My Process: Behind-The-Scenes Peek

Can’t believe it’s already time to kick off my 8th 365 Project. This year, I’m going to do Weekly Themes. However, some of you wonder how I come up with the ideas that fuel my project for a whole year? Well, here’s a behind-the-scenes peek at my process….

Step 1: Brainstorming

Taking an hour or so, one day a month, I come up with as many ideas as possible for the weekly or monthly theme. It also helps to think of themes I can reasonably do in 7 days (or a month). Then, it’s time to schedule them to a month. As you can see, haven’t scheduled the entire year. Sometimes ideas come to me later, while I’m doing something else or as a month gets closer.

Here’s the biggest secret: bouncing theme ideas off of Fred the Frog while enjoying some candy really helps get my brain going.

Step 2: Scheduling

After brainstorming, it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty by scheduling individual photos for the month to my Google Calendar. As you can see, I’ve scheduled “My Process” for this week, then a “Spoons Week,” and then a “Forks Week.”

Truly admire many of you who can take a photo each day on a whim. Unfortunately, that just doesn’t work for me. I must have a schedule. Didn’t have one for the 1st year and literally had times where I would be in my room staring at the wall trying to come up an idea. Haha. That was rough. Still have creative blocks from time to time, but a lot less thanks to my themes and schedule.

Also this isn’t set in stone. Sometimes new ideas come to me or I’ll switch things around to a more convenient day. Sometimes I even get to choose from more than one idea for the day.

Step 3: Inspiration

Above, I talked about how scheduling is important for me in keeping my project going. So it might seem strange that I’m now showing you a picture of a mess…but it’s my perfect mess. 🙂

This is one of the ways I get inspired! I keep all of these toys, crafts, knick-knacks & doodads inside my Inspiration Box. Sometimes, just looking at them gives me ideas.

But I have an even bigger “Inspiration Box” online. I love searching for creative photos on Google Images and Pinterest. Even looking back at my favorites and followers on 365 can get me inspired. Sometimes I challenge myself to learn how a certain photographer created a photo by trying to replicate it myself with my own spin. Other times, my brain is sparked with new ideas just by looking at photographs I admire.

There’s another very important part of this process for me that I’ll discuss below. In the meantime, we’re all inspired by something different in our photography. Think about what inspires you?

Step 4: Imagination

Now we come to another important part of my process: Imagination. It’s probably safe to say we all use our imagination when taking photos. It’s that picture we make in our head before or while composing the shot.

While looking at my subject, I try to picture it in whatever colorful, familiar, or wacky way possible. No boundaries. If I’m having a hard time using my imagination for my very creative themes, I tell myself, “Think like a kid” or “What would kids do if they were playing with this or acting out this scene?” or “How would this subject behave if it were a cartoon?” (This is probably why my Inspiration Box contains so many kid-like items). Haha!

Using my imagination in this way, I’ve seen gummy bears with emotions, paperclips as people and a popsicle stick as…well…we’ll get to that below. In the meantime, what does your imagination see when you look at this lone popsicle stick? 🙂

Step 5: Creation

Above, I explained how imagination helps to fuel ideas for my photos. We used our imaginations on a popsicle stick. But guess what my imagination saw? A Superhero!!!

So now it’s time for the final part of my process: Creation (or setting up the scene). Grabbed some construction paper & googly eyes and made him a super cape & mask. Used markers to draw the logo and his winning smile. Then, took the shot. Doesn’t he look heroic? Meet Super Stick! 😀

My job isn’t done after taking the photo. I always post-process to make the photo look the way my mind saw it or better. Bumped up the saturation because I love making colors pop. Now he’s ready to save the day and the photo is ready to be shared with all of you.

Aaaaaand that’s a wrap. It was blast going over my process. Of course, I keep in mind that there’s nothing really new under the sun. Just saw on Google that many others have created Super Popsicle Sticks. But that’s okay…it was fun and this is my very own shot. More importantly, I’ve accomplished my overall goal: Trying my best to leave any who see my photos with a smile. 🙂