By: Lou Lesko – Founder, Blinkbid Software
I’ve been thinking a lot about the most important skill a photographer can possess in order to have a successful career. After crunching the numbers and analyzing the empirical data the evidence is clear; success doesn’t rely on skill as much as it relies on inspiration; the paranormal event that fuels the creation of brilliant images that is totally unreliable in its visitations to your career.
Good ideas are the bread and butter of our existence and are typically experienced based responses to a presented problem. How would you shoot that? What’s the best location for this campaign? Inspired ideas have an epiphanic quality to them. These are the career leaping concepts that come out of nowhere and result in the creation of stunning photographs. While we all love shooting pictures, we worship the killer visual ideas with addict like alacrity. Unfortunately these brilliant ideas are random occurrences with no obvious way to buy, borrow or steal an overdose.
If you sit down and try to conjure earth shattering concepts at a convenient time when you’re prepared to record them, you’ll be distracted by your own self absorbed dreams of winning a Pulitzer or shooting an Italian Vogue cover. The ideas you write down will be contrived visuals that you won’t realize are contrived until you either spend money on them or embarrass yourself by articulating them to someone you’re trying to impress. The only way to increase the epiphany ratio of your career is to wrap your head around the elements that fuel the insanity involved in creating them.
Epic visual ideas are a random collision of a myriad of experiences and knowledge that is triggered by another random experience. There is no logical reason for the occurrence much in the same way that there is no logical reason that the universe exists. The best you can do is provide the elements and hope for a big bang. But herein lies the irony. The more experienced we are as photographers the more our lives become rote, robbing of us of one of the essential elements of new ideas; different locations.
All photographers thrive on visiting places where they’ve never been. It is a haven of different lighting situations, angles, people, things – everything that makes it fun to look through a lens. If ever there is an offer to travel to a new destination, the answer is always “yes”. If travel is out of your budget or not on the horizon, there are places within a couple hundred miles of your house which you can get to on the cheap. The idea is see things you’ve never seen and meet people you’ve never met. The camera around your neck is a license to approach anyone and get their story. The more stories you have the more fuel you have for a new idea. One thing I wholeheartedly suggest to those of you that are single or, like me, get kicked out of the house by your spouse all the time, is last minute cheap plane fares. There are a number of sites that will alert you to these fares and since you’re bringing your camera, it’s a write off.
The other primary element to a random epiphany is knowledge. Technology, the internet and social networks have conspired to occupy every second of your free time. If your idea of a good night is a CSI marathon starring David Caruso and your Facebook account, then you, my friend, have a problem. Take the time to read anything that involves more than the 140 characters of a “tweet” on Twitter. Amazon has millions of books available that they will dutifully deliver to your door along with a brand new pair of cool looking black Converse All Stars. One book I can recommend most highly is Stephen King’s “On Writing; a memoir of the craft.” King’s straightforward banter about how he started his career is fascinating and holds a lot of parallels with becoming a photographer. The plain truth is there are a lot of technological gadgets that compete for our attention that do not hold a candle to a well written book. Fiction, history, politics – read anything. Published written work is a refined product of a writer and an editor. It offers more than most things floating around the web.
The last and least obvious element to providing fuel for good ideas is exercise. Your body has a triple redundant system for providing blood to the brain. Given this natural priority of blood flow you will always do well circulating more through the idea factory sitting on the top of your spine. I’m not advocating some tortuous regimen that will drive you crazy, just do anything to break up the inherently sedentary lifestyle of contemporary living. Every medical person from the west to the east advocates physical activity on some level. Getting out and exercising also has the added advantage of getting you away from all those technological distractions allowing you to think by yourself. And there is nothing more powerful than a mind left to its own devices.
Creative epiphanies are maddening events. They serve us really well with no obvious way to make more. If you feel like this is proof positive that you’re stark raving, don’t worry, you’re right. But at least you get paid for it.
Lou Lesko
Great article. I totally agree with the exercise part. Most of my best ideas have come to me when I’m running. There’s something to be said for clearing your mind and pumping it full of it’s most important nutrient, oxygen.
And on the subject of reading, if you’re further interested in fueling the brain, check out a great book: Brain Rules
http://brainrules.net/
-Josh Bobb
San Francisco
[...] creation of brilliant images that is totally unreliable in its visitations to your career.” [ APA National [...]
Bang on, again Lou! Yup. I wholeheartedly agree, and regularly like to shake up my world in exactly those prescribed fashions. It’s a way to play, which is freeing. And yes, Stephen’s book is fantastic. Lemme throw my support behind your words yet again. Luvs it.
[...] The Insanity of Inspiration [...]