The Photographer’s Information to Breaking Your Personal Guidelines

After 25 years behind the digital camera, OM SYSTEM photographer Jerred Zegelis thought he knew the principles of pictures. Shoot RAW. Stay impartial. Fix it in put up. Art Filters are for amateurs. These weren’t strategies. For Zegelis, they have been regulation, absorbed from boards, tutorials, and years {of professional} behavior.

Then he invented a fictional city, shot a complete journey utilizing a filter he as soon as dismissed as tacky, and deliberately began to interrupt the principles. The Nebraska native calls the outcomes the most effective work of his profession.

Full disclosure: This article was delivered to you by OM SYSTEM

The pictures world is filled with guidelines that develop into invisible constraints. But what occurs when these guidelines cease serving your creativity? OM SYSTEM photographer Jerred Zegelis determined to problem his personal guidelines and he provides PetaPixel a glance into his new artistic mindset and the outcomes that it has produced.

“This has been the best year of photography I’ve ever had,” Zegelis says. “I finally stopped separating my emotions from my work and let them become part of what I create.”

Zegelis spent practically 20 years instructing highschool pictures in Nebraska earlier than burnout led to transitioning to full-time artistic work. At that pivotal second, he thought he understood what made {photograph}. Then he began questioning the whole lot he’d discovered.

“I used to shoot everything in RAW with the standard profile, planning to get creative in the edit later,” Zegelis explains. “However, I began to notice that there would be large batches of photos that I would never even look at to edit. I realized that my creativity was strongest in the moment, in the field. The creative editing started to feel like work. Then I started using the Creative Dial on the OM SYSTEM OM-3 and my creative approach feels different now. Seeing creative effects while I’m shooting changes what I notice in a scene, and it makes photography feel creative again.”

Zegelis says these seven ideas aren’t about gear or method. “They’re about giving yourself permission to create differently. They work regardless of whether you are photographing with an OM-3 or an iPhone.”

Tip 1: Dive Into a Project, Even a Fictional One

“Projects create containers for experimentation,” Zegelis begins. “When individual images serve a larger concept, I stop worrying about whether each shot “works” by itself. The venture provides me permission to discover.”

Zegelis took this concept to an excessive: he invented a fictional city known as North Hawk, Nebraska.

“North Hawk is a place that doesn’t actually exist,” he explains. “I photograph real locations, abandoned buildings, dirt roads, rural churches, and assign them invented histories. Mysterious incidents. Redacted reports. Cult rituals. I then use the Creative Dial on my camera or edit the photo on my computer to apply a creative style that adds to the story.”

Zegelis’ portfolio on Glass, the pictures platform, consists of sights from North Hawk and reads like subject experiences from a categorized investigation. The finish purpose is a gallery present known as “Investigations into North Hawk, Nebraska,” with pictures displayed alongside what he calls “artifacts of power.”

“Old rusty wrenches still covered in dirt, faded photographs with unidentified subjects, and yellowed documents with redacted text. These objects suggest something strange happened in this place,” Zegelis describes. “It has a sci-fi element, a mystery element. The whole thing becomes much more than a photography project: it’s a universe people can explore.”

“The creativity that my North Hawk project unlocked was unexpected,” he continues. “Every dirt road is a potential connection to another mystery. Every abandoned building has a story, one that I get to invent by utilizing my creativity.”

“This project connects with my 15-year-old self playing Dungeons and Dragons in the basement,” Zegelis displays. “Back then, creativity was unbridled and unlimited. We didn’t know the rules. We just made it up as we went.”

You don’t must invent a fictional city. But you do want a container in your experiments.

“Pick something that fascinates you and build a project around it,” Zegelis encourages. “It could be a color, a mood, a decade, a feeling. The specifics don’t matter. What matters is that you’re no longer just taking pictures. You’re building something. That shift changes everything.”

This method requires one factor: a digital camera you’ll even have with you. For Zegelis, the OM-3’s compact dimension means he’s at all times prepared when a venture alternative seems, whether or not that’s a deliberate shoot or an surprising discovery on a again street.

“Steal this idea,” he provides. “Create your own town, your own universe. Just start. The project will teach you what it needs.”

Tip 2: Commit to a Look Before You Shoot

“When I lock in an aesthetic before pressing the shutter, I start seeing differently,” Zegelis describes. “The ‘fix it later’ safety net disappears, which forces me to compose for my chosen look. Commitment changes perception.”

Zegelis discovered this throughout a piece journey to Marfa, Texas. He was struggling emotionally. His mom had not too long ago been recognized with most cancers, and he discovered himself unable to push the darkness apart the way in which he usually would on task.

“I shot all of my trip to Marfa on the OM-3’s Art Filter 16 with a border,” he recollects. “I was in a dark place, and that look just connected with me at that time, when normally, I might not have given that filter a second thought. Instead of fighting that darkness, I let it define my creative approach.”

That single decision changed everything. “I stopped trying to make ‘beautiful Texas photos’ and started photographing the strangeness: the surreal light, the isolation, the weird energy of the desert,” Zegelis shares. “I was able to connect with things I normally wouldn’t have, simply by seeing it through a different filter.”

