The Path to Spontaneity

I have made a career out of being an intentional photographer vs. a casual and occasional one. In other words, I have almost never waited for the images to come to me but, instead, have gone to the images.

I think. I plan. I analyze. I schedule.

My images tend to be more photographs than snapshots.

Over the bulk of my career, I seemed to be more comfortable with making vs. taking pictures.

And, by far, the vast majority of them were born out of deliberation, determination, resolution.

This makes perfect sense, given that I’m a classic Type-A personality: motivated, driven, single-minded, disciplined.

My photography style has fallen in line with my personality style.

But sometimes, even my good intentions get in the way of spontaneity and serendipity in my photography.

More recently, for reasons only know to my gypsy heart, I have been working hard at being less unpremeditated, unrehearsed, unplanned, unschooled.

In a way, this leads to a creative approach that, ultimately, is more reflexive, relaxed, automatic, second-nature, free and easy.

I love making lists. I really do. I live for and by my lists. Oh my. Stop.

But often, in photography, these gadhhh damn lists get in the way of unfeigned and unadulterated creativity. Click.

So just maybe, for all of us, the path to spontaneity is a bit more impromptu, off-the-cuff, spur-of-the-moment than we think.

Put down the lists. Just get up and go, with no real plan or purpose in mind. Fall headlong into that instinctual and intuitive side of your creative self, see what happens. Click,

Jack