WM-509: What Do You Need from Photography?

One of the best things about creativity is that it truly is without limits. We can see this in a variety of places, like in the worlds of film and literature. TV shows and movies will have spinoffs, sequels, and prequels—and novels do the same. For some writers, what starts as a single novel branches out until it becomes a 12-book series, plus a collection of short stories, a prequel trilogy, and more. That’s what creativity does when the ideas are full of life and allowed to flourish. And as much as we might roll our eyes at the sequel movies in theaters that feel more like an attempt to get us to spend on tickets rather than a legitimate expansion to the story, this is a good thing when our projects take on a life of their own such that they branch out in a variety of ways... Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/branching-projects-and-spinoffs/ Photography Clips Podcast: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/ Follow me: https://www.facebook.com/Will.Moneymaker  #PhotographyClips #WillMoneymaker #Photography

Creativity doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We all need things that motivate us, that inspire us, and that recharge our creative batteries. Fortunately, the creative world is a big one that goes beyond photography and into dozens of different arts where we can get what it is that we need to keep on making photographs. There are many things I like to do to help with motivation, inspiration, and creative energy. Music is a big one—and I think it’s something that perhaps many of us can rely on because as arts go, music has the power to compel us in many different ways. Listening to specific well-constructed compositions gives us energy, which fuels our motivation to get up and do pictures. That energy can, in turn, be conducted into creative energy that empowers us to see more when we’re hunting for the art in our surroundings... Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/music-meditation-and-motivation/ Photography Clips Podcast: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/ Follow me: https://www.facebook.com/Will.Moneymaker  #PhotographyClips #WillMoneymaker #Photography

For any creative—and really, this is probably something that applies in many areas of life, too—the hardest thing to do is to own up to our mistakes and failures. It comes to mind with creativity and photography in particular, because when you embark on a creative path, those failures will be many. I daresay that if any of us look through our archives, the sheer volume of images that never got used tell that tale quite well. Most are failures, and only a few shining images end up making the cut and going on to become something that we process and display. It’s important to examine these failures and take them into account. In fact, I’d say it’s our duty to face our mistakes and analyze them. That’s the only way we can recognize them, then recognize what went wrong, and fix these problems in future endeavors. It’s all part of the learning process, same as when we’d take tests in school. When we didn’t get perfect grades, we knew what we needed to work on in order to improve... Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/owning-mistakes-and-learning-from-them/ Photography Clips Podcast: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/ Follow me: https://www.facebook.com/Will.Moneymaker  #PhotographyClips #WillMoneymaker #Photography

As artists and photographers, we talk about creative endeavors a lot—but we don’t often talk about the people involved in those creative endeavors. And yet, these people are perhaps one of the most important parts of the process. I think it’s vitally important that, no matter what type of creative work you do, you find your people. Now, one might interpret that statement as getting on social media to promote your work, and to build a community of followers and admirers surrounding that work. I suppose this is helpful if you’re selling your work, but truthfully, for the most part, these types of communities are not what I’m referring to when I say to “find your people.” Social media followings devoted to promotion are mainly echo chambers. It’s in their nature to be echo chambers because when you are promoting yourself, the last thing you want is negativity or things that might take away from sales. Thus, the community must focus on the positives... Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/find-your-people/ Photography Clips Podcast: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/ Follow me: https://www.facebook.com/Will.Moneymaker  #PhotographyClips #WillMoneymaker #Photography

Curiosity is key to photography. It’s what drives us to get outside and explore, discover, learn—and then photograph what we’ve found and learned so that we can share it with the world. And there’s no such thing as being too curious! I think it’s safe to say that we can throw out that old saying, “curiosity killed the cat.” So long as we’re being smart and practicing art safely, we can’t be too curious. So that begs the question, if curiosity is essential to photography, then how do we develop more curiosity? The only way I know is to explore everything you can think to explore. This means not only going out into the world and visiting places you’ve never been, or turning down those back roads you’ve always wondered about, but also other forms of exploration... Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/what-do-you-need-from-photography/  Photography Clips Podcast: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/ Follow me: https://www.facebook.com/Will.Moneymaker  #PhotographyClips #WillMoneymaker #Photography

What is it that you need from photography? Here’s an interesting psychological tidbit: When you are going through tough times in relationships with others, therapists will often tell you that all relationships must offer something of value to everyone involved. This could be emotional needs met, good laughs shared, discussions that you value, or something else... Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/what-do-you-need-from-photography/  Photography Clips Podcast: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/ Follow me: https://www.facebook.com/Will.Moneymaker  #PhotographyClips #WillMoneymaker #Photography

Validation is a wonderful thing. In fact, I would argue that all of us need validation in the things that we do. It’s a vital part of what keeps us going. If you’ve ever received a compliment on one of your photographs, or even something like an award, then you know the sense of pride and accomplishment that comes with it—and the renewed vigor with which you go out to create new, even better photographs than the ones that earned you those accolades in the first place. All of this is a natural, normal phenomenon that is quite healthy and perhaps even vital to keep us going. But there is a dark side to validation, too. There are times, I think, when the need for validation is so extremely deep that it just goes too far... Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/when-the-need-for-validation-goes-too-far/  Photography Clips Podcast: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/ Follow me: https://www.facebook.com/Will.Moneymaker  #PhotographyClips #WillMoneymaker #Photography

Anytime you’re creating something—photography, a painting, a book—it’s a question of audience. At least, for those of us who plan to show our creative works to others, which I have to imagine is most of us. While we are ultimately free to create whatever we’d like to create, we need to do it with the idea that someone out there will find some sort of enjoyment in it. So what is it that people enjoy in art? Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/no-one-cares-how-you-got-there/  Photography Clips Podcast: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/ Follow me: https://www.facebook.com/Will.Moneymaker  #PhotographyClips #WillMoneymaker #Photography

This thought of mine is kind of a complex one, but as we go along, you’ll start to see what I mean. The first thing I want to express is that we are all human. As humans, innovation is a kind of our thing—it’s what we do. We’ve been innovating since the beginning, and that desire for innovation is responsible for almost every aspect of human life today—including the invention of cameras and all the rest of the photographic equipment that we use. My point here with this discussion of innovation? Well, one of the ways in which we do it is by boiling things down to a formula. That’s how we find the easiest, best, or most efficient ways to do almost everything that we do... Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/there-can-be-no-formula/  Photography Clips Podcast: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/ Follow me: https://www.facebook.com/Will.Moneymaker  #PhotographyClips #WillMoneymaker #Photography

What do you do when you don’t know what else to do? Well, that depends. The first thing to do, in my opinion, is to figure out why you don’t know what to do. You see, in my last post, I discussed the value of taking a break from photography—and that’s because we all become exhausted or burned out. At other times, there are different reasons why we don’t know what to do—and it is essential that we take these moments, pick up the camera, and go with the flow. Photograph whatever catches your eye. It’s a meaningful way to approach the act of creation, I think... Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/stick-with-it/  Photography Clips Podcast: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/ Follow me: https://www.facebook.com/Will.Moneymaker  #PhotographyClips #WillMoneymaker #Photography