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Useful Photography Tip

Useful Photography Tip #109: Let a Creative Slump Fuel Absolute Randomness

Chris Gampat
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08/31/2014
2 Mins read

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Shooting Coffee Steam tutorial (1 of 1)ISO 8001-80 sec at f - 1.4

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Every single photographer and artist faces some sort of terrible creative slump. It’s an incredibly scary moment for all of us but an essential one as it helps us to grow and evolve into better shooters. And as we grow, we need new ideas. When recently faced with both writer’s block and photographer’s block, I decided to find a way to still stay absolutely productive instead of stepping away from being creative.

And so it began with something that I learned years ago in poetry class in high school. But when applying it to the photography world, the advice is so super simple: shoot anything. Shoot anything and figure out a way to just keep shooting. Then build on the idea of what you shot and do a free-word association challenge. Let’s say you photographed a picture of your morning coffee. In this case (and every case) apply the thought process of who, what, when, where, how and why. When you do this, you can think about questions that can apply to this. Eventually, it turned into my own little miniature photo project into how to make the perfect cup of coffee. That lead to story boarding and figuring out the right angles and lighting. Then the post-production. And before you knew it I had my own little photo project done in under an hour.

So when a creative slump hits, think random and think free. Don’t get confined by burnout.

We’re not saying that this will work for everyone, but why not give it a try?

creative slump free word association photographer's slump photography slump poetry writer's block
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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