Creative Sunday Practice #9

Sometimes the simplest objects end up teaching you the most. This week’s creative practice is built around something sitting on nearly every kitchen table: salt & pepper.

If you’re looking for a quick way to train your eye and stretch your creative muscles, set aside ten minutes at home and explore what these two everyday shakers can become through your smartphone camera. You don’t need a big idea to begin. Just curiosity and a bit of playfulness.

Where to Start

Here are a few entry points to spark your first shots:

Contrast play: Use the natural black-and-white relationship between the two.

Macro textures: Get close and study salt crystals and pepper grains.

Mini worlds: Turn pepper into a mountain and salt into snow.

Table scenes: Photograph the shakers next to your meal and experiment with depth of field.

As with all these weekly exercises, the goal isn’t perfection. It’s about noticing small visual opportunities in ordinary objects and learning what your mobile camera can do when you push it a little.

How One Idea Took Shape

When I experimented with salt & pepper photography at home, I imagined a rocket launch and built a simple, playful composition around that idea. One shaker became the “rocket,” and the mix of salt and pepper acted as the drifting exhaust cloud.

I’m sharing both the final image and a behind-the-scenes setup so you can see how straightforward it is to start. Sometimes the concept looks complex, but the actual setup is surprisingly minimal.

Why This Practice Matters

These quick at-home exercises are meant to be small, repeatable training sessions. One object. One idea. A handful of minutes. That’s all it takes to slowly strengthen your creative eye and build confidence with your smartphone camera.

Salt and pepper are only a starting point. Let the experiment take you somewhere unexpected.

New Here?

This article is part of a weekly ritual designed to help you notice beauty in everyday objects and build a consistent smartphone photography habit at home. Each week features a new simple object and a handful of creative directions to try. Feel free to explore the previous prompts for more ideas to practice with.