
Looking beyond the bigger picture and looking at the smaller details is an important lesson in developing your creativity.
Extract from the forthcoming book Think It! Make It! by Richard P John of The Creativity Toolbox
