The creative rut...

[Ccauceg]

Hey all,

Just like anyone in art I am in a creative rut. If anyone has ever been in one of these, they can understand how it can drive you insane. Im just curious as to how others get out of these things. My normal method is to put myself in the most uninteresting place possible and try to find interesting photos. For example, lock myself in my bathroom and see if I can get anything decent in such a tiny space, What do you guys do?

 

[Overread]

My thoughts - someone really should tell Ken to read his lens manual and turn his IS/VR off when using a tripod...

As for creative ruts my method is to put the camera down and go for a walk - maybe take the binoculars alone and that's it. Often creative ideas will flood in (and barn owls will perch on signposts and stare at you all mocking like!) if not it still gets one out of the house and the blood flowing.

I'd also say try not to force the issue to much - all that tends to happen then is you take loads of images as you try to force yourself to shoot and then dump most of them as they are subpar work (and the creative rut mentaility means that you often might discount otherwise good images as not being "creative enough").

 

[Ccauceg]

My thoughts - someone really should tell Ken to read his lens manual and turn his IS/VR off when using a tripod...

As for creative ruts my method is to put the camera down and go for a walk - maybe take the binoculars alone and that's it. Often creative ideas will flood in (and barn owls will perch on signposts and stare at you all mocking like!) if not it still gets one out of the house and the blood flowing.

I'd also say try not to force the issue to much - all that tends to happen then is you take loads of images as you try to force yourself to shoot and then dump most of them as they are subpar work (and the creative rut mentaility means that you often might discount otherwise good images as not being "creative enough").

Ya, I can see what your saying by "forcing". The problem is that when I get in a rut i do discount a lot of photos that could be good and then I don't pick up my camera for a week because I am discouraged. So in a way I need to force myself.

 

[SpeedTrap]

Last time I got a carton of eggs and photographed them.

I would break them, drop them draw faces on them, anything to do something I had never photographed and egg doing. I had a great time, although a bit messy.

 

[fwellers]

I do stupid stuff like this picture of an office cube

or this picture of the dulles toll road from my office window:

or this picture of my garage floor:

 

[gardy90]

i used a french fri container haha, when the weather was to bad for me to justify taking my new expensive camera out in it

 

[Josh66]

What do you guys do?

Something else. I just take a break and do other (non-photography) things.

 

[C-Towner]

I try to push myself outside of my safe zone and do something utterly foreign to me, and I find that I am often surprised with what I come up with when I try something new.

 

[gardy90]

still being new to having a DSLR i find myself doing the same, just about every oppertunity i see(even if im shooting the same things in a different set of conditions) i take it

 

[tdiprincess]

I find for me it comes and goes.. When I feel the juices flowing I hit pavement, dirt, hills trees, whatever and shoot away. When it drains then I find something else to do.. or just keep going to areas I like to shoot at and see if I can find a new perspective. I have about 5 spots in my immediate area that I love to shoot pics from...

 

[Dominantly]

Wait, you have to be creative in this hobby of ours?


S#!t.

 

[craig]

I go really, really fast on skis to get out of a creative rut.

Love & Bass

 

[matfoster]

Hey all,

Just like anyone in art I am in a creative rut. If anyone has ever been in one of these, they can understand how it can drive you insane. Im just curious as to how others get out of these things. My normal method is to put myself in the most uninteresting place possible and try to find interesting photos. For example, lock myself in my bathroom and see if I can get anything decent in such a tiny space, What do you guys do?

go for a bus ride, go the library, look around junkshops.. or concentrate on another hobby for a few days/weeks.

 

[Mike_E]

Try house work. There's nothing like washing dishes, folding laundry or vaccuming to make you start looking for ways to do something else.

 

[Felix0890]

In no particular order:
1) Listen to music.
2) Take pictures of my cats and/or dogs. Even if it's not too creative, it's fun.
3) Take pictures of myself. Self portraits can be really fun.
4) Look at a photo I took in the past, figure out what I could have done better, go out and reshoot it while applying the improvements.

I'm doing a 365 and often find myself out of creative ideas, which is why if you look at my flickr photostream, you will find a lot of cat pictures and self portraits.