Creative Focus

The Flickr group is slowly but surely growing in members and in images, which excites me more than I can say. When the group has 50 members (and we are 21 away) I will assign the first Creative Challenge topic so I've been spending time considering the subject I'll choose. That in turn got me thinking about the term Creativity in general. Especially since one lady I've spoken with this weekend wasn't sure if she had anything 'good' enough to submit to the group.

What is 'good creativity', anyway? The definition of creativity is: "the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination".

My cousin and I discussed a similar topic last week and she stated that nothing is new or original anymore. Everything has 'been done'. Perhaps she is at least partially right. However, my definition of creativity is this: Creating, if not new, then perhaps, out of the box ideas. Even if something similar has been done, being creative means to me that I was able to put my own spin on it. No one sees things exactly as I or as you do. Creativity is essentially expressing YOUR view ... of anything. That definition makes me smile.

So while I'm talking about creativity, let me draw your attention to a few prime examples of what it means to put your own spin on something common.

This image was taken by a fellow Kentuckian and it says "CREATIVE" to me.

Yes, the idea is completely original to Sean; he came up with it himself. But furthermore it shows creativity because this subject is something we all see everyday, yet this is the way Shawn saw it. I look in the rear view mirror, see the side of the car and think it needs to be washed. Shawn looks in the rear view mirror and sees the entire picture, musing at the way his brain tricks him into seeing 'through' the mirror. Creativity, folks; HIS spin on it.

And here is another creative idea from Kristiina. She decided to shoot through a magnifying glass as a form of

a macro lens and ended up with this amazingly beautiful image:

 

Now there is an inspiring idea if I ever heard one. She has my applause.  

The rest of us may not be able to come up with ideas quite as original as these two examples, but we can still enjoy putting our own spin on things. And we can enjoy searching the common things throughout our world to find the beauty in them. Then we can capture it. That is my kind of creativity. 

(Don't forget to visit and comment each artist by clicking the images.)

Hope you have an inspired week!