I'm currently enjoying the free wireless internet access available in the Ft. Lauderdale airport on my way up to Cedar Point in Cleveland, OH to ride insanely fast roller coasters with Cat and Bryan. On the plane today I was pondering filmmaking, and considering experimenting with it. I have the equipment and software needed and know how to do basic editing. When I started considering what I might make, I realized a big difference between filmmaking and photography that's probably obvious to everyone else; filmmaking is often fictional, where you create a story and have the actors interpretit. In contrast, photography (or at least, the kind that I tend to engage in) tends to be nonfiction; finding pretty things and capturing them. I might pose the person I'm shooting with, but the photo is still meant to be a photo of the person, not a character. One of the few times I actually came up with a concept and asked people to act it out was the My Arms, Your Hearse shoot. And those are some of the few photos of mine that I actually really like.

I think that's a big reason why photography feels less creative to me. You can still express creativity through this "nonfictional" photography, but you've got far fewer dimensions to work with; lighting, composition, setting, pose. It's like trying to satisfy your hunger by eating quenepas. Most of it is fixed and you can't do much with it, so you're limited to the outer little bit. The analogy works, shut up.

Anyway, I think I will try some more of this "fictional" photography next time I shoot with someone. It might do nothing but make it even more apparent how sadly lacking I am in creativity, but I think it'd be fun to try. I just wish I'd had this revelation a week ago when I had Andrés and Amy and Meg there. Of course, Andrea and Michelle are now in PR and will be there for 4 months, so I can probably convince them to work with me on stuff. But having a guy available as well, and someone I'm comfortable with, would be handy and provide more options. Shooting the My Arms set was fun and easy because I know both Andy and Amy so well and it just felt like friends hanging out, rather than models working with a photographer.