Shaking up my creative practice

“Practice makes comfort. Expand your experiences regularly so every stretch won’t feel like your first”. – Gina Greenlee

I like to shake up my practice in photography occasionally. When we think of practice, we tend to think the key is to hone our skills and getting better at what we do. I do, however believe it is healthy to stretch our comfort zone by shaking up our creative process, perhaps dabbling into another genre of photography, changing our usual ways of photographing, or even intentionally letting our inhabitations go and making mistakes just to see what we may discover from our experience.

I believe by throwing out our assumptions and time-honored practices, we may, on occasions stumble on something that is interesting, a little change may spark a new wave of creative interest, we may even want to push that change further and keep experimenting. The occasional shake up practice may not only strengthen our creative muscle, it can also prevent us from falling into creative ruts by keeping our routine fresh.

For years, I have been known to engage mostly in landscape and nature photography. While I love to be outdoors and capture those beautiful moments in nature, I do enjoy photographing people in their elements. Unfortunately, those opportunities don’t come often in the small town I live in. Lately as the summer weather gets warm. I find more people going outside for different activates, be it at the beach or park. I take advantage of those occasions, and I must say I am really enjoying a totally different way of photographing. I must think fast on my feet, and I do not have the luxury to dwell on the technicalities as I usually do with nature photography. Instead of spending lengthy amount of time setting up a shot, I rely on my instinct and must act quickly to capture those fleeting moments.

It has not been my strong suit to photograph strangers. I find the experience both intimidating and thrilling. I usually find myself keeping a comfortable distance whenever I arrive on the scene. As I feel myself building up my confidence of being in the company of strangers, I move in closer to my subjects. The process is almost the same as how I approach photographing a flower, or a landscape. I like to get close to study my subjects, although obviously for people, they move around more quickly, and I need to react much faster and make quick decisions. I enjoy exercising a very different side of my creative muscle by doing something I have yet feel entirely comfortable with.

What part of your creative process or technique needs a little shaking up? What happens when you take the leap and try something entirely different from your usual routine? You may discover something unique by challenging yourself to shake up your creative process. The experience may very well give you a little jolt of energy.