Since the beginning of this year I’ve been
Pushing the Boundaries
in my photography, seeking to express myself in different ways. Most of my favorite creations involve combining a close-up photograph of a flower or flower petal with some kind of landscape image. Occasionally I combine two different flower images. I use varying blend modes in Adobe Photoshop in order to emphasize or de-emphasize parts of each image.
I’ve also been experimenting with creating very soft macro images of flowers with my nifty 50 mm f/1.8 Canon lens combined with extension tubes (to get closer to the subject of the photograph). This is something I plan to continue to work on for many more months as I am beginning to find ways I like to portray the flowers that are softer and more abstract than typical flower photography.
Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible. — M. C. Escher
I am hoping to create a body of work that expresses how I see beauty and nature in a way that is not strictly representational. It is a long process with way more experiments that fail than images that I think are keepers.
When you’re experimenting you have to try so many things before you choose what you want, and you may go days getting nothing but exhaustion.’— Fred Astaire
It is interesting to see what I have created. Some of them clearly remind me of the soft, wonder-filled, a little bit shy, lover of flowers and nature side of me. Other images express parts of my personality that I express less often—boisterous and bold or dark and moody.
Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. — Henry Ward Beecher
One of the things that has surprised me when I do this work is how much I learn about myself through these experiments. It is a kind of excavation of the soul. What appeals to me today may not tomorrow. Things that I dislike today I may really like in a month. There is no right or wrong, only expression.
The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself. — Alan Alda
Creativity Heals
I’ve said before that I believe that expressing your creativity heals. As my years as a photographer go by I believe that more and more. I am not the same person I was when I began my life as a photographer. Perhaps aging has a part in the changes I perceive but I know for certain that I would not be who I am today if I had not begun my creative journey 10 years ago.
How often do you make time to create just for the sheer joy of creating? Perhaps it’s time for you to take a creativity break.
May you walk in beauty.
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