Day 4 of Project.30 was about going behind the scenes. Not the curated kind. The real one.
Two days ago, I did a small shoot. Nothing complicated. One speedlight mounted and controlled with a trigger. I wanted a greenish tone, so I improvised. I grabbed that green plastic bag from the Tusker Lite Marathon pack and placed it over the light to tint it.
Canon EOS R100. One light. One idea. Adapt.
The final images? Clean enough. To a photographer, you can tell it wasn’t a high end studio production. There are tells. The quality of the light, the way shadows fall, the slight unevenness that comes from working fast and functional instead of slow and methodical. But to most people, it just looks like a decent photo. Some might even assume it was taken on a phone with a good filter.
And that’s the point.
People see results. Creatives live in process.
Behind every “simple” photo is adjustment. Testing. Improvising. Moving light by inches. Trying again. Accepting that the first idea may not be the best one. Accepting that sometimes the setup doesn’t cooperate, that the rain starts, that you’re working on a day that feels like a vacation and you can’t do as much as you wanted.
Creativity is rarely linear.
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, known for his work on flow, explains that creative work exists in a tension between skill and challenge. You stretch. You experiment. You respond. It’s dynamic, not mechanical. The magic people see in finished work is actually friction made visible. The mess that happened before the frame was captured, compressed into something that looks effortless.
And iteration is normal. Expected, even.
In design thinking, rapid prototyping is standard practice. You test fast, adjust fast, refine. The first version is almost never the final version. Filmmakers, photographers, designers, all of us iterate whether we admit it or not. We just don’t always show it because finished work is easier to defend than work in progress.
But improvisation, especially, is underrated.
Jazz musicians understand this deeply. They work within structure but adapt in the moment. In filmmaking and photography, constraints force similar creativity. No colored gel? Use what’s around you. A Tusker Lite Marathon cup bag works. No studio? Shape light where you are. No second chance because the rain is coming? Work faster.
Resourcefulness sharpens instinct. Limitations clarify priorities.
There’s also something psychologically powerful about showing the mess. It demystifies the craft. Research in social psychology shows that people connect more strongly with creators who display vulnerability and process, rather than only polished perfection. Transparency builds trust. Perfection can feel alienating. Process feels human.
When people only see final outcomes, they assume effortlessness. They think you just woke up talented, that the work materializes without struggle. When they see the process, the improvisation, the plastic bag over the speedlight, they understand the craft. They see that skill is applied problem solving, not inherent magic.
So what can you take from this practically?
Embrace improvisation. Tools are tools. Creativity is adaptability. A green plastic bag can do what a professional gel does if you understand light. The question is never “do I have the right equipment?” The question is “can I solve this problem with what I have?”
Normalize iteration. The first frame is rarely the best one. The first setup is rarely the final one. You adjust, reshoot, rethink. That’s not failure. That’s craft. Build time into your workflow for this. Expect it.
Show your process occasionally. Not every post needs to be polished. Behind the scenes content builds credibility and community. It shows other creatives that they’re not alone in the struggle. It shows clients that your work involves thought, not just button pressing.
Detach from perfection. A technically imperfect image can still communicate powerfully. Perfection is about standards that serve the work, not standards that block it. If the image does what it needs to do, it’s done. Move forward.
Accept the messiness. Sometimes it rains. Sometimes you’re on vacation and can’t do as much as you planned. Sometimes the setup doesn’t cooperate and you have to try again or let it go. That’s not unprofessionalism. That’s reality. Work within it instead of waiting for ideal conditions that may never arrive.
Behind the scenes content is not about lowering your standards. It’s about revealing that standards are achieved through movement, not magic. Through trying things that don’t work until you find the thing that does. Through plastic bags and speedlights and shooting in windows of time between rain showers.
A single light. A plastic bag. A camera. And the willingness to experiment.
That’s how most work actually happens. Not in controlled studios with perfect conditions. But in moments where you figure it out with what you have.
That’s Day 4.
Tomorrow, we keep building.
twinomugisha | 2026
