The creative process is a complicated issue that is most often hard to define in a sentence or two.

It is a compulsion.

An obsession really.

Inspiration is everywhere and nowhere. Ideas flicker in the mind's eye rapidly like a fast moving slideshow. Colors, shapes, textures, meaning, faces, emotions. Its a jumble of visual ideas constantly bombarding the creative's mind. All challenges we face on a daily, well even hourly basis. Harnessing those visions and transmitting them to a 2-dimensional surface while still maintaining the integrity is time consuming, frustrating and so very rewarding. Finding the methods in which to capture those visual masterpieces when only minutes, even seconds, are available is the gift rewarded to those who practice their craft daily. 

So how does this relate to your wedding or portraiture sessions?

For me it starts with inspiration that comes from you. I rarely photograph anyone without meeting them in person or via phone and with hopefully multiple communications through the process. While I had never been one to utilize Facebook and other social media till a couple years ago, I've found its an incredibly valuable resource for getting to know each other.

It's those silly little posts and comments we each make in our news-feeds that gives a clue to who we are, even if there is a wall of anonymity to it. Often reading between the lines a person's true persona is readable. 

Instant Messaging and texting is another great way to keep in communication and learn about each other. Because the more we know about each other, the more at ease we become. When we relax and trust one another that is when the creativity takes hold and from it emerges beautiful, moving photographs that tell YOUR story. Not someone else's. Not some pre-conceived, sameness that creates a cookie-cutter image of you, rather than the beauty that resides in your heart, mind and soul. It is not an easy task because many of us keep that side of ourselves well hidden from the outside world. Through fear or mistrust most often we hide what truly makes us shine. 

It is my job as a professional to reach deep and provide a single frame of a multi-facted moment that carries true meaning while eliciting emotion from the viewer. With today's equipment most people can 'take' a decent photo if the conditions are right. All of us have a creative side to our brain and love to show it through photographs, art, words or cinematography.

The real difference is probably two-fold. 

The difference between most, and I say most, photographers is not only their level of expertise and experience but also the ability to capture those special times in not only a technically perfect manner but artistically with a realness.

What makes one photograph stand out from another at the same event/moment? You've seen them. Lots of shots from friends at weddings, maybe the same angle as the professional who was hired. The difference, usually, is technical. The light. But the really great images are the ones that go a step further in the creative process whether through capture in camera and/or in post processing. Having a vision and knowing how best to capture it so it can be realized through the post production process is an artform in and of itself. There are those who excel at it like the masters and those who capture pretty photographs but they don't stand out against others because there is that little something missing. That something that you can't put words to but you recognize as soon as you see it. 

The creative process can be most rewarding for the artist and at the same time most difficult to pull off. Creating can never be about the money. It has to be separate. Almost a living, breathing thing that becomes tainted when money is the only reason for the existance of the art. Art and creativity come from the soul and heart. A little piece of an artist is left behind in every creation.

To be a true creative one must never rely on the past as motivation. True art is made through a connection to the subject. The artist becomes one with the moment, living it within and expressing it through their chosen method. 

It's a tricky path we creatives walk. Providing a product such as wedding memories in a truthful and unique manner all within a very short span of time and with our own little stamp of originality is a balancing act. Its easy to churn out beautiful images that all look the same. What's really hard is producing those images while representing you, the unique you, the one in a million you. That's the tricky part. 

For all creatives it is truly an obsession that drives them day and night, torments them in their sleep and provides many a sleepless night. We may look like we are doing nothing but I promise you - our minds never stop assimulating the world around us and balling it up into a special visual presentation. 

That's the best I can describe it. 

Below are a few photographs, one from a New Orleans wedding and the rest just art mostly created via my iPhone because its what I always have with me.

Art is everywhere. Give me a call if you want to step out of the sameness box and create lasting art that represents you as individuals and a new union. It's what I do.

Pamela Reed Photography 504-920-8703