The subject of photographic creativity is, quite frankly, a frightening and difficult one to write about. I think that’s part of the reason that discussion of photographic gear (Canon vs. Nikon vs. Pentax vs Sony; camera shootouts; lens tests; etc.) and photographictechnique (how to pose portraits; how to use Photoshop; how to retouch pictures; etc.) probably outweighs discussion of photographic creativity 100 to 1, at least on the Internet.

I think that most photographers consider themselves very lucky when they make a beautiful photograph. (I might even extend this statement to all artists in general.) If they’re brutaly honest with themselves, most photographers would probably admit that they are missing a good 90% of the opportunities that regularly arise to make inspiring, interesting, or great photographs. I’d like to share a few thoughts as to why I think that is.

The goal of this article is to help get you thinking about some concrete ways to increase your receptivity to creativity. First, I’ll introduce you to some ideas from the world of psychology, then I’ll tell you what I think they mean in terms of increasing photographic creativity.

The Human System

In this article, I am going to borrow very liberally from some books by Stephen Wolinsky. If you have any interest at all in psychology, you owe it to yourself to check out Wolinsky’s writings. I’ll recommend a few books at the end of this article.

According to Wolinsky (and modern quantum physics!), everything is made of the same underlying substance. This substance would appear to the human perceptual apparatus as nothingness, or emptyness, or a void. Out of this one substance, the perceived manifestation arises in a way that is like gas (water vapor) condensing down into a liquid (water, or H20), and then further condensing down into a solid (ice). Seemingly solid things in the perceived manifestation then “thin out” into what appears as nothingness. And this is the cycle of living, as we directly experience it. We might have ideas or concepts to the contrary, but the actual direct experience of living is pretty much the successive arising and subsiding of apparent objects, sensations, and thoughts within our awareness. And there is also the arising and subsiding of awareness itself as we awaken from sleep and return to sleep.

If we classify the ways that nothingness manifests into “something,” we might get a classification like the following:

• The Outside World (other people, the computer screen, the desk, the house, etc.)

• Thoughts (mental images, the voice(s) inside your head, memories, concepts, beliefs, etc.)

• Emotions (anger, sadness, fear, etc.)

• Human Biology (the needs of the human body, the nervous system, fight/flight responses, survival responses, etc.)

• Spiritual Essence or States of Grace (unconditional love, peace, compassion, pure beingness, etc.)

• The Collective Unconscious (the realm of archetypes, the forces that connect the whole human family, etc.)

• The Void of Undifferentiated Consciousness (the state of the one underlying substance before it has condensed into something we can be aware of)

• And finally, we’d probably create a catch-all bucket for everything that exists but is beyond classification. All sorts of labels could be chosen, including: Universal Intelligence; God; The Universe; The Self; etc.

To get something from this article, there is no need for you to accept the particular classification system above. It’s just labels for the un-labelable; categories for the indivisible anyway! At the end of the day though, I think that most people agree that a human being is made up of many parts, or forces, or experiences that feel related but different. That’s what makes being a human being so interesting in the first place!

Now, as a human being, would you be happy if you woke up one morning missing a part of your body? I doubt most people would be happy at all about that! Butevery day most of us amputate huge portions of our daily experience for one reason or another. Read on for some ideas about how we do this psychic amputation.

Trances

Most people think of Trances as unusual states, where a person becomes semi-unconscious and has some strange or mystical experience that only they are aware of. That describes less than 1% of the trances that actually happen.

The other 99% of trances happen all the time to everybody.

A trance is a state where a person’s attention is narrowed (focused on only one thing) and fixated (not free to focus on other things).

Milton Erickson gives us the following definition of a trance state:

Trance is a condition wherein there is a reduction of the patient’s foci of attention to a few inner realities; consciousness has been fixated and focused to a relatively narrow frame of attention rather than being diffused over a broad area.”

How many times does that happen to you in a day? For most people, at least 100 times per day!

Here’s an example that might apply to some of us: You are at work and unexpectedly called into your manager’s office. Your manager explains that your work performance has been lower than expected, and asks you how you plan to fix this problem. Immediately, you begin to hesitantly talk about how things have been difficult with a family situation, and you are sure this is temporary and things will get better. As you talk, your palms begin to sweat a bit, and you have this awful fear that you’ll be fired if you don’t come up with a good explanation.

Later, in thinking about this situation, you realize it reminds you of how your father, when you were young, would call you into his study and get on your case about your grades. You realize that you had an age regression trance, and you began reacting to your work supervisor in the same way you learned to react to your father when you were young, combined with a narrowed and fixated focus.

For example, while you were explaining things to your supervisor, you realize you didn’t notice the comfortable chair you were sitting in, the sunshine and the birds signing outside your supervisor’s partially opened window, or the delicious aftertaste of the special lunch you treated yourself to. Although the sensory data for those things was present, your awareness was narrowed and fixated on something else!

By the way, a trance is not necessarily a bad thing. A trance state that helps you survive a truly dangerous situation is certainly not a bad thing. I would suggest, though, that a trance that happens automatically in a non-survival situation may not be allowing you the full freedom possible in that situation.

Let’s take another example. For a long time, I was a huge fan of Edward Weston. I’ve read his Daybooks (the published version of his personal diaries), seen every photograph of his I could get my eyeballs on, visited Mexico City to see some of the neighborhoods where he lived, and photographed at Point Lobos where some of his most famous photographs were made.

For a while, I was living an “Edward Weston” trance! This was a time where my attention was fixated on comparing my life with what I knew of Edward Weston’s life. My attention was narrowed so that I looked for photographs that reminded me of Weston’s photographs, I tried to live in situations that reminded me of his bohemian living situations, and I idealized a life that looked like his. In the process, I partially lost contact with what was real and what was happening in my personal world moment to moment.

Any perceptual input that arose to me and did not fit my “Weston filter” would have been immediately discarded, before I could even freely decide whether to discard it. I was truly living an “Edward Weston trance!” Any uniquely creative photographs that were asking to be made by me would have to slip past the filters of this massive trance state of mine. Who knows how many creative opportunities I missed during that time!

Perception and the Human System

The human nervous system comprises the ability to see, taste, touch, hear, and smell. The primary purpose of the human nervous system is to ensure the survival of the human species, and especially the particular member of the human species attached to that nervous system! Although the nervous system makes possible many awesome experiences (enjoyment of delicious food, enjoyment of a loving caress, smelling the provervial roses, etc.), it’s primary purpose is to ensure human survival.

80% of our attention goes to the sense of sight. Most photographers rely exclusively on their sense of sight when finding, selecting, and composing photographs. Well, that and their mind.

The mind is an outgrowth of the human nervous system. Although the human mind is the primary reason that life today is so much more comfortable for so many (those above the poverty level) than it was hundreds of years ago, the mind is truly an outgrowth of the nervous system. Most people have almost no control over the thoughts that go through their mind.

Prove it to yourself: think of nothing but the chair you are sitting on right now for the next 5 minutes. I’ll be back in five minutes to check how things went.

Well, how did that experiment go? Do you still believe that you control the contents of your mind?

Here’s the point: if you only rely on your optical system and the contents of your mind for photographic inspiration, creativity, or guidance, you are missing a huge slice of potential sources for photographic creativity! Have a look again at how I categorized the world of manifestation:

• The Outside World

• THOUGHTS

• Emotions

• HUMan Biology

• Spiritual Essence or States of Grace

• The Collective Unconscious

• The Void of Undifferentiated Consciousness

• Universal Intelligence; God; The Universe; The Self; etc.

Notice that in this list, I have bolded Thoughts, and part of the word Human Biology. This is to point out that the normal way of guiding photographic creativity is to look to the mind, and to a part of the human biology (the optical system).

Here’s what I’m really trying to say (sorry I had to give so much background information to get to this point): Every item on the list above is a potential source of guidance towards amazingly creative, inspiring, beautiful, and simply GREATphotographs!

Relying only on the eyes, or the eyes plus the mind, for photographic creativity is a bit like being in a trance state: your attention is narrowed and fixated compared to what it could be if your were receiving perceptual data from the other aspects of our world.

Can bodily sensations guide creativity? How about dreams? What about a recurring interest in stories of a mythical or imaginary nature? Could an ability to be grateful for or at peace with or in love with everything you experience moment to moment be an opening to creativity?

The answer is YES. Nothing is unconnected. Every “thing” that manifests in your awareness is a potential opening or guide towards creativity in photography (or artmaking in general). It doesn’t have to be just a thought or a visual perception.

On the other hand, let’s think about the things that can be corrosive to creativity. How about unresolved emotional issues? How about a nagging pain in your body that the doctor’s haven’t been able to explain? How about a mind that obsessively or compuslively focuses on problems that “must” be solved?

Can these things diminish your access to creativity? The answer is YES. Every thing that reduces your ability to experience the totality of your personal world moment to moment is a potential restriction on creativity.

Can you dissolve these blocks to creativity? The answer is YES.

John Wimberley

I met master photographer John Wimberley in 2006. I had signed up for a brand new weekend-long workshop he was putting on: Sight & Insight. That workshop opened my awareness to some of the things I’ve discussed in this article. And it started me on my own personal exploration of how I could be more open to creativity.

The results have been truly transformative. I’m going again to John’s Sight & Insight workshop this October (2009). John tells me that the workshop has evolved every time he’s taught it, and I can’t wait to see what new insights he presents in Newport, OR this October!

John also tells me that there are only a few spaces left in the workshop (as of this writing in September). Click here right now to sign up for one of these spaces!

P.S. Many accomplished photographers teach excellent workshops. I’ve been to several John Wimberley workshops, and two things stand out: the EXCELLENCEof the teaching and the information provided. And second, the PRICE! I’ve never had to pay more than $300 to participate in a John Wimberley workshop and I can tell you that they’d be a bargain at three times that price.

My own photographs have improved dramatically as a result of John Wimberley’s workshops, and all I can tell you is that if you’re serious about improving your photography, you need to sign up now for the Sight & Insight workshop. I’m planning on encouraging all of the artists I know, photographer or not, to attend!

Click here for more information on concrete steps you can take to open to creativity!

My Sinar Norma

There are several reputable shops that will service a Norma, but because I sensed that I will be using this camera for many years to come, I decided to learn to CLA her myself.

My friend John Wimberley is a longtime Sinar Norma owner, and he helped me through the CLA process by answering lots of questions by email.

During the CLA process, I took notes, pictures, and used them to produce The Rough Guide to Cleaning, Lubricating, and Adjusting the Sinar Norma. You can download this guide here:

The Rough Guide to Cleaning, Lubricating, and Adjusting the Sinar Norma

I intend to update this guide over time, with new pictures and more accurate descriptions. As it stands, I believe it is a useful document for Sinar Norma owners who wish to service their own cameras.

Air Travel

You board an airplane. Three minutes before the plane pushes away from the gate, a computerized announcement airs: “There are four unsold seats in first class. Bidding for these seats is now open. Please use the touch screen in the seatback in front of you, along with your credit or debit card, to place a bid.” 90 seconds later: “Bidding has now completed. The passengers in seats 7D, 14A, 3C, and 12A may take their seats in first class.”

The computerized bidding system would simply choose the highest bidder(s).

Shipping

You purchase something that is shipped to you. Initially, you choose the slow-boat shipping. A day or two later, your eagerness to have this item increases. So, you go to the shipper’s tracking site, enter the tracking number, and click Upgrade Delivery Time. After keying in your credit card digits, your package is expedited so that it arrives faster.

I don’t know much about the inner workings of shipping companies, but it seems to me that packages get handled at least every 24 hours during transit. If that is true, there should be ample opportunity to upgrade an in-transit package to a faster delivery service.

I bet shipping companies could get away with charging a premium for these kind of upgrades.

Other Applications?

Well, that’s all I’ve come up with for now, but I bet this principle of in-flight upgrades could be applied elsewhere. It seems to me like an untapped revenue source for companies that deliver a service that takes a while to complete.

“Companies with IT teams of one to four people or firms with 60 or fewer employees often don’t have the level of sophistication required to make virtualization pay,” said Chip Nickolett, president of Comprehensive Consulting Solutions that has helped several small businesses take their first steps into the virtual world. “In these environments, the benefit of virtualization would be marginal at best.”

These are not hard-and-fast numbers, of course. Tiny firms in financial services, law and other sectors sometimes have both significant IT requirements, the budget and the staff required to make virtualization pay big dividends.

The use of virtualization technology is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years, especially among the SMBs. Virtualization vendors, who have primarily been targeting the larger businesses thus far, have now started paying more attention to SMBs. Similarly, SMB channel partners are also developing the required skills to offer virtualization-related services. Thus, many SMBs will start using some form of virtualization in the near future and the use of its technology will be fairly common in the next three or four years.

When it comes to disaster recovery with virtualization, you get what you pay for. If your IT budget is too tight to accommodate the most expensive VMware or Citrix packages, don’t expect continuous availability during a disaster.

Using virtualization for disaster recovery makes perfect sense. Virtual machines (VMs) can be packaged with your operating system, applications and configurations and sent off to a secondary location and take over immediately during a disaster at the primary data center site.

Handling the classroom

When students don’t know each other

I don’t try to force students to socialize with each other, but when asking questions I try to provide opportunities for interaction. Labs are also a good time for interaction. I’ll sometimes walk out from the “instructor bullpen” into the room and engage students with questions and that often sparks student-to-student interaction. This can “warm up” the room and help folks relax, which I regard as a good thing.

When students do know each other

This scenario is usually fine, but sometimes students who do know each other can be overly social in a way that distracts from learning, so I encourage you to not be afraid to be the loudest person in the room. By speaking with a loud, strong tone of voice you can often create a psychological dominance that you use to manage the classroom and direct attention to yourself when needed.

Problem students

I try to never call anybody out in front of the class, even if their behavior is aweful. I try to have a 1-on-1 interaction, tell them how their behavior is affecting the rest of the class, and respectfully ask for the specific change in behavior that I want to see. In over 10 years of working with adult learners, I have had very, very few such cases so it’s nothing to lose sleep over. Most of the times where I have specifically asked problem students to change their behavior, they have, and they have been civil to me afterwards.

Overly-eager students

Some students are especially eager to answer questions that are directed at the whole class, and if this dynamic repeats itself often enough, the more reticent students can get left behind. In this case it’s best to direct questions to specific students to balance things out. I’m always careful about putting students on the spot, and try to avoid this by asking sufficiently open-ended questions, but each mix of students will require a different blend of questions to the room vs. questions to specific people.

Try to be proactive by giving eager students an outlet to share their knowledge/experience in a way that complements the learning objectives. In other words, use their presence to benefit the class. Don’t let them hijack the class though, and don’t be afraid to interrup them and explain (in a diplomatic way) that you need to keep moving forward in order to cover important material and maybe they can share the rest of their story during a break or after class or during some other downtime.

Being approachable yet authoritative.

I think it is best to make sure students understand 2 things about me: I have significant, valuable experience but I also don’t know it all.

• 95% of students understand that the field of IT is vast and broad and that means no one person can know it all. The other 5% can’t be pleased no matter what you do, so they’re going to find something to criticize no matter what. Depending on the audience, this split may be more like 80/20.
• Skill in researching answers to difficult questions is a great asset to any trainer.

If I don’t know the answer to a question, I will usually say: “I don’t know, but here’s my best guess: <insert speculative response here>. Would you like me to look into this further and get back to you?” Also, you can ask the other students if anyone else knows the answer.

This approach satisfies 75% of the questions where I don’t know the answer but also leaves the door open for further exploration if the student is genuinely interested. This avoids me spending research time on questions that don’t really matter to the student. If the question matters to me, I’ll do the research anyway!

I try to make sure I understand the material in the class handbook 100%. The first time through a course, however, expect to discover things you didn’t know about the material. I believe I don’t fully understand anything until I’ve tried to explain it to another person. This seems natural to me so if I stumble a bit on the first time through an explanation I’m unphased. However, if I want the first attempt at explaining something to be pitch perfect, then I’ll either write out my own version of how I understand the concept, or I’ll find someone to explain it to for practice.

Don’t be afraid to be wrong. Everybody is wrong, some of the time. For my personality type, it is best to speak with a sense of implied authority and offer a simple apology and correction if what I say turns out to be wrong. For me, this works out better than being timid in my presentation of what I believe to be accurate facts by qualifying everything I say with “as far as I know” or “to the best of my knowledge,” etc.

Voice tone

Generally you will be the loudest person in the room. Get used to that if is uncomfortable for you (drink lots of water and have snacks available to keep up your energy. It can be exhausting!).

Even though you will generally be speaking very loudly, you can actually soften your voice and reduce its volume when you want to emphasize certain things. Softening your voice is a useful (and often necessary) contrast to the normal loud, clear tone of voice I recommend. For example, notice how easy it is to tune out talk radio, even though it is loud and punchy sounding almost all of the time. Loud and punchy can also be monotonous! Variations in your tone of voice are helpful to keep students attention focused on the information you are presenting, especially if it is a night class after a full day of work.

Loud should not be strident. Just a punched up, louder version of your normal speaking voice.

When students ask questions, they often will have a softer (and uncertain-sounding) tone of voice. Repeat the question so that the entire class hears the question before you respond to the question.

Personally, I try to avoid using contractions when teaching. My boyhood Southeastern USA accent comes through a bit too much when I use contractions, so in support of clarity I try to never use contractions when speaking to a class.

Space between things is often important. Do not be afraid to say something important and then just stand there and say nothing for a moment while students absorb/think about/synthesize the new information. This feels uncomfortable at first, but it is vital (IMO) to effective in-class learning.

Try to reduce nervous habits. “Umms”, “Ahhhs”, and excessively repeated connecting words detract from clear public speaking. The classic tip for helping yourself with this is to record yourself speaking and listen to the recording, taking note of how many times you say things that are really just nervous speaking habits.

Breathe enough. Take a deep breath between sentences to help regulate your tone, especially if public speaking makes you nervous.

Make eye contact with students from time to time.

Presentation

Present the concept first, then fill in the details

I believe that you can approach this differently, but in my experience it is important to first present the concept, then fill in the details.

Here’s an example:

Concept

A SQL Server table is a lot like a spreadsheet. The columns are known as fields, and the rows are known as records. All of the records in a table have the same fields, but fields can be left blank if you set up the table that way. When you create the fields, each field has a specific type of information that it can hold, and you get to decide this when you create the table. You can modify tables after creating them.

Details

You create a table in SQL Server with the create table command.

Tables in SQL Server can have up to XX fields

Tables in SQL Server can have up to XX rows

Pacing

Try to keep things on track AND offer downtime for students to make connection with each other, discuss “war stories”, etc and rest their brains before getting new information.

The right amount of repetition

Repeat things but using different teaching modalities each time

Example:

Explain something using words. Then show how it is used by giving a quick demo. Then have students practice using it. Then ask a question about how to apply it in a specific situation.

Knowledge of learning styles

There are different psychological theories on this subject, but basically be aware that some students won’t “get it” until they’ve gone through it hands on, others have to see it, others have to hear about it or read about it. Try to target all learning styles in your presentation.

Find a book on the subject of learning styles that works for you, and read it. Here’s one possibility: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=learning+styles+adult&x=0&y=0

Try to connect concepts to the real world

If you have stories from your personal experience, share them, but try to find the generally-applicable lesson in them and make that the emphasis of the story.

Checking frequently for understanding.

When presenting a concept that builds on previously presented concepts, it is important to not have any missing links in the chain, so checking frequently for understanding is vital.

Ask questions to the students as a way to help them synthesize information. Ask a LOT of questions. Next to being clear in your presentation of the information, one of the most important things you can do is ask good questions of the students. A good question helps them synthesize new information. Recall of information is not enough. Synthesizing information means the new information can be used in a way that is relevant to that student, and it is a part of their understanding of the subject. Asking good questions creates connections to what students already know, and this is vital.

Here is an example:

You are discussing SQL data types.

Good questions:

• Describe a scenario where you would use the XYZ datatype.
• Describe a scenario wherer the XYZ datatype would not be a good choice.
• List two or three ways the XYZ datatype address the limitations of the ABC datatype?
• What on-the-job scenarios can you think of where the XYZ datatype would be useful?

Poor questions:

• Have you ever used the XYZ datatype?
• Can you use the XYZ datatype to store first names? Answer yes or no.

Hopefully you can see, from these examples, that you want to avoid yes/no questions (unless they lead to discussion or reinforce a broad concept that is important to understand) or simplistic questions that only involve simple recall. Questions that invite discussion tend to be the best way to help students synthesize new information.

Find a way to keep your presentation on track if you have any tendency whatsoever to wander. Realize that you cannot talk about everything in full detail. Consider making an outline of important concepts to cover during the class. Periodically re-check your outline to make sure you are on track. Consider having a mid-term assessment to see if students are pleased with how things are going. Actaully, checking-in more frequently than this is a good idea. Remind students that you are unable to read minds, and encourage their feedback through any method they are comfortable with.