Creativity journals are usually something private for photographers. Of course you have to have technical ability, but the photographers I admire most are being hired because they bring a seemingly bottomless well of ideas. So those ideas should be kept to yourself, right? You can't have other photographers make a living off of your grand/brilliant/hilarious ideas (otherwise you'd be an art director). They should be closely held so you can pull them out of your hat and wow the world (or at least your client).

However,I had a lot of ideas, all written down, and almost none of them realized. Then they were all lost. I had to ask myself what use are those ideas to me? Who am I keeping them from? I am not doing this for a living. I don't have days to plan shoot, budgets to pay for sets, or access to professional talent. I would love to be the one to realize every idea I have, to experiment with every crazy lighting or makeup idea I sketch (and, to be honest, to do so on someone else's dime). So why not free those ideas? Why not be an open source creative director? Why not set those ideas free?

To be honest it makes sense for some people to keep ideas to themselves. If I was David LaChappelle and I wanted to shoot Alek Wek in front of a house wrapped in pink saran wrap, I would probably not mention that to anyone. But that was not going to be me any time soon. Until a big break comes my way, that is not going to be the position I find myself in. I can have cool ideas and I can try to implement a hand full of them as time and resources permit in my busy life. However, what about all the other ideas? Wouldn't I rather see another photographer take my idea and create something cool, instead of it simply being locked away in my journal? (Besides, its much harder to accidentally leave this blog behind on an airplane)

This idea has been bouncing around my head for a while but with other projects, travel, etc., I just haven't gotten around to it. Yet during that time, things kept popping up that reinforced the idea for this blog (for example Chase Jarvis mentioned setting your ideas free in a list to "Shake Your Tree"). Well now is the time. Welcome to Open Source Photo Shoot.

-Tuffer