Digital Photography has the power to bring out the creative streak in us all

In psychological circles it’s long been recognised that there is a strong creative streak in us all. Society, and the often limiting demands on those around us, quite regularly quash these urges by failing to understand this simple truth. But the expression of this inherent creativity can create an outlet which has the power to make people feel more positive about their lives and can help us all relight an indvidualism that the western world quite often tries to extinguish.

Unfortunately many people grow into adulthood thinking that “creative” is something that only those with education, money or an “arty” background can afford to get into. Even worse, they often think that all creative expression require a natural talent along with great skills learned over many years.

Certainly, a sculptor needs to be taught about all types of stone and other hard materials and the effect that different tools have; a painter needs to know the qualities of various painting methods and how they apply to various surfaces; even a seamstress needs to have an intimate knowledge of threads, needles and materials before a quality piece of clothing can be produced.

There is one area of creative expresession where a wide skill base is not required however and that area is Digital Photography. Anyone can be creative with a digital camera and get good results, immediately. To get great results may take a little more time and training.

Whatever way you take your shots, using the automatic settings, or through the more complicated manual ones, the power of digital means that you have to spend less time worrying about how the shot is going to turn out and more time concentrating on the composition of the final shot.

I truly believe that Digital Photography has democratised creativity. The fact that the sales of digital cameras has exceeded the sales of film cameras for many years simply underlines this view.