Keeping creative and motivated within the creative industry

By Jamie Hogan, Video Producer

My favourite method

Personally, my favourite method to find your creative edge is to try as many new things as possible, go as far as possible from your comfort zone and adapt to new situations and styles. Having a fresh approach and mindset to new things is what helps me keep going and keep creative and motivated.

My passion

My creative passion is photography and filming, which has greatly changed and adapted over time. To begin with I was always against using professional cameras, I always used phone cameras as it seemed like a faster option, but soon realised I was limited to what I could create. Although some great content has been created with phones, I wanted to explore different methods and avenues within digital cameras to learn new styles and produce a variety of high quality results.

My journey

I began my photography journey with climbing cranes and buildings that offered stunning city views and an escape from normal life, capturing unique and daring shots from places that most people will never experience. Although risky and dangerous, the achievement and adrenaline of reaching such heights was always worth it, and never seemed to get old.

My next step was portrait photography, building up my portfolio and working with a wide range of models, Youtubers and influencers, which adapted into other avenues such as clothing/fashion shoots, products and studio.

Networking and meeting new people allowed me to try a lot of new styles as different people wanted different things. From this I had experienced shooting for things like automotive, cinematics, YouTube, clothing, product, food, film, clothing and more! Each style being completely contrasted to the last, but taught me a lot about different styles and how to get the best results, but as always I wanted to do more.

Changing Mindset

I think over time my mindset within the creative industry changed massively. Starting out I wanted to create content that looked visually appealing, cool photos and videos. But currently I'm wanting to create content that leaves an impact and means something to people, a different meaning to different people.

I experimented a lot with self timer content and captured images of myself in creative locations. I want the content to be more portrayal style, abstract and artistic. Taking more time with each photo, getting it to perfection before releasing anything.

Since I wanted my content to have some impact on people, this had led to thinking a lot more about the planning and execution of each shoot, and has made me more excited to create.

Changing style

Starting out I always used Digital/DSLR cameras and edited to the modern style, which has so many possibilities and amazing avenues, but I wanted to try different stuff. I began using film style cameras or editing stuff to look more film/cinematic, which I now prefer a lot more as the whole look and aesthetic feels more appealing and relatable.

I think trying a variety of styles has helped with keeping creative.

Creating in your own space and company

As great as it is working with people, it can sometimes become stressy trying to organise shoots, dates, locations, making sure everyone is free. So to ensure I had the flow and control I began doing self portraits and self timer style content, all I needed was my camera, tripod, maybe some lighting and a cool location, which can be found with some exploration.

This means I can shoot my content whenever I like, get it exactly how I would like it to be, and not have to rely on anything else to create. This has helped massively in keeping creative and motivated having only myself to rely on.

Sometimes being on your own in your own space is all you need to think of ideas and work creatively, directing and having full control over everything.

Summary

Whether you’re a musician, artist, creator, writer or anything at all, I think a good method of regaining the creative touch and motivation is to stop relying on other people when creating art and content, enjoy your own space and creative mind, and have full control over the art you create to ensure you are enjoying it a lot more.

Additionally, leaving your comfort zone frequently to adapt to new styles and situations, constantly learning and trying new things, even if at first it may not be for you, it's good to have all the knowledge and skills possible.

Along the way new people will be met and your work will mean a whole lot more, having more thought been put into it.