Keep Creating: You Don't Need a Reason

This entire summer for me has been hectic. Doing photography full time at the age of 23 is certainly awesome, but there is so much stress and hard work that comes along with it. Between work and my personal life, it has been extremely difficult to balance out my time to create my own content, but in no way have I let that slow me down. This summer alone, I have been out to so many places creating new content and I think that this is honestly the most important thing we can do as creatives.

Whether my day consists of me driving from job to job shooting, being home answering emails/calls and editing, or even just relaxing (if there is ever time for that), I am constantly thinking of new ideas. There is a part of me that never seems to shut off, a part of me that feels like I need to keep putting out content in order to grow and get better at what I do. In a way, I feel obligated to go out and find more to shoot but for me, it is important to find places that I think are going to add value to my work. I am also super picky when it comes to my photos, so everything from lighting, time of day, composition, color, and so on are very important. I have to say that this does not help me at all, but I shoot a lot for work during the days and use my sunrise and sunsets as personal shooting time. I set as much time as I need to drive to different locations to shoot and if you can believe it, I've put 6000+ miles on my car this summer alone from work and personal travel.

Setting this time aside is a great way to get out and enjoy what I do. I feel like it has actually become a part of my life and I would rather be out there shooting during those specific hours rather than sitting home watching a show or browsing the web (I pretty much missed every episode of Game of Thrones when it premiered from being out shooting). Because of all the shooting I have been out doing, my standards for a good photo have gone up significantly. While this makes me strive for perfection in every shot, it also makes it a lot harder to want to share my work. With that in mind, I know a lot of the stuff I shoot is good enough to share, but I only post what I really think is best. If I feel like it can be better, it probably can be and I would go out and re-shoot it if I really thought it was worth it. In fact, this photo below took me three tries to photograph the way it is here. The first time it was not sharp enough, the second time it wouldn't stop raining and the third time the sun was poking in and out. In the end, I got the shot I was looking for, made sure it was in focus and it ends up I actually like the shot underneath even more and that wasn't planned at all.

I have learned a lot from actually pushing myself to go out and shoot and finding more content to create. Right now, I have so many new ideas for my aerial work where I would like to incorporate models in some way. I think it is unique to see people in photos but the hardest part here is finding people to shoot in the locations I want to shoot in, and at the times I want to shoot. I have my fingers crossed because this week I have a few ideas that are a bit more complex and I have some awesome people willing to help me out with them.

Conclusion

Even if I go shoot and come home with nothing, I try to figure out what I can do to make what I wanted to do better the next time. We can't always go out and grab the best photos that are immediately shareable, but we can continue creating ideas we come up with until we master them to our liking. No matter how much it takes out of you, no matter how much you have to put in, you should always keep creating. There is never a time we should stop as creatives because it is what drives us to do what we do. I can't stress how important this has been for me or how much it has helped me. I would love to hear if anyone else can relate to this or even hear some ideas you have that you have yet to create.