Why ‘Happy Snappin' Can Stimulate Your Creativity
Smartphone photography on a whim, can nurture your vision and creativity.
I lead a relatively normal life, probably like many of you. Every day I have a list of tasks to do for my business which might include corresponding with clients, bookkeeping, organizing my photo files, processing images, but ALWAYS some kind of marketing. So, with all those tasks, what’s missing?
Photographing!
When you run a photography business you will quickly learn that running your business is essentially an administrative job that requires a good chunk of your time. That’s the bummer because we all want to be out photographing. That’s why we are photographers!
Some days I am just stuck in the office so one thing I started doing years ago, was get out of the office for one hour and walk or go for a hike and more specifically, do some Happy Snappin’ while out exercising and to keep my creativity nurtured.
Huh, you wonder!
It is simply quick and spontaneous photography without the burden of a pack full of DSLR equipment. Many of us already photograph with a smartphone in normal life but what about doing it as part of your business? There are stock photo agencies specific to smartphone photography and I belong to Stockimo. And I have made some money.
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You can apply most of your intuition and photographic technique used with DSLR photography, to your created endeavors with a smartphone. There are a few exceptions, like studio photography with strobe lights might be more of a challenge. Most phones today have high-resolution cameras for creating image files that are large enough for publishing.
For a few winters, I took my office with me in our RV and would spend a few months in Arizona hiking to old mines, capturing Saguaro cactus, and anything I could find in the desert.
This detailed photo of cracked mud was captured while walking near the Colorado River in Yuma, AZ. The fun part was this cracked mud was inside the fence of a storm runoff-holding pond, that was dried out. I used all the lines and curves to create a composition that leads the viewer’s eye through the photo.
Or a pattern and texture image of a slab of rock in the Arizona desert, known for its amazing geology.
Here is a happy snap of Ocotillo in bloom. All images seen here were processed in the app Mix as part of that process. But any of these files sent to Stockimo don't have the processing due to most stock photo agencies prefer images that the customer can develop as they see fit.
Even the grocery store is a great location for creative images. While my wife shops, I pretend to be helpful while also looking for fun images like this image of Romanesco or the nicely arranged vegetables that create a symmetrical design.
On a trip to Belize for a month, I did not even take my DSLR and instead relied on the iPhone and I had a blast creating images.
From this awesome design detail of a yellow house to the dock with yellow chairs and metal palm trees, to perfectly laid out palm fronds from the hotel gardener.
Then there is what I call The Little Tree That Tried. While I have no idea if this is a tree or shrub, it was laying in the road in San Pedro, Belize, and had been run over by golf carts a million times and this was the result. I walked by and then stopped, thinking there is a photo there so I walked back and captured it.
And here is an oil stain on wet pavement, that I captured while crossing a parking lot. I processed the image to pop out and I titled it Hurricane Pennzoil. Haha!
And even the neighbor’s garden has worthy subjects for your happy snappin' efforts.
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It really matters not what you photograph. The idea behind going out and Happy Snappin' is to photograph all the time, daily if you can, and in some form or another. It keeps you motivated, nurtures your creative vision, and just might result in some truly amazing images.
So, carry that smartphone or a camera with you and always keep an eye out for great subjects.
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