Where to Find Inspiration
If you are anything like me, sometimes you will get stuck with a photographer’s worst enemy: the lack of inspiration. Let’s face it, you can have all the equipment your gadget-freak-heart desires, the knowledge to use it, time on your hand and a direct line with Elite Models. But if you don’t have any inspiration, all this is useless. I have a on-off relation with the muse. Sometimes I can ‘t get her to shut up whispering great ideas in my ear and other times it seems like I can’t bring her to life no matter how many electroshocks I use. Here are some ways I try to counter those moments without creativity.
STEAL WITH YOUR EYES
There are tons of good images out there that can spark your creativity. Photo books from the masters (past and present) in the industry are always worth browsing through. Magazines like the French Photo, American Photo and PDN are amongst my favorites because they often feature a great mix of the work of legendary photographers, current top photographers and upcoming talent. More often than not you can also learn something about these artist’s vision, way of working, equipment, …
Beyond the pure photography magazines and books, there’s another world of inspirational imaginary to be found. Every few months I pick up a copy of Vogue, it has been a trendsetter in photography for years. Pick up magazines that target your audience. Even if they play it safe (like too many magazines do these days) on their editorial content, the ads will often feature great photography. Picking up a magazine that you would normally never buy can also give you some pleasant surprises.
UNKNOWN HEROES
Thanks to the internet, we now have access to the work of hundreds of thousands unknowns but good photographers. When I’m stuck for inspiration, I sometimes randomly browse around on Flickr, blogs and forums looking for images that inspire me. Often these images are not what I would consider good pictures but a color scheme, background or expression can be enough to jump start my imagination. I am often inspired by no nonsense work from teenagers without any good equipment or knowledge.
BEYOND PHOTOGRAPHY
You don’t need pictures to inspire you. There are so many other ways to set your brains on fire: movies, music, paintings, sculptures, architecture, an article in a newspaper, … But they will only come to you if you look at them with the right mindset. An open mind is key. I try to be always ready for creative stimuli (wish I could turn it off from time to time though). And when I’m in desperate need for an idea, I’m usually able to get into a state of hyperfocus.
KEEP A FILE
I keep all the magazines, books and whatever I found inspirational. And I like to keep them close instead of storing them in a box on the basement where they will be forgotten. On my computer I have a large folder with all kinds of images that move me in some way or the other.
You also might want to jot down your ideas (even if it’s only half an idea) on a small notepad. I have notepads all around the house and my iPhone also houses many premature ideas. If you don’t write them down immediately you will forget. Leafing through those notepads can be a very inspirational experience.
LET IT FLOW
Don’t see the things that inspire you as something you have to copy. Copying can be great to learn new techniques but it’s hardly creative. Instead you want to use these things as a starting point from which you can let it flow into your own creations. One idea can lead to another, that will lead to yet another and so on. In the end you may be doing something that has nothing to do anymore with the place you started. But that’s fine.
So where do you guys find your inspiration?
Great article, so true!
I don’t think there is a single picture that hasn’t been take, somehwere, by someone.
Yet, every single picture is a little bit different. Ideas grow if you waste them…
Music helps me when I am in a slum of no inspiration. listening to the ipod while going out to do street photography or something really helps the imagination.
There’s good things in this post.
When i’ve not inspiration then i sometimes try to figure out something out of reality.
If this isn’t work then the best thing what i can do is go out with my camera and walk. In this way i everytime get something good idea for a picture.
I get inspiration by browsing the internet, movies or magazines as well. Nice inspirational sites on the internet for me are 2photo.ru or flickrista for example. And Squeeze the Lime
As far as I’m still at the beginning, I have problems to get from just copy these inspirations to my own ideas, but maybe this is just a question of practice.
BTW… You’re doing a great job here, guys - keep it up
Go to the library. Buying a book from amazon.com is so easy that we over look the library as a soure of phtotgraphy books. Don’t be afraid to request books through inter library loan. (It’s the way I read Annie Leibovitz’s At Work which I found to be a pretty weak photography book by the way.)
Also keep your eyes open. I got a big box of old National Geographics going back to the sixties from the transfer station. (Where I take our trash before it goes to the dump. They have a valuable reuse shed where people can leave stuff that they don’t want, but isn’t quite trash yet.) Once I flipped through the National Geