 It's frustrating isn't it? When your photography seems to lack any sort of creativity and it just is dull and it's lifeless and feels uninspired and you don't know how to fix it. Once upon a time I let the technical aspects of my own photography consume me to the point where I was hamstrung and could not connect with my creativity. I'm going to share with you how I found out that becoming a lazy photographer reconnected me with my creativity. How's it? How's it? Today the modern photographer has at their disposal a plethora of tools and these are great but they can overwhelm us and they can create confusion when it comes to the picture making process. Now it's well known that here on this channel I'm not a big fan of gear reviews and if you have a complete version to seeing any cameras on your screen then I would suggest you you look away now because I'm going to show you the camera that I first started with. This is this is a Spider-Man camera it's zero megapixels it takes I think it takes 126 film someone like that. It's a fixed focus lens it has a wind on and a shutter and that's that's kind of it. That's the camera that I was introduced to the joy of making pictures with now obviously as I got slightly older I became more interested in my dad's camera with little Canon a1 and and the idea of you know exposures and f-stops and all these sort of things were intriguing to me and it got to the point where all that joy that creativity of just taking photographs had been pushed to one side and I became obsessed with getting things right with getting the exposure right with getting the right lens choice and all those sort of things that I'm sure we are familiar with that hamper us and hold us back by not worrying about the lens choices of the exposures you can allow yourself to be curious about the world around you and reminded there's an old quote that I'm sure I'm going to miss quote but it says something about like you want to see the world through the eyes of a child you want to react to it like a childhood I can't remember the photographer's name and I have tried to look it up and the sketch so if you do know please let me know in the comments photography like any other art form has multi-disciplines within it you know there's a technique side of things there's the aesthetic the creative side of things there's the the post-processing side of things all of these things are important and please don't make them don't get me wrong I'm not saying that technical aspects are important you should focus on them but it's very difficult especially as a beginner to focus on all of these aspects at the same time and this today is about focusing on the creativity side of things so we're going to push the technical to one side and we can do this even if you have digital camera by setting your camera on p we're going to let the camera do the heavy lifting today just set it on p put on a prime lens if you don't have a prime lens set your zoom whatever to one focal length only right and then that little annoying screen at the back little chimpy one that we keep looking at and checking if things are right you're going to tape that up it's scary I know especially if you've never photographed without seeing the results instantly tape it up don't worry we're not worried about what we see straight away in fixing it we're just wanting to learn how to use our eyes the best tool that we have back in the early 2000s I was talking to a photographer in America she was showing me some photographs that just excited me they were wobbly and they had light leaks all over them and sort of scratches and the focus was all over the place and the exposures were kind of just well they were just average and but I was in I was transfixed with them I loved them I love the vibe about them there's Victorian sort of feel and she told me that they were made using a Holger and at the time I hadn't heard of Holger and the toy camera movement was a little way off still but I went oh you know I'll get one of these she said it doesn't have any focus exposures or anything like that to really speak of it just puts a film in and each one slightly different so I went off and I got myself Holger and I walked the streets of Edinburgh and I was it was like a weight was lifted from my shoulder I was no longer worried about whether my exposures were correct or if my focus was was right because it was it was a zonal focusing sort of thing I was simply in the process of taking photographs and of course because it was on film I didn't know the results until I went had the film process and I got them back and I was like wow these these are amazing this is what I want you to find out today to reconnect with this this joyousness of taking photographs and to developing your creativity again if you need to get in closer then walk if you need to get further back then walk the best zoom you have are your feet use them you're going to find that taking all that stuff out of your your your bag a makes your bag a lot lighter but it is going to liberate I know I keep saying the word liberate but it's going to liberate it's going to make you feel more creative because you're forced to rely on yourself not some magic piece of kit that's in your bag that somehow is going to fix the moment using that one lens is also going to teach you to see the world in a way that these lenses see it so if you use a 50mm constant that you're going to start seeing the world as a 50mm if you use a 35mm the same again it's so liberating when you can start seeing the world through lens frames and and and it's all of a sudden it just pops into your head one day and but it only comes if you work at it if you nurture and develop this skill and these what these are what these techniques are about is about opening up this creativity throughout all of these exercises you're going to feel like you should be paying more attention to your exposures to the technical side of things and and I want you to fight that that urge this this exercise is not about improving your technical aspects that will come and there are many exercises you can do to improve your technical ability so it becomes second nature and allows you to focus more on the creativity thing so they do go hand in hand but today it's about that very delicate thing creativity and that's what you're going to be able to tease out of of the scenes around you is this this creativity it is inside you but it's a lot more delicate than a technical aspect it's a lot more unique it's a lot more personal it's a lot more about you and your own vision you can do this I know you can you're going to be fantastic the more that you work on these skills the more that you are going to be able to sense that there's an image hiding in something that you see that's somewhere in that massive light and shadow and shape and form in front of you there's a nugget of inspiration I want you to just sit and let it come to you to reveal itself and in time you're going to learn to be a skilled seeker of these things you're going to find it easier to tease out these little images from the potential that's all around you there are so many examples of photographers who have been forced I'll say use the word forced is a bit strong but they have chosen to restrict themselves to either a single lens or a type of film stock or what have you Anton Combein is a fantastic example back in his early days he only used the fastest film available to him because he had to photograph in a wide range of places you know daylight and and dark clubs or what have you so he needed the fastest film because he could only afford one film stock so it forced him to be creative of what he did and it gave his images a look and a feel that has stayed with him to this day if you're interested in learning about Anton Combein and other photographers who you can gain a huge amount from from looking at their work I'll put a playlist of great photographers up on the screen for you at the end of the video and suggest you go and have a look maybe discover some people who you may not have heard of I've talked a couple of times now about this idea of freedom about how when we're not worrying about what the camera is doing or the lens is doing or or any of the other options that are available to us as a photographer that we are are liberated to concentrate on the the image itself a great example of this once was I was doing a wedding for a very dear friend of mine in London at one of these kind of pop-up restaurants so the whole place was blacked out and and lit in the same fashion so everywhere throughout the venue the exposure was the same so I could just take one base exposure and it was going to be the same for the entire night also because it was dark I needed to have the fastest lens available to me which at the time was a 1.8 50mm so I put that on and that was what I worked with the whole night I had a 50mm I had the same exposure and I believe that some of those wedding photographs from that day are the most vibrant and and emotional that I took because I wasn't worried about doing gymnastics with my exposures using different focal lengths to to create mood and vibe and what have you it was simply about being in the moment and using my ears using my eyes to react to creating photographs using this rather than the camera obviously I was using the camera but you know what I mean it is not having to worry about changing lenses doing all that sort of stuff it's about being in the moment that seeing what's in front of you and teasing out the opportunities that are abundant in the things that we see if we give them time to come up and we can do that when we're not spending time fussing about lenses you can feel free to sit and just let a moment emerge Henry Cartier-Bresson talked about the decisive moment just seeing a scene and waiting for that little element to occur that element that would elevate the picture if you're constantly thinking about exposures and about lenses you might miss that moment I want you to be comfortable with the idea of limiting yourself to a single focal length of limiting yourself to exposures that aren't necessarily right and about being in that moment with the photograph take the leap to going into the unknown and seeing what comes out the other side don't be disheartened by the results use them and say wow this is this is exciting learn to learn to throw off those shackles and just embrace chaos embrace the chaos and let it maybe like Bob Ross once said you know show you happy little accidents you never know until you try as I mentioned earlier here's that playlist of great photographers go on there have a little look see there's some fantastic people on there who may also inspire you and and give you ideas about your own creativity thanks again for watching and I'll see you again soon