On Creativity

Alain Briot has been writing a really commendable series here recently, but I feel like there's a missing element. That element is the specifics of how to go about "being creative." This part is often left out, because it's not easy to get your arms around. Ansel Adams wrote, frequently, that a photograph needs to represent the photographer's genuine emotional reaction to the scene. He also spent a lot of time talking about pre-visualization of the photograph. On the subject of getting from one to the other, from that honest emotion to that picture in the mind's eye, however, he is silent. This is essentially the same problem, the problem of how to be creative.
The cup in question. Isn't it pretty?
In general, what you have in hand is a subject, something you're going to take a picture of. The next thing you're likely to come up with is a concept. Don't panic, I'm not going to get all "arty" on you. The concept could be something abstruse, dense, and arty, like "Gender Dynamics in Mode...