Last Updated on 07/24/2018 by Mark Beckenbach
Hear me out about this one before you grab your pitchforks.
The creative photographer and the creative mind need a break and time to sit back and massage a photo or project before they release it to the public. While that sounds obvious, to that end I think that creating photos everyday isn’t always the best thing. While 365 photo projects are great, they don’t assure that you get keeper images each and every day. But a project where you do a photo once a week could have a higher chance of this.
Now, let me explain the differences between creating and capturing. In fact, let me plug an article that I wrote a while back. There is a big difference between both creating images and capturing images. Capturing is the idea of simply documenting a moment as it happens while creating means that you as the photographer manipulate the scene in front of you to be what it wouldn’t have been naturally. Capturing a moment? You can do that any time of the day. Creating? That’s different. There needs to be inspiration and you have to sit there and well, actually create something! And I genuinely believe that if you do it everyday then you don’t give your mind enough time to evolve past an idea or a feeling.
Instead, I think that shooting an image today, coming up with and idea and finding inspiration, and then taking some time to figure out how you’re going to execute it, then shooting, then editing, should all be a longer process. Commercially, this can’t always be the case. But as you begin to build yourself and evolve as a photographer, this method is perhaps best and over a period of a year will yield better images. You’ll have less, but you’ll have more that stand out from the pack.
So why do I say this? It’s worked for me with business. There are dedicated days where I sit in front of my computer creating content and days that I dedicate to our Instagram, Facebook, Email, calls, meetings, and shooting. Those are the promotional and marketing days, but the stuff that you see here often gets created during three days of the week. It’s given me much better mental health overtime and has allowed me to concentrate to the point where I can get a day’s work done in a few hours.
Just try it.