Photography and the Creative Process

My Autumnal Garden: Thoughts on My Creative Process

My autumnal garden stands out in the neighborhood: an explosion of color standing 7 feet tall — the height of the Cosmos blossoms. Yet some of my other flowers have wilted, leaving seed heads that I pick and place in a jar for planting next spring.

My autumnal garden is a metaphor for my creative process. I had been planning to submit a number of photographs — some of which stand out, like the Cosmos blossoms, as images in the Gatesman Photo Gallery— to a black and white photo contest. Like my garden, which is responding to the lack of summer heat, my ambitions respond to the lack of available funds and time [starving lawyer that I am — the photo contest requires a submission fee and time to prepare the images], and my intention to submit the photos suddenly stands, barren of petals, a mere seed head of potentiality.

Like the flower seeds I have placed in a jar, these seeds of potentiality carry the promise of a new garden. No sooner do I screw shut the lid on the mason jar when images of a new forum — a new garden of creativity, if you will — rise up in my imagination.

This weblog is my new garden. Welcome!