I go out for a walk each day from variety of reasons. First and foremost, it’s for the physical exercise (for me, at this time in my life, walking and health are intimately related).
I also use my walks as mental exercise. I always have a podcast ready to go, and I see my walks as a time to learn.
But there is one final purpose to my walks: creative exercise. With an iPhone 13 Max Pro in my pocket, I have a portable camera that photographers from just two decades ago couldn’t even imagine having available to them instantly: creativity on demand, so to speak.
For example, in the picture of a building shown above, seen during a recent city walk, I saw and subsequently captured two things: a pattern and a boundary.
Then, when editing the original image at home (which was initially in color and had much larger borders) I was able to use my guiding creative force: always move towards simplicity (which in this case required me to crop out all non-pattern elements around the building, and then convert to black and white, playing with editing software’s intensity, neutrals, tone, and grain settings to get the final image I wanted).
Now, I’ll grant you this photo isn’t a masterpiece—I certainly won’t be submitting it for any awards, nor will it warrant printing on paper. But it is a well-crafted photo, it does capture my photographic voice, and it is a solid, creative flex.
Not bad for a one hour walk and a five minute creative burst.