Just curious. Were you creative in another area before discovering photography?

Yes. I have four kids. :)

But it is a very hard question to answer.
When I was younger, I could draw and paint OK, landscapes, cars, boats and planes, and even people, That stopped after A levels.

Most of my hobbies involved more science than art, sailing, RC flying, radio, electronics and later computing, and photography was just part of my life, not much though given to it.

Move forward to ten years ago, and my daughter did photography at GCSE and A level, and a degree in Fine art and Illustration.
It was a case of me knowing a bit about the technical side of photography, and her having the artistic talents. I considered I had the artistic talents of a cabbage :)

About 4 years ago, I was sorting out photos, and some one commented (he was very well qualified to comment, the reason I even listened) that he liked some of my photos.
When I told him what my artistic talents were he disagreed!

I view what I do in a different light now, and accept that some of my photos are OK, but certainly nothing special.

In the 90's I started doing design and layout (DTP) for a printing department (which I later managed) and was taught the basics by the ex-editor of a national paper.
I am told that I got it right :)

For me photography has always been a hobby and a way of preserving memories, never an attempt at art or creativity
 
Creative is something of an umbrella term, & like many terms tends to need defining each time it's applied. Was Einstein creative? Stephen Hawking? The designers of the (original) Forth Bridge? I K Brunel?

Some thought is original ('creative') - and some is learned (passed down / adopted) - but the last, ingested, can provide a platform to launch the first.

Then there's the arena in which creativity may appear / be practiced ...

What about life itself - surely that's the big one? Or it could be scientific, practical, or artistic - the last of those perhaps being the most likely victim of armchair pundits.

Damien Hirst, anyone? ;-)
 
droj said:
Creative is something of an umbrella term, & like many terms tends to need defining each time it's applied
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Absolutely. I realised that after I posted it and saw some of the responses. My OP was curious as I noticed a good portion of my beginners course attendees were often also interested in painting and music (specifically) and were "trying their hand" at something else. Once I heard it mentioned again on a podcast I wondered if it was a wider thing. Maybe I should have said "creative arts", but then I think many of the replies to this thread have shown me that as @arturo7 says above, we are probably all creative, even if we don't accept it or realise it. And we also very much tap into it in different ways.

Edit: I'm pretty good at creative accounting with my camera gear :)
 
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Never at all. I felt that artistic capabilities completely bypassed me and went to my sister. I can’t play a note, have no drawing ability and at sports excelled at cycling in disciplines best described as brute strength and ignorance.

I have always enjoyed others creativity and looking at art. But it was having the opportunity to travel through work that initially inspired be to start taking pictures and it went from there over the years.
 
I loved drawing as a child but was never particularly good at it. That's when I probably discovered photography and decided it's easier to snap a picture than to draw one from scratch :D I've also never been patient enough to learn about perspective and techniques and stuff. Some of my "early works" are still around, I digitized several of them to include in a smartshow 3d birthday video for my mom (therewas a "portrait" of her I was very proud of lmao). Everybody agreed I'm better as a photographer :D
 
Creative writing! I really liked writing what we'd call fanfiction now, just putting my favorite characters into new situations or playing with the idea of how they'd live in my hometown. Guess I'm too lazy for that now, but I remember enjoying the whole process of carefully crafting a story.

I've read about photographers treating their shoots as a projects: the client picks a character or gives them an idea of how they'd like to be presented and the photographer actually writes a fantasy story for them and then they tell this story through the photos. There are whole teams of makeup artists, costume makers etc, of course it's very pricey but the results are fantastic. I cherish the hope that one day I could organize something of the same kind with me writing a story and model(s) portraying the character(s). Then again, it's all about dedication and time and I don't have much of both, so I'll stick to Photoshop photo montages and Photodiva hair recoloring for now, haha!

I also remember trying my hand at poetry but it didn't last or go particularly great. I'm always at awe at people knowing their way around words so well that they create actual music with rhythm of it.
 
Catherine Bowlene said:
I loved drawing as a child but was never particularly good at it. That's when I probably discovered photography and decided it's easier to snap a picture than to draw one from scratch :D I've also never been patient enough to learn about perspective and techniques and stuff. Some of my "early works" are still around, I digitized several of them to include in a smartshow 3d birthday video for my mom (therewas a "portrait" of her I was very proud of lmao). Everybody agreed I'm better as a photographer :D
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If you enjoyed it, it's always worth revisiting - one day :) Inspired by a TV programme about autistic artists, I decided to just enjoy the process. With practice you do improve and I now find great pleasure in drawing.... end results still questionable :LOL:
 
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