Build up when creating your art

I make the same mistake all over on my photography path. I always want and almost expect to get my camera out, take a photo and be a witness to how great an image I created.

Stupid, right? It happens here and there that the first photo is good, sometimes better than the following ones but much more often I need to start somewhere, immerse myself in the photography mood and build up.

The same applies to editing. I edit a photo or two and don’t like any of that, but the process may give me an idea for editing an absolutely different photo. Like in case of this lawn rake.

Today I wanted to create an image of a beautiful flower from our garden but I was disappointed with the results. I even deleted the intended photo. But I tried more, used a different photo from the same photo session and applied the black&white settings I thought would be interesting in that flower photo. Eventually I came up with this garden phantasy of a lawn rake.

Can you see the water running out of a watering can in the first photo? I love that imaginary result. And I got there gradually, first shooting the flower and only later the lawn rake, first editing the flower and only then the lawn rake. And both capturing the flower as well as editing its photos lead me to these images I’m happy about.

I would like to emphasize how much important it is not to become deterred when things don’t look good at the beginning. Don’t be ashamed that whatever the idea was, the first photos may not fulfil your expectations and that they may not be well-done or interesting at all. What’s much more important is that they may show a way and lead you somewhere deeper. If you learn from them, if you listen to them, if you listen to yourself.

Let’s learn to build up.