Another important aspect of creativity is problem solving, or in other terms, creative thinking. Your ability to problem solve allows you to bring your creative vision to life. I use my imagination to envision an image, and often the next step is figuring out how to make it happen. Some problem solving is as simple as planning a trip during the right time of year, getting to the exact spot for the angle you want. You are using creative thinking to plan your itinerary and produce your image. Other times problem solving might involve technical aspects of image creation like what lens to use or how to light a shot.
Here is an example of creative thinking and problem solving. I’ve spent my last 35 summers photographing bears in Alaska. Most years I teach workshops, some years I get hired by Alaska tourism to photograph bears for brochures to advertise traveling to the state. I love photographing bears, I just can’t get enough. I think about bear photography a lot, how can I create something different from the thousands of bear images I already have. Each year I head down to Lake Clark and photograph bears clamming on the beach. Thinking about it, I realized this situation offered something special. This image wasn’t going to be about bear behavior (which is really interesting…ie clamming bears). I imagined a sunrise bear at super soft depth of field surrounded by warm colors and ethereal elements. A bear in a sea of orange almost floating in space. Turning on my problem solving, this meant a few things had to happen. First, be on the beach at sunrise with bears and a low tide so the bears would be walking in the tidal area. Next, to create the ‘floating in space’ concept I needed a telephoto lens with very shallow depth of field…I chose my 400mm F2.8 for the job. Shooting at full frame F2.8 creates incredible bokeh and separation. Using imagination, and problem solving, last summer I got lucky and everything came together. A bear floating across warm soft bokeh balls reflected in the tidal pools at sunrise…
Some images are about problem solving technical lighting concepts. I was hired by a magazine to do a story on film noir photography, and they needed an opening image for the piece. We scouted and found a great alley, we just needed to figure out how to light it. We hired two models, and set things up so the front female model would hold the viewers attention, but there would be a hint of mystery and danger by illuminating a man in a trench coat out of focus in the background. We used multiple lights and high speed sync for the shallow depth of field, challenges we problem solved until we got the lighting right. Interestingly, I wanted the model to be smoking a cigarette, but she refused to smoke (who can blame her, I wouldn’t smoke either!). So we gave her an unlit cigarette and added smoke in photoshop after the shoot (image at top of post).
I had imagined photographing a kayaker in the middle of a rapid for a long time. Not a view from the shore, but what would it be like to be in the middle of the rapid getting buried in waves while the kayaker surfed in a hole. This shot required a lot of creative thinking and problem solving. First, we had to find a location we could do this. I found a whitewater section that had a couple of holes, one the kayaker could surf in, and the other I could try to grab a rock and shoot from! Then we needed to add lights to add pop and contrast to the whitewater. So we set up large 1200 watt strobes on the beach to fire at the kayaker. Next, we needed an underwater housing that could trigger the flashes on shore. Finally, I needed a full wetsuit and hood to endure swimming in a snow melt river. It all came together one afternoon producing one of my favorite kayaking images.
Problem solving is very important in the creative process. Creative thinking brings your vision to reality.