Blog Post #2 - Seeing Creatively
My first entry was about Reflection, or reflecting on the past and what brings us to where we are. This one, a bit more literal as I present the photograph to support my post, but still reflecting on my past as we discuss seeing creatively.
Bryan F. Peterson was my mentor (among many others) as I pursued a deeper understanding of photography. A beautiful man with wisdom and charisma, a keen eye for color and drama and a child like excitement for anything photographic. I instructed at his school Picture Perfect School of Photography, later becoming the Bryan Peterson School of Photography, BPSOP as we all knew it. He wrote many books on the subject and influenced thousands with the mantra “you keep shooting”. He sadly passed away in 2025, but he left us all with a bit of his knowledge and photographic wisdom.
While my work never looked liked Bryan’s, his influence still runs deep. Like my music, I never wanted my work to look like anyone else’s. I wanted my own voice photographically, but how do we see creatively? How can we tell a story in a single frame? How can we use color in our photo using primary and complimentary colors? The list goes on.
My work as of the last few years has gone primarily black and white, but more importantly square composition with a 1:1 ratio. For many years I found a 3:2 composition too large with too much wasted space in the photo. Yes, of course there are subjects that require the vastness of a 3:2, such as Glacier National Park or any beautiful landscape you can find. But how can we convey our message with less space in the frame yet still create a story? It’s easy, we become more selective with our subjects and get down to business and shoot square. No nonsense, that simple……….
The supporting photo here, has reflection, texture, pattern supported by an out of focus foreground and negative space to draw the eye into the frame permitting more attention to the subjects reflection in the water farther back in the frame, broken by the pattern of the beach. The subject in the reflection happens to be the best part of me, my wife. So not only is it a decent photo (to me anyway) it has meaning, the most important person I have in my life.
Seeing creatively often means stepping outside the literal and may require a bit more effort on your part to put a concept into action. Black and white often helps as you strip away layers of color and manage tonal value only. But you also need to think about your subject. If you have a light subject, make sure your background is darker. If you have a dark subject, make sure your background is lighter, this draws attention to your subject, whether it be color or black and white.
The camera is nothing more than an input device and who cares whether it’s Nikon, Canon or whatever. The best camera is the one in your hand with your creative vision. Processing plays a large role in how we develop and process our photos. The sky is limit. Use it wisely and learn some techniques along the way, a couple of which I have shared here.