The Creative versus the Personal

I’ve learned from my many years as a photographer that there are two distinct sides to my work. One side is the creative and the other side is the personal. I’ll explain.

Let’s take the family vacation as an example. The long cross-country drive has all of the family members packed into the station wagon on the road to that fabulous destination. The trip is going take me to some gorgeous landscapes. And when I arrive, my creative juices are screaming to photograph the vistas that I’ve been dreaming about for what seems like forever. But hold on! What’s also tugging at me is the family – remember this is a family vacation.

After sitting in the car for days, my wife and the kids are bored. They’re ready to run through the woods, jump in the lake, cook around the campfire. They don’t want to watch me set up my equipment, check the lighting and carefully compose. Can you sense the inherent conflict that divides my attention between the creative me and the family me?

As I was looking through some photos recently, I am reminded of this split personality. Take the two photos below. On the left is a snapshot of the Grand Tetons at the foot of Jenny Lake, nicely frame with foliage in the foreground. On the right is one of our daughter at the same location from the late 1990’s. Simply put, the one on the left is from my creative side; it’s a nice landscape but I vaguely recall the occasion.

a snapshot of one of the gorgeous peaks in the Grand Tetons as viewed from Jenny Lake, from 2006

a snapshot of our youngest daughter taken from about the same location, from 1999

On the other hand, the snapshot on the right is very memorable even though it was more than ten years ago. I can relate to many of details of this vacation – where we were standing, how we tiptoed on the shoreline rocks, the chill of the water on our bare feet, the gentle breeze coming from the mountains. So which one of these two photos is my favorite? The personal one of course.

Below is another set of photos that further explain my creative / personal split.

a picturesque view of Emerald Bay on Lake Tahoe showing the majestic trees along the rugged shoreline

a snapshot of my wife taken from a close-by vantage point with Emerald Bay in the background

While I’m sometimes driven to explore the creative side to my photography, I find that the personal side carries much more meaning. What about you?