The Practice of Photography: Focus on PORTALS

Becoming a creative photographer is a practice.  It is about paying attention to your surroundings and seeing with fresh eyes.  We can be overwhelmed by the clutter of the world, and one way to start seeing more clearly is to focus on a specific theme or object for a period of time.  This practice has made all the difference to my photography.

To simplify the practice, and give you a place and an opportunity to share with other creative photographers I am sharing one of the focus themes from my deck of  The Creative Photographer Exploration Cards to Expand Your Creativity each month.  You can share your images on The Creative Photographer Facebook page.

The theme for February and March is PORTALS.  This is the first theme in the series of 24.

A camera could be considered a portal - as it is an entry into another reality.  As you learn to see the world more deeply through your camera, you will notice that everything is speaking to you. For a photograph to be meaningful, you must focus beyond the superficial to the feeling in the image.

Portals include doorways, windows, entrances and exits. They are thresholds to inner and outer realities, and can symbolize openings and closings, beginnings and endings. Consider this as you look for images of portals in the world around you.

Doors or windows can make interesting collections, especially as a way to absorb the feel of a place you are visiting. The doors you see in France are very different from the doors you see in Africa, and the stories of the people entering the doors are all unique.





Art is the window to man’s soul.  
Without it, he would never be able to see beyond his immediate world, 
nor could the world see the man within.
Claudia Johnson

Share your interpretation of portals on The Creative Photographer facebook page.

Everyday Ordinary

Today I am preparing to ship the first orders for my new Creative Photographer Exploration Cards to Expand Your Creativity, and wanted to share with you one of the cards.

The focus of this card is finding  beauty in the ordinary things around us.  We rush through our days so fast that we often forget to slow down and see with eyes of wonder.  We also become habituated to our environment so that things that were once meaningful no longer call for our attention.  What is it you are not seeing?  Is there one thing that is part of your everyday routine that you can see with new eyes today?  Find one thing a day that is simple and ordinary, and see it in a new way.

Darla's Dewdrop

Last weekend I hosted a retreat at Waterfall Mountain Retreat Center entitled "Drawing with Light: Photography as Spiritual Practice".

One of the exercises I shared with participants is the "One-Hundred Images" Exploration on page 37 of The Creative Photographer.  In this exercise I suggest you find a subject and take one hundred photographs of your subject, in different lights, in different positions, at different angles.  This is an exercise I consider to be akin to the writer's "first draft".  There will be some photographs you will want to delete, but there might be some good ones, and every now and then, you may even get some great ones.

One of the retreat participants, Darla Davis, shared the above photograph with me with this note: 

I thought you might like to know that the photo I sent you of the leaf stem with the dew drop came from the 100 photos of the same subject assignment.  I don't think I would have found this image without the encouragement to keep looking deeper and differently at the same subject.  I started out photographing the poke berries, drawn to the contrast between the green berries and the magenta stems.  It was late in the 100 photos assignment that I noticed the little dewdrop on the green stem.

I believe that if this is the only exercise you ever do from my book, your photography will improve.  It is an exercise in practice, in patience, and in seeing.

The Face in the Tub

This weekend, traveling back to Charlotte after teaching a photography retreat in Warrensville, NC, I saw this strange sight on the side of the road: outside an old antique store stood rows and rows of old bathtubs.  Now, this isn't the sort of thing one thinks of as the perfect photography subject, but for some strange reason I was intrigued by these rows of tubs, and stopped the car to investigate further.

On closer inspection, each bathtub seemed to have its own personality, and I couldn't resist sharing the faces I discovered in the bathtubs!  Sometimes the camera can be a way to discover the unexpected and to give us an opportunity to have fun and laugh.

The Secret Life of Trees

"I am affected by a visual experience - it is meaningful and beyond articulation.  When I look at a tree, I cannot forget the invisibles - the ants, the water system inside the tree, the birds, the insects and other animals who depend on the tree for shelter and food.  I try to make the invisibles felt.  I have a deep empathy with nature, and when I am photographing her I feel a certain communion.  I feel in love."
Ruth Bernhard
American Photographer ( 1905 – 2006)

Think about the secret life of a tree ("the invisibles") when you make a photograph of a tree and consider how your image can reflect this magical inner life that is present in most living things.

Abstract Photography Exploration

Let me share Exploration 3 on Abstract Photography from the chapter on A Whole New Perspective in The Creative Photographer with you today as it is a great exploration to take on during the summer when you might be taking time to look at life differently!

Ordinary things take on different dimensions when we focus on the details or photograph from unusual angles to highlight shapes and lines, or color, pattern, and texture.  The resulting images may not remind you (or the viewer) of anything you know, but it will engage your brain as you try to make sense of what you are seeing.  Viewing abstract imagery engages our vision in a different way.  I believe our creativity is expanded when we see things we have to think about, without knowing exactly what they are.

Take the opportunity to focus on things that draw you in, that make no sense as conventional photographs, but that speak to you through their shape, color, pattern, or some other abstract element. One has to employ careful observation to discover an effective abstract image in the multifaceted world we live in.

What abstract elements appeal to your senses?

This Summer take your Camera on an Artist Date

The Exploration on page 44 of The Creative Photographer suggests that you take your camera on an Artist Date. I first learned of this idea from the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.  Julia suggests that one should always go on an artist's date alone.  I like to think of my camera as an extension of myself and an artist's date as a kind of play date with myself and my camera.

The photographer version of the Artist Date is an outing where you go not to take "good" photographs, but to just experience being in an interesting place where you can observe everything around you and become more aware and sensitive to your surroundings.  Yes, you might go home with many new images, and perhaps these new images will serve as inspiration for you in some way, but the main objective of the outing is to experience time with yourself and become present to the moment and everything around you.  By giving yourself permission to take these outings you will expand your creative horizons and you will begin to think of yourself as an artist. In addition you will come to understand that time alone with no expectations of yourself to achieve anything profound, is an extremely important part of the creative process.

You can also expand this idea into something a little different by asking a group of friends to bring their cameras and come along with you.  Pack a picnic lunch and head off on a road trip, stopping whenever you see something you would like to photograph. It is my experience that when you are seeing the world through the lens of your camera you are in a world of your own and very often forget you are with other people.  You can also plan a trip to a specific location and draw up a list of things you will all photograph.  Each of you can then take time on your own exploring this location with your camera, re-grouping after a couple of hours to share photographs over a cup of tea or coffee. If you photographed from a list you will notice how everyone experienced seeing things in such different ways.