Not all ideas work. But ideas that failed, do not mean failure. Not all ideas turn out as good as you hoped. And it can be incredibly hard to bring visions to life. Feeling demoralised and heartbroken is only half the battle when they don’t turn out as you imagined, the other half is continuing to create and not giving up on yourself.
Part of the creative process and being creative is trial and error. It’s finding what works, and what works for you. Everyone has a different process, but it’s never easy. Even when you try and copy ideas, or make your own – it doesn’t mean they’ll automatically work. But if you try, and fail, all you’ve done is found a way not to do something. That doesn’t mean the idea won’t work or is impossible, it just means that it didn’t work that way or that day.
There will always be different ways to do things, and some people will find the answer quickly, while it may take others a while. No matter the way you work, put the fail under your belt and use it as progress. Keep pushing on, and keep trying.
Remember art is whatever you want it to be.
So in solidarity with my fellow creatives, here’s an ode to many of my ideas that I’ve tried, and failed, and some of the shots that came along the way.
Bergen, Norway: Honestly I can’t even remember what my goal was here, but I made a beautiful city look very old because I didn’t check my camera settings so had to bump up the grain to make it look “artsy”.
I’ve seen people take cool portraits through windows where they end up a little blurry. Mine ended up entirely blurry with a beautiful reflection of the tree behind me.
I was supposed to be creating cool shapes and depth of field with my hands… it didn’t last long.
I thought a black background would work for my portraits, and with the white shirt, it wasn’t the worst. You should have seen the other outfits though. I looked like a badly cut out character thrown on a black background.
Again, tried to copy something I had a scene and turn some of my photos into polaroids… I still love the pictures, but completely scrapped the idea!
Cologne Cathedral: I am not cut out for architectural photography, I am always taking wonky photos and then trying to recover in edit!
If you want to follow my journey @isaaccoxphoto (Twitter) or @isaaccox (Instagram) or get in touch and plan your boudoir shoot today!
