Randy Kepple Photographs Blog

Hey Randy, cool shot of the tree – very creative! If you like that sort of writing you’d really enjoy some books by David duChemin – another Canadian! I’ve got two of his books and he has got me thinking about WHY I take an image, not just HOW. Makes a huge difference if you think about the message before you click the shutter – not just composition and lighting. What do you want to say with your image?

He’s got actual books and ebooks – check them out, I think you’ll relate to his writing. He also talks about how to find creativity and keep it going. That’s in his ebook The Inspired Eye – it’s only $5.

His books—I have Within the Frame, and Vision Mongers – love them!

Hi Randy! I loved the post and the pictures are fantastic!
Love the one of the Banyan Tree. It reminds me of the beautifully
fantastic tree in Avatar.

Thanks and blessings to you in your work,

Helen

Great post. And good timing for me.

That was very well said. I have now snapped out of “analysis paralysis”, thanks for sharing.

Creativity is a slippery slope to stay on. Some times you can into the zone on purpose. Most of the time when working on a problem I get hit out of the blue in the middle of conversation on completely different subject by ideas. The hardest thing then is to blurt the idea immediately before it gets lost. As you say don’t prejudge the idea just let it flow out.

Sometimes dumb ideas aren’t dumb. It is easy to discard half baked ideas without thinking them through.Sometimes within the basis of the dumb idea lies a real gem. It may be an offshoot of the original idea that would never get explored unless you start from the core idea.

Ideas in the rough are very fragile things. They can be extinguished by a small distraction never to reappear.

I love the idea that creativity is only limited by how creative you allow yourself to be. For example, it is absolutely impossible to be creative when you are worried about what people will think of it. Creativity can only be from your heart.

excellent article. to sum it in one word i would say that to be creative think with a free mind. freedom breeds creativity….

Great post you have here, Randy. As a graphic designer, I really value the points you’ve stated because a lot of us could be guilty of all these bad habits that inhibit our creativity at one time or another. It is great to have your post as an eye-opener. Thanks!

This is very brave approach from your side and i really enjoyed reading it.
I just don’t know if there are any limits ever, except those that we define ourselves.
I intend to turn every bad thing into motivation more, it’s a good practice and the result is very good, but i also find motivation into something nice too.
The important thing is to be very honest with yourself, even when it’s hard to admit it.
Thanks for the post!

It’s definitely a hit nerve, talking about human psychology with so much certainty, field that brings out so many questions, since different people feel different way about this, but that’s why I like your post.

I like your approach about being flexible with own self and allow to ourselves a failure and learn from it.
I am very good web developer and decided to learn web design as well, learned all the photoshop tools, but when it comes to draw something nice, I just feel stuck with ideas, mostly cause I have drawn a straight line in my brain that good designers were born like that and they don’t become that good with just work.

It’s not an easy fight to win, cause the opponent is myself from the other side, strongly determined that I cannot be good web designer. It’s also about being strong enough to recover from a big lose or disappointment, which is also not so easy. After all, I agree with your statement that creativity and art are a journey and not destination.

Thanks for the answer Randy and I am glad I found your website.

All of this is true. I’ve read tons of self-development and success materials, and this list, especially for creatives, is what it is about. As I said in my tweet about this post: read, print & hang it up on your wall…

Love the banyan tree. Don’t agree with some of the points. I don’t think creativity means coming up with something original even though I’ll bet most readers will agree that it does. To me artistic creativity is what you use to solve the problems of communicating your message.

The “message” doesn’t have to be metaphorical or profound or even anything big. It could just be “look how yellow these flowers are”. But without a message what do you have to be creative about?

You don’t have to be original. Look at popular music. There is very little originality. That isn’t a criticism. If you are too original you run the risk of not being understood because you are too far out. I ponder some the same kinds of questions on my own blog.

Hi Randy,

I love your work! That tree image is beautiful, and I totally agree with the article. I’m not yet engaged, but searching out photographers to be prepared.

Jessica,

Thanks! As you very well know, that tree was massive! And there were a LOT of people hiking and climbing on the tree. The most difficult part was finding a spot to capture the mood and feeling of standing there in front of that masterpiece. Once I did that, it was frustrating to sit there for 10 minutes and wait for people to get out of the tree or stay out of the frame long enough for me to capture a few exposures!

On top of that, it’s beyond frustrating that Canon cameras only allow you to capture an exposure bracket of three images at a time, while Nikon cameras allow you to capture a 9 exposure bracket! Trying to set up my camera to shoot a 9 exposure spread, wait for people to clear and just let go of the fact that the wind was blowing the leaves around and there was no way to fix that in post when layering 9 images…

The ghost removal capability in CS5 HDR PRO needs to be worked on a bit. It was less than desirable on the final image, but works for web. Your Hawaiian images are stunning Jessica!

Thank you Berit! That banyan tree does have an illustrative feel to it. I appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment and stopping by. Look around, enjoy!

Every day I think of what E.M. Forster wrote: “Only connect.” And every time it happens, every single time, I am amazed all over again. That what one person says can angle out onto a slender thread, the other end of which is inside another mind. Thank you for taking the time to write this. I really needed to read it tonight.

I love this post Randy. It has helped me and the team I lead as much as anything we have read this year thanks.

This is awesome! I’m gonna make a nice poster out of these points

Thanks a lot for sharing.