“That commitment to that filter defined my entire vision of Marfa,” he states. “I have all these JPEGs I fell in love with that tied the whole trip together without any editing. I don’t care if anybody thinks it’s cheesy. It was an awesome experience for me, and that’s what matters.”

“That is why I love the OM-3’s Creative Dial,” he continues. “It makes this kind of commitment physical. Twist to your look before you even frame the shot. Color profiles, monochrome modes, Art Filters: they’re all one dial away. It’s harder to second-guess a decision I’ve already made with my hands.”

“Try it on your next shoot,” Zegelis suggests. “Pick one look, one profile, one filter, and commit to it for the entire session. Don’t give yourself an escape hatch. When you can’t fix it later, you start seeing with intention. The constraint becomes creative fuel.”

Tip 3: Embrace the “Gimmicks” You Once Dismissed

“The tools ‘serious’ photographers dismiss as gimmicks, such as filters, borders, grain, and heavy color grades, might be exactly what unlocks your creativity,” Zegelis says. “Your audience isn’t other photographers. It’s everyone else.”

“I used to be the guy who thought Art Filters and borders were gimmicks,” he admits. “I’d look at those features and think only an amateur would use that stuff. I shot everything neutral, planning to fix it in post. That was the ‘professional’ approach, right?”

Then got here Marfa.

“Those gimmicks became my creative breakthrough,” Zegelis acknowledges. “And I pushed even further. I twisted the Creative Dial to Color Creator and pushed it to 100% red. It saturated everything with this ethereal tone, like something from another planet or a movie. I would never have thought to edit them that way in post. The in-camera look revealed possibilities I couldn’t have imagined if I didn’t see the result right there in front of me in real time.”

“My audience is not other photographers,” Zegelis insists. “Show my Marfa photos to 99% of people on the planet and they’ll say ‘that’s pretty cool.’ Only photographers ask ‘is that an in-camera filter?’ There are so many gatekeepers in this world. I’ve stopped trying to impress them.”

“That’s what I love about the OM-3’s Creative Dial,” Zegelis explains. “It’s right on the front of the camera with four positions: MONO for monochrome profiles, COLOR for film-inspired color profiles, ART for filters and borders, and CRT for Color Creator. I can see the creative effect before I press the shutter. When I twist to Color Creator and push the saturation toward red, I’m not guessing what it might look like later. I’m seeing it. And that changes how I compose and what I notice around me that I might have missed otherwise.”

The RAW file stays untouched, so the security web remains to be there when you want it. But Zegelis says the purpose is to cease needing it.

“Make a list of the features or tools you’ve dismissed as gimmicks,” Zegelis suggests. “Then spend a day using nothing but those tools. Shoot for the 99% who just want to feel something when they see your work. You might surprise yourself. When you stop ‘following the rules’, you start feeling creative again.”

Tip 4: Shoot From Meaning, Not Just Moment

“When I started to connect photography to personal memory, emotion, or significance, flat scenes became portals,” Zegelis recollects. “I stopped trying to capture ‘pretty’ and started photographing what I was remembering and feeling at that moment.”

Zegelis discovered this the onerous means. When OM SYSTEM assigned him to shoot creative holiday scenes, he panicked.

“I’d never photographed Christmas lights before,” he admits. “I looked through my entire library and realized I had nothing. So I went out, and every shot felt flat. I was finding pretty scenes, taking technically correct photos, and feeling nothing. Just snapshots of things in front of me.”

Then, nearly unconsciously, he drove to his childhood neighborhood.

“As soon as I found spots that connected to my inner child, to being a kid riding a bike around those streets, everything changed,” Zegelis recollects. “I have vivid memories of the street I grew up on. The photos I took that night might mean more to me than to anyone else, but that’s the point. I’m shooting for myself now. And I have found that taking photos that invoke distant memories is both creative and soothing for my soul.”

The breakthrough wasn’t technical. It was emotional. Connection to that means reworked generic Christmas lights into one thing private and resonant.

“I added more saturation using the Creative Dial to capture how those lights looked to me as a child,” he explains. “When everything was brighter, and felt more magical than it actually was. The camera let me shoot how I remembered, not just how things looked.”

“Before your next shoot, ask yourself: what memories does this place hold?” Zegelis suggests. “Maybe it’s where you learned to ride a bike, where you had your first date, where you spent holidays as a kid. If there’s no memory, put on a song that takes you back. Music unlocks memory faster than anything. Then go shoot whatever’s in front of you while you’re in that headspace. The location doesn’t matter. The feeling does. When you photograph from memory instead of just moment, the emotion shows up in the work.”

Tip 5: Let Chaos Into Your Frame

Zegelis says that technical perfection is a entice. “Intentional blur, camera movement, and ‘mistakes’ can express things sharp photos never will, especially memory, emotion, uncertainty, and the passage of time.”

One of Zegelis’s favourite pictures from his vacation venture is pure chaos: practically a one-second publicity whereas twisting the digital camera, creating swirling Christmas lights in opposition to a blurred tree. His spouse wasn’t a fan.

“She didn’t love it,” he laughs. “It’s pure chaos. A Christmas tree swirling in the middle, hard to see, surrounded by spinning lights. But I can see it. And that’s how memory works for me.”

The picture turned a breakthrough exactly as a result of it broke the principles.

“I can’t picture my childhood Christmas trees clearly,” Zegelis displays. “Memory doesn’t have to be sharp. Sometimes, it’s a lot of confusion and chaos. But we still find bits of brightness and coolness in there. That’s what this image captures: the blurriness, the uncertainty, the way the past feels when you try to hold onto it.”

He calls these deliberately blurred pictures “memory portals.” The technical imperfection expresses one thing a pointy photograph, or a pointy reminiscence, by no means may.

“Features like the OM-3’s Live ND make this kind of experimentation accessible, no matter the light conditions,” Zegelis describes. “I can shoot half-second exposures without carrying a filter kit, opening up creative blur anywhere, anytime. And with up to 7.5 stops of image stabilization, I can keep some elements sharp while letting others ghost through the frame.”

“Next time you’re shooting, deliberately make a ‘mistake,’” Zegelis suggests. “Twist the camera. Move during the exposure. Shoot at a shutter speed you know is ‘wrong.’ Then look at the result not as a technical failure, but as an expression. What does the blur say that sharpness couldn’t?”

Tip 6: Use RAW+JPEG as a Permission Slip

Shooting each codecs permits you to experiment wildly with in-camera appears whereas preserving a protected model. The RAW is your security web. The JPEG is your playground.

“I used to be a RAW-only shooter,” Zegelis admits. “Now I shoot both formats on everything, and that has changed how I approach creative risk.”

“Shooting RAW+JPEG is a permission slip to get really crazy and creative,” he explains. “Your RAW is always there, unchanged, keeping the best quality. But when you experiment with the JPEG that your camera processes, you engage your creative juices in the moment. You might be surprised by what looks inspire you.”

The OM-3’s JPEG edits, particularly when utilizing the Creative Dial, are robust sufficient that Zegelis usually prefers the artistic model over processing the RAW. He even shares find out how to create his favorite recipes with different OM-3 photographers. And if he must recreate settings later, OM Workspace can pull the recipe information from any JPEG.

“I’m actually selling some of my Creative Dial-produced JPEGs now,” he says. “The creative experiments became the final work. That never would have happened if I stayed RAW-only.”

“Turn on RAW+JPEG,” Zegelis suggests. “Then let yourself do something ridiculous with the Creative Dial or the photo profile. Push too far. The RAW file means you haven’t lost anything. But you might gain something you never expected.”

Tip 7: Stop Shooting for Other Photographers

“When you make work to impress gatekeepers, you filter out everything that makes you unique,” Zegelis advises. “The path to originality runs through yourself, not through algorithms or approval.”

“I used to shoot for Instagram likes,” Zegelis admits. “I got known as an abandoned photographer, and my following was growing. But I caught myself thinking: what am I actually doing? I was creating for the algorithm, not for myself. The work felt hollow.”

So he stopped. No extra optimizing for strangers on the web.

“There’s a lot of fakeness in the photography world,” he says. “We present ourselves as something we’re not, caught up in some kind of performance to get noticed. I don’t want to be fake anymore. I want to make work that’s actually created by my feelings and memories. Photos that are uniquely mine.”

He factors to Rick Rubin’s philosophy from his guide The Creative Act: A Way of Being: sign, not noise.

“The only way to be truly original is to go inside yourself,” Zegelis stresses. “That’s always been true, and it’s even more important now. With advances in technology, we are starting to lose our human stories. Nobody else can tell my story. Nobody else can tell your story. So it’s our responsibility to explore new ways to do that to keep our creativity firing.”

“Before you post your next photo, ask yourself: am I sharing this because I love it, or because I think others will?” Zegelis suggests. “If it’s the second one, dig deeper. Find the work that scares you a little to share. That’s usually the good stuff.”

Give Yourself Permission

In one 12 months, Zegelis went from capturing protected, saleable work to inventing fictional cities, embracing filters he as soon as dismissed, and creating pictures that appear to be his reminiscences really feel. “The rules I learned over 25 years weren’t wrong,” he acknowledges. “They just weren’t the only way.”

“2025 was my favorite year of photography I’ve ever had,” he displays. “Not because my technical skills improved. Because I finally gave myself permission to break my own rules.”

“You don’t need a specific camera to start,” he continues. “You need willingness. Invent a project. Commit to a look. Shoot from meaning. Let chaos in. Stop performing for gatekeepers.”

“We have to tell human stories,” Zegelis says. “And the only way to tell yours is to go inside yourself and find it. The most creative act might be the simplest one: allowing yourself to try something different.”

More from Jerred Zegelis will be discovered on his website, Substack, YouTube, and Instagram.

Full disclosure: This article was delivered to you by OM SYSTEM

Image credit: All photographs by Jerred Zegelis