Author Archives: bobshank

I was never a student who enjoyed art class. As a matter of fact, I dreaded art class. Don’t get me wrong, I understood the importance of being cultured, but for a boy growing up in the midst of farms country music was our idea of being cultured. I also actually enjoyed making the clay mug or whatever I called the object I formed with my own hands, but when it came to drawing or painting, my lack of creativity came out in glowing colors!

For a long time I thought I wasn’t creative. Then in college I took my first photography class and learned a whole new medium with which to be creative. Now, I thought, being creative might just be possible for me. I still struggled and our photo professor was brutal. Very few of our images were acceptable to him. At the time, I just chalked it up to my lack of creativity. But in hindsight, I believe it was more formative to me than I first realized.

Now I thoroughly enjoy being creative with my camera. This medium speaks to me and I attempt to use photography to speak to others. It is one avenue to being creative and I love it. Being creative is possible in any number of areas.

Are you being creative with your photography?

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

That’s the old saying, right?

So many people get stuck in the same old routine. They do the same thing the same way over and over and over again. The predictability is nauseating. Change is not only not easy for some people, it’s downright impossible!

Photographers run the risk of repeating this tired routine. Remember when digital cameras first came out? The laggards and naysayers were spouting off frequently about how digital photography was not true photography. They claimed that digital prints would never rival film prints or even be in the same class. Time has proven them wrong, and yet some extremely reluctant photographers refuse to change their methods.

So, what about you? Are you willing to try something new? Are you an early adapter or a sluggard, I mean laggard? Do you prefer to keep doing things the same old way or do you try new ways of doing things?

I have recently been doing some new things to stretch me and there are more new things forthcoming in the near future for me. I embrace these new endeavors as exciting possibilities to learn new things. After all, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained!”

The saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

What do you look for in a photograph? Do you look for a particular composition? Do you prefer leading lines or symetry in a photograph? What about subjects; what subjects do you prefer to see in a photo? Do you like the orientation to be portrait or landscape, or does it depend on the situation? Do  you like color or black and white prints? Digital or film?

The beautiful thing about photography is that as the photographer you can create your own style by what you include or choose not to include in a photo. You are the master of the art you are making so you can include whatever you like. So, what are you going to include?

The film or the digital sensor is like a blank sheet of paper. This is kind of similar but in an opposite way to a block of stone. The sculptor creates his or her art by chopping away what doesn’t need to be there. Conversely, the photographer starts with a blank frame of film or digital sensor and has to add to it.

Some argue that you have to see a photograph before you make it. I am not sure I completely agree with this statement all the time. Sure, we have to have a photographic eye, but sometimes working a subject can lead to compositions that I might not have seen at first. What I first look for may lead to other ideas and even additional subjects. Getting in the grove or creating momentum can certainly help us reach our goals in creating photographs that others will find pleasing to view.

Ultimately, it is what you look for and prefer to photograph that matters. You are the artist or the composer, if you will. So, what are you looking for in your next photograph?