Creative Sunday Practice #18
It’s easy to overlook small, everyday objects. They sit quietly on our tables or in drawers, unnoticed and unappreciated. But sometimes it’s exactly these ordinary items that can push your creative eye further than anything complex. For this week’s Creative Sunday Practice, I invite you to grab a handful of toothpicks and explore them with your smartphone camera.
The goal here isn’t to create a perfect photograph. It’s not about finding the “best” subject or the most striking composition. The goal is to observe, experiment, and respond. To notice what catches your eye and follow it, even if it seems insignificant at first.
Here are some ways to approach this week’s practice:
🪵 Scatter them and look for patterns.
Toothpicks can create accidental geometry, lines, and rhythms that you wouldn’t have planned. Notice where shadows fall, how they intersect, and how small shifts in placement can completely change the composition.
🪵 Build something that barely holds together.
Think of them like tiny construction materials. Stack them, lean them, balance them. The fragility adds a visual tension that can be surprisingly compelling on camera.
🪵 Isolate a single toothpick.
Give it space in the frame and let it stand alone. The emptiness around it can be just as important as the object itself.
🪵 Play with scale.
Move close, move far, tilt your camera. Watch how perspective transforms the simplest shapes.
🪵 Break, bend, or snap a few.
Observe how the broken lines create contrast and variety in the image. Small differences can become your visual story.
When I practiced at home, I treated toothpicks almost like a sculptural material rather than ordinary kitchen tools. The images I ended up with didn’t come from planning; they emerged as I moved around, changed angles, and responded to subtle shifts in light and arrangement. The process of observing first, then taking a photo, allowed me to notice details I would have otherwise overlooked.
This approach (pause, observe, adjust) is what makes these weekly exercises valuable. It trains a creative reflex. You learn to notice patterns, lines, and shapes in everyday objects, and over time, that awareness carries over into everything you photograph, whether at home or on assignment.
Take at least 10 minutes for this exercise. Don’t rush. Don’t aim for a final “perfect” image. Let the object suggest directions to you. Capture what surprises you. Respond to the small accidents that occur as you experiment. That’s often where the most interesting images come from.
Even a handful of toothpicks can teach you something about form, line, space, and composition if you approach them with curiosity. And when you see the potential in a simple object, it changes the way you see everything else around you.
I’ll be back next Sunday with another simple object to continue this practice and keep your creative eye active.
P.S. If this is your first time seeing one of these posts: welcome! Creative Sunday Practice is a weekly ritual I share to help people train their creative eye, improve smartphone photography skills, and build confidence by working with ordinary household objects. The goal is to notice, experiment, and see differently. Tap the tag above to explore previous prompts and join in anytime.