In this new series, we will be featuring creative advice from different members of the Blurb community. This post comes from professional photographer Dan Milnor, Blurb’s Creative Ambassador. While his advice is geared toward fellow photographers, we think there is potentially useful wisdom for anyone looking to start a new project. Blurb is here to help your ideas take shape on the printed page: from inspiration, to design, to holding the finished publication.

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The Creative Mindset in Photography

There is where you want to be, and there is where you are. Your job as a photographer is to react to where you are, not postpone your efforts until you find yourself in the perfect setting or scenario. Don’t get me wrong, perfect scenarios exist. They do, and you can often feel it before you see it. Movement slows, sounds dim, and your brain and body begin to feel the elements align. Goosebumps, hair raised, pulse quickened. It happens. Just not very often.

So what to do in the meantime? Easy: you work. That’s it. That’s all. You make work no matter what. Don’t overthink it. Just look and keep looking and making pictures. Test, try, fail, succeed, learn, repeat. The more time you spend working in non-optimal environments, the better you will be when you do finally find the optimal, or even the near perfect. Again, your job is to perform.

In other words, if you walk around without a camera and it doesn’t bother you, something is wrong.

Let me explain how this works for me. Some weeks back, I was able to escape for twenty-four hours—a two-hour drive north brought me to the semi-wild on the shore of a small trout stream. We had been to this location many times before, and because it was a holiday weekend, I was mentally prepared for chaos: drinking, illegal fireworks, too many ATVs, and—my favorite—litter. But it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. And oddly enough, a total stranger gave us a bag of jumbo, shell-on shrimp which cooked up nicely in a spice rub we found in the dark recesses of our van (thank you, Bryan!)

I had several goals for the trip:

1. swim in the river
2. fish
3. bird
4. write
5. make pictures

I accomplished all five: I swam in the river, birded and fished several times each, wrote a “Photo Fiction” piece, and I made pictures. The pictures were a struggle. Am I a nature photographer? No, not really. Put me with people and I’m at home with my camera. Put me on a story on the border or high in the Andes. Put me at a political rally. Put me pretty much anywhere but nature and I’ll be fine.

But that’s not my job. My job is to work regardless of location. So, I did. The water image included above was one of the first images I made. I panned against the current and turned a petering, 10-foot wide river into a raging torrent. I mentally filed that away and said, “Okay, that’s frame one.” I then added the birding element because warblers were working the bushes on the far side of the stream. They were darting out to catch the hatch. I knew this would make a single spread. Bird and prey. I then made a few images I thought would be useful for my “Photo Fiction” piece. The river stones with feet and camera. I ended up not using them but they work here as a detail reference more than anything else. That many exposed stones means one thing: low water levels.

As a photographer, what did I do here? I experimented with angles and movement. I played with light. I focused on details, including textures, patterns, and fragments, rather than the whole. Most of all, I made pictures.

I then went back to the birding and nailed a nutcracker fighting off an attack from a red-tailed hawk. Thank you Nikon autofocus. I made a total of about four birding images that will work as part of an ongoing New Mexico project. Early the next morning, I hiked up above camp. On the way up, the light was hard as it crested the ridge line, and this is when I made the pinecone image. I like this image a lot, but it’s too small to read well. Live and learn. Would I display this image as something grand, or something I would convince others to like? Hell no. It’s just a snap. It’s about light and form, that’s it.

Being a Photographer in Any Environment

I did that morning hike with two cameras and two lenses. If you have to remind yourself you have a camera with you, most likely, you are out of practice. Try returning to the idea that every environment is a good environment. Don’t overthink it. Just shoot. I need to remind everyone that these are not finished spreads. Not even close. Five minute sketches. Training. Columns are the wrong width, picture sizing is off, but I do like the “en foco” run vertically on all spreads, and I do like the spread with the bird on the left and the hatch on the right. Simple, clean, etc.

[Blurb suggestion: don’t have multiple cameras in your pack? Start with your phone and follow some advice about how to take better photos with it]

When night fell, I knew I wasn’t done with the photography. The night sky was off the charts. Just sitting and taking it all in was worth the trip. I felt the need to try to make something interesting, knowing that unless a UFO suddenly appeared I wasn’t going to rewrite history here, but again, that’s not the point. YOU SHOOT. My friend said, “I didn’t know you brought a tripod.” I replied, “I didn’t.” “I propped the camera on Amy’s makeup bag.” I shot four frames total. I like this because you can see the movement of six different objects in the sky. Is this a portfolio image? No, of course not.

Why Subject-Driven Projects Matter

If you are asking yourself, “Well, these are fine but what are you going to DO with them,” you need to spend some time away from being “connected.” Forget about photography for a minute and think about a multi-week, clean break from anything online. You don’t NEED to DO anything with these pictures. The audience does not exist. The audience plays no part in this little game, and if you aren’t a full-time, working photographer and you are still asking me or anyone else “Yes, but now what?” then you might be in need of a serious detox. To me, that is an unhealthy way of looking at photography, or any creative pursuit. Perhaps this is why many photographers are so unhappy, overly competitive, self-centered…

People, this is fun. Or you should try to make it so. I’ve said this many times over the last few months. These are self-imposed challenges to improve ourselves and our work. If you are looking for an immediate payoff, you’ve already lost. So, relax. Enjoy. Keep your work front and center in your mind, not an imagined audience. Know that any spot is a good spot. Strive for contentment without complacency. Celebrate the successes, learn from the mistakes. Each new day is a new opportunity. Personal and creative growth should be central to the journey.

One final note. If you are thinking of beginning a project, keep this idea in mind: don’t make the project about yourself. Make the project about something or someone else. A community, a history, an environment, a tradition. There are so many artist-focused projects today. In fact, I would say it’s running at nearly eighty percent. Instead of another artist-driven project, do a subject-driven project—and see what comes of it.

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This blog is adapted from a post on Milnor’s creative (and personal) diary, Shifter Media.
Looking for more advice? Read more about how you can Use Pictures to Tell a Story.
Hoping to get your photos off your hard drive and out into the world? We’re here to help. Blurb Photo Books offer you a wide array of tools and formats to help bring your projects to life.