THE JUMPING OFF POINT - 3 November 2013

Glass Sculpture - Boston Museum of Fine Art, Boston, Massachusetts, File # 1333568

My inspiration comes from many sources. I don’t think any can dispute when you look at a master’s greatest works of art, inspiration soon follows. I’ve taken inspiration from Ansel Adams, Galen Rowell, and many others. But, inspiration doesn’t have to come from an external source. You can be the source of your own inspiration. It all has to start somewhere.

I know a painter that uses high quality imagery as her source for her own works. She captures a scene—whether staged or occurring naturally—with a high quality camera then uses the resulting picture to guide her painting. In fact, she’s so particular about the imagery, that the pictures she takes are their own works of art, just in a different form—i.e. a picture vs painting. The process she uses is tried and true of any that have staged scenes. They start with one image which morphs to another then another. Eventually, she captures what she wants which becomes the foundation for her paintings.

Me, when I heard this I thought the pictures she was capturing where simply “representative” images for her paintings. Noooo. The maturity of her pictures, the finished product were quite impressive to the point that she required high detail in her pictures to make sure she had information for appropriate close-up detail for her paintings.

At first I thought her process skipped a step in the inspirational process. I thought she missed the creativity part in that instead of making up something in her mind’s eye using an immature image as the source of inspiration, I thought she was “copying” a picture on to canvas by using paint. I was wrong. Creativity exists throughout the process. It starts from having an initial image in the mind’s eye, taking that first picture, then the next and the following, until the complete image is taken. Every step of that process creativity is employed, inspiration is used.

Essentially, that’s what I do when I shoot a landscape. When I arrive at a location I tend to already have an image in mind. Then, I work the scene to get my first composition. Then, it’s shot after shot refining things until I what “looks right.” After that, it’s only a matter of time before the light becomes dramatic and I capture what I want. Every single one of those trial shots contributed to the final image. The first leads me to the next and so on. In a sense, I was inspired after each image, on each step on the way. I was inspired in similar fashion as when I'm inspired after looking at a Mater's work of art.

Glass Sculpture Close Up - Boston Museum of Fine Art, Boston, Massachusetts, File # 1333570

Another friend of mine, a painter, also uses pictures as source material for her paintings. Recently she took a slew of images of anything that captured her eye. It was imagination at work. A window caught her eye, she captured a picture. A wall covered with chipped paint, another picture. Dramatic light reaching the top of the building, another capture. The process was raw and mostly without deep thought as considered what she was doing as a form of capturing raw data. The images weren’t worthy stand alone works of art. But, they certainly showed possibility as source data for inspiration to follow.

Later, my friend lamented that her pictures weren’t very useful as none of them seemed to be complete. To me, when I looked at them, they were much more important. They were a raw source of material for the next step. They were a jumping off point.

So many times we don’t know how to start the “process”, the creative process. Lots of times our imaginations are totally blocked not letting us start at all, let alone create something awesome. In many ways, what I’m talking about is not having a point to leap forward from. As a result, frustration.

To me, collecting raw data such as capturing anything my mind finds attractive is precisely that, a jumping off point. The images don’t have to be complete. They don’t have to be finished. They only has to be attractive in the “catch the eye” kind of way. You can not screw this up by not making a final product. You’re only looking for inspiration. Unless there’s a particular direction to go with a scene—i.e. you have a particular vision—simply shoot first then analyze later with what you have. Then, when you review your images do not look at them as completed images. Look at them for inspiration for the next image, then the next, and so on.

Too often I’ve seen budding photographers get frustrated with their work because they didn’t see the final image they thought they’d see. The only problem in this is if they decided to quit before they've used their images as inspiration for what could follow. Avoid this frustration when looking at immature images by only hoping to see something that’ll take them somewhere else—i.e. use them as a jumping off point.

In so many ways, creatives work in an iterative way. At least, I tend to work that way. I rarely am successful I knowing what I want, then single-mindedly pursing that particular image. I am much more successful if I have an idea when I start yet open to the possibilities the world will give. Then, when I’m shooting—i.e. iterating—I’m open to those possibilities as the world presents them. As I said, in a sense, I’m my own source of inspiration during this process.

The key to great imagery is having a vision. The contributor to that is being inspired. Together they help people produce great works of art. If your source data is insufficient, don’t worry. It’s just a step in the process. Keep shooting. Keep imagining. Be open to inspiration even if it’s from your own work. With all that, you will finally create what you want.

Cheers

Tom