“Inspiration and creativity, they ride right next to one another…Not everyday are you going to wake up, the clouds are gonna part and the rays are gonna come down…sometimes you gotta just get in there and force yourself to work and maybe something good will come out of it.”
-Jack White on creativity. From a great documentary called Under Great White Northern Lights.
My take? You must take a picture every day. Maybe something good will come out of it.
[***Update: if you like this, then you'll want to take a peek at "Talent is nothing without Focus & Endurance" over at my Google+ page. Love to be in your circle there...]
TRuth! Photography should be a passion. You should be motivated to get up, take your camera with you, big or small, and take pictures. Things that you find beautiful, or things that inspire you. Truth.
Chase, bravo. That’s the simplest, most often-forgotten piece of advice out there. Yes, maybe I’ll take 10 photos today and non of them will be mind-blowingly awesome. But If I take a handful of photos every day for a month, more than likely I’ll have captured a moment I’m proud of and maybe even find it’s way into my portfolio
Mr. White says it well. Thanks for posting this inspirational video.
PS – Looking forward to you sharing a few of your fav Drive entries.
A lot of people say he’s full of it, I say he IS a creative genius. The fact that he works so hard and keeps creating new sounds it maybe what annoys some people (who’d rather he stuck to the same old thing and not be such a show-off).
creativity, is the manifest of your conscious… But sometimes u’ll need to force yourself to do things. He just know that the hard work is gonna pay the bills, and at the end of day he just love what he does. I remember on an interview you (chase) had with Penny de los Santos, she said “never forget about the LOVE of doing something, whether he like it or not, he just Loves doing it. he knows FOR REAL THAT SOMETHING GOOD WILL COME OUT OF IT!
I love this DVD. He also uses a cheap toy guitar and moves stuff around on the stage so it’s harder to get too. He really likes to challenge himself.
Like Edison said, genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. You just gotta work at it. Period.
“Photography is 10 % inspiration and 90 % moving furniture.” Or something like that.
“Deadlines and things make you creative.” Damn that’s so true. #gettingshitdone
,,Restrict and you will create,…. if you want to” many times we all fail to see that. Great vid thanks for posting.
Great advice, thanks for sharing.
On a similar note, I’ve got a question. What are some strategies for staying creative in the midst of a static environment? I’ve got a change to do some photography for the next couple of months, covering much of the same types of things during that time. How do you stay creative when it feels like you’ve been shooting the same shots again and again? How do you reinvent your eye and start looking for different shots?
Thanks for the help. I look forward to taking that one shot every day.
challenge yourself. limit your options. just one lens, black and white, only tight shots, etc etc. you’ll find it helps
Correction on the quote above…
Inspiration and *work ethic* (not creativity) they ride right next to one another.
This reminds me of a TED Talk that I try to think about every day that helps me tune in and show up to do the creative work I do. Here’s the link: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html
Some very interesting points he said, cant agree more with him.
Something I find quite fun, whilst making me more creatively supple, is to load up my iPod with some music I’m in the mood for (probably Jack White!) and then head out to an area nearby for walk. Every-time a song changes, I stop and force myself to ‘see’ and take a shot, no matter where I am…I can’t move into another position, or skip….I have to shoot. It gets quite interesting…
@Rob: A quote I live by in shooting difficult stuff: “The interval is where the action is.” – McLuhan.
A creative thinking trick is to try ‘vuja de’ – seeing old things in brand new ways:
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/fast-company-staff/fast-company-blog/anthropologists-pursuit-vuja-de
Thanks for the clip!