This Storytelling Technique Could Make Your Photography More Original!

I’ve just published my latest video: This Storytelling Technique Could Make Your Photography More Original. It’s hard to be original. To come up with your own unique creative ideas. That’s why so many of us take the same photos as everyone else. I’ve discovered a bit of a trick to avoid this trap. I use storytelling as a way to kickstart my creativity. In this video, I’m gonna break down photos from a recent shoot to try and explain exactly how storytelling makes me more creative.

I hope you find it interesting. 

If you want to watch me talk more about Storytelling, check out my free course.

A few months ago we had the opportunity to work with some traditional folkloric dancers.

Photographing a different side of Mexican culture is always really exciting for me. It’s a chance to explore a totally new world. And Folklorico is fascinating, it’s like a visual history book with every one of the 150 plus unique dances representing a different chapter in that book.

It’s also insanely popular in Mexico, so there are thousands of great photos already out there.

Which meant I was confronted with my typical pre-photoshoot fear:

How on earth do I create something different?

Thinking in stories makes the creative process waaaay more fun.

The act of creating something fromn nothing has always scared me. I‘ve never really felt like a creative person. Most of the time I felt more like an imposter. And the fear that came with that, froze me. I’d procrastinate, knowing that a new project would require making a thousand different decisions that I didn’t feel qualified to make.

Instead of looking within myself for inspiration, I looked entirely outside for ideas. And I created derivative and cliched photos. Photos without any heart.

Photos that looked like they’d been taken for a stock photography site.

I just didn’t trust myself to come up with good ideas, so I outsourced the entire creative process.

Storytelling changed that. It turns the focus inwards again. A story sits at the heart of a photoshoot because you have to run every decision through it. That adds focus and direction to the creative process.

Just to be clear, there’s nothing wrong with any of these photos. They’re all well lit, well posed, well composed. The problem is that I don’t find them interesting.

And if I take photos I don’t find interesting, why should anyone else care about them?

Storytelling adds that extra layer of visual interest!