The Challenge: 30 days of images of my dogs Huxley and Squid.

The Rules:

1. Will contain one or both of the dogs.
2. Will be a photograph.
3. One photo posted to flickr and my blog per day.

There are so many reasons I have given myself this challenge. First is so that I make sure I am working everyday, at this point it is important to me to keep busy and remain focused on photography. Other reasons include inspiration from “the show” with zefrank, cute with chris with chris leavins and competitions like whiskerino. There is something exciting about challenging myself with a single subject, and finding the limits of creativity within that subject. (oops I may have just raised the bar too high)

For me the great challenge in being creative is the blank paper, the limitless possibilities ahead of us before that first mark. The only way to control that kind of power is to lay down some rules. At first it is good to start with something really restrictive such as; only photographing gerber daisies, in color, outside at noon. After awhile the rules become less important and the process of creating is allowed to take over and hopefully it becomes less work and more fun. However, the power of that void can scare the shit out of you and a great way to break out of any creative blocks you might run into is just make up a new set of rules and get going.

That is why zefrank, chris leavins and the whiskerino crowd inspire me so much. They are each modern day muses that direct the masses and set up easy to follow parameters where creativity rules.

Making things will always be the easiest part of the creative equation. The real work is just getting started.

What are your favorite creative rules?