Inspiration to Create

The difficult part for me about doing this blog, and probably always will be, is what do I type?  How in depth do I go with my thought process about why I pick a certain photo for the post?  Every now and then it is very easy because a photo has been chosen simply because it highlights my work.  A beautiful senior portrait, a happy family sharing time with me, special moments captured forever in time in the form of a photograph.  Then we photo's like the one for this post.  It is a creation that came to mind while photographing an event.  Two separate photo's blended together to create what I saw in my mind while shooting that day.  You may be sitting at your computer looking at it thinking "Alright, but I don't get it.  What is the importance of this?"  Well, for you it might not be.  For the client it might be the most important thing.  For me it is the statement about always working to create something special for the people that hire me to do work for them.  Even if their only request of me is to just do what you do.  

Why did I choose this photo to share on this post today?  The event was held a couple of weeks ago at a local gym to raise funds for Active Heroes WOD to end veteran suicide.  A great group of athletes came together to raise funds this cause.  Most of the photo's from that day show the sweat, the exhaustion, the friendship of the people cheering each other on to the end of the work out.  This was the second year for me shooting this event, and I hope to be a part of this one every year.  Last year the created photo was a circle of 22 pairs of boots surrounded by the athletes with their heads down.  This year...the ghosted images and reflections to represent those no longer here.  The thing is I didn't go to the event with this in mind that day, I had a different idea in mind which I will share also at the end of this post.  This one was as I shot photos that day, in my mind I started combining or creating this photo.  As soon as I got home and got the photo's downloaded I knew exactly what photo's I was looking for, and exactly what I wanted to do to create this picture.  The water for the reflections wasn't something that was added on purpose to capture the images, it just happened to there and trigger the inspiration for the entire idea. The ghosted images of the people were lined up for a picture for another reason entirely.  The lesson for me that day was, as a photographer you can plan out a shoot or a session as much as you want, but sometimes it is the unplanned that creates the most impact.  The other lesson...never ignore that inspiration.  

As stated here is the original idea that I had come up with for making a statement photo.  

Photography Tip: Don't just lock yourself into only one path or direction for a session.  Sometimes the best route is the one that you never even thought of.