Being creative with our photography
Bringing a vision and story to life
Hello, I’m Gill and I write a photography blog inspired by the landscapes of Suffolk and beyond. Please subscribe to read more of my writing and visit my website to view my images.
It is early afternoon as I make my way to the edge of the sandy cliff. Below me I can hear the gentle rhythm of the waves breaking in the curve of the bay. The shingle chatters noisily as it is captured by the tide, perhaps protesting at being pulled back into the depths of the chilly north sea.
I stand looking out over the bay that is full of sea water. The tide is high and all that remains of the beach is a small band of sand and shingle at the foot of the low crumbling cliffs. The air is still and the sky is grey, which doesn’t sound ideal, but these are perfect conditions for the photography I have in mind.
I have been to this beach many times, usually at low tide to photograph the mudstone formations that are revealed when the water retreats. This is an eroding coastline, the sand and clay cliffs are fragile and crumbling and the farmer reckons he loses about 10 feet of land a year to the sea.
In the curve of the bay on the edge of the cliff stands a group of seven pine trees. They live a precarious life at the mercy of the elements and the ever encroaching sea. On the beach below are four other pines, scattered, twisted and broken. These are the fallen and they are the reason I am here.
I have photographed these trees before but I have never been happy with my efforts. Today however I have some new ideas and have returned with a different approach.
My first attempt to photograph here was a sunrise shoot on a falling tide. The resulting image was a blue hour shot, with some nice colour but I feel the composition is dull and messy and the image doesn’t say anything. To me it has the wrong vibes for a subject that is essentially dead.
On its own a fallen tree is not that exciting, although it can create a nice image when it is surrounded by water. However the thing that I love about these pines is their colour. In several places the sea water has washed away the bark from the trunks to reveal the red wood below. When this gets wet it shines with the most vibrant colour and it is this shade of red that I want to capture. To me the patches of colour look like open wounds, blood red and gaping - the sort of wound you might expect to sustain if you fell from a cliff. This is what I want to capture with my images and I suspect its absence is the reason why I hate my first attempt at photographing these trees. The image does not convey what first attracted me to this subject and as a result I feel it is not creative in any way.
To be creative is to express a clear vision and purpose.
Creativity in photography is a big subject but to me it means a number of things. I believe to be creative is to express a clear vision and purpose. It is to see the world in a unique way and convey to the viewer something they may not have considered before. It also involves experimenting and working at an image until it conveys the message or emotion that you want it to.
My sunrise image of these trees wasn’t creative - it didn’t convey any of the things that I wanted it to and so to me it is a bit meaningless.
Returning to this beach I have a much clearer objective and goal in mind. I want to convey the tragedy of a fallen tree. To do this I feel I need a high tide, a grey monotone sky and an angle on the tree that best portrays the red in the trunk.
These are the images I came up with.
And (below) my favourite from the session which I think comes closest to the aesthetic and message I was trying to achieve.
I feel this image works better for me because it has more impact, probably as a result of the low viewpoint. The limbs feel twisted and broken in a completely random fashion and the colours stand out nicely from the background. Does it portray the tragedy for a fallen tree? I will leave that up to you to tell me.
I have always felt that I struggle to be creative. I think I can take an attractive photo with emotion but sometime I feel that is not enough and I need to push myself harder to make work that has more of a message.
Thinking creatively in our work is really important and it definitely helps to head out with a clear vision and purpose, particularly if you are undertaking projects or larger bodies of work. This shot of the dead trees is the product of four trips to this location and four attempts at capturing something I like. It may not be the final iteration but it is the closest I have come to portraying what I want to say.
I believe creativity is the product of all our experiences, our influences and our accumulated knowledge. It is the result of all our work up to this point. How we use that going forward ultimately determines how creative we become and how much our photography develops.
What are your thoughts on creativity in photography? Do you head out with a clear vision and purpose or is your image making much more reactive? I would love to hear your thoughts on this and anything else that I have raised in this post. Also please feel free to tell me if you think I have achieved my objective with the fallen trees.
Thank you very much for reading and until next time, enjoy your photography.
Gill
Wow Gill. I think you certainly captured the essence that you were after. I love the composition of #4 very much but my favourite (the one that “speaks” to me) is #3. The red was important to your message and it is so vibrant in this shot. I agree that setting off with an aim in mind is very important but it can be disheartening when that aim cannot be achieved, especially if nothing else presents itself in its place. That can be my experience anyway!
I really like image #1.
I think telling a story with photography is so much more difficult than it seems, and is something (at least for me) that has slowly evolved over time! A really insightful post Gill, thankyou.