Muckn' Around - The Creative Process

Psychedelic Morning by J. Binford-Bell

I have a friend in Australia that would call this muckn' around. I would call it pushing the envelope. She may well be more accurate. But the truth of the matter is all creative people must push their limits. I think the average art patron would be shocked to know how many "failed" creations their favorite artist creates. Since the first cave paintings artists have rubbed out, painted over and redone works of art. Available space, cost of materials, etc means often an artist decides to reuse a platform for new artistic expression because they have moved beyond the older style of techniques.

But sometimes artists just try something outside their norm and it doesn't work. I am about to take a canvas off the stretcher bars because the painting did not work. Photographers that learned their craft in the day of film are likely to see each snap of the shutter as too dear. Digital allows you to snap away to your hearts content. And photoshop programs allow you to go where you would not dare. Be it a painting, a poem, a photograph we all learn from our mistakes it is hoped. And we grow by muckn' about.

It is snowing today so I have been muckn' around with my camera in my studio and pushing the envelop in post processing.

Will hiding behind the plants

Willow up close and personal

Willow, the artistic approach

It was rather fun to take a random shot of my cat and crop it down to a great up close shot. And then I wondered what it would be like in my current favorite technique on my dry darkroom software.

Vase and Aspen twigs

If you are an out and about photographer a day stuck in the studio can be boring. I was trying to shoot this vase when I got the picture of my cat. The object of this exercise was to get natural lighting on a still life per the directions in this photography book. The neck of the vase still shows some reflection off the windows but I did not need to use a flash and there is not a hard edged shadow. Lesson learned but not mastered.

Garden of delights

I usually go hard edges and bright colors like the vase so on this landscape I blurred and softened. It is called lateral learning to explore the far extremes of a subject. And whether you call it muckn' around or pushing the envelope there is something to be learned in getting out of your comfort zone. It is not important to create a masterpiece each and every time. But it is important to explore beyond the limits you have set for yourself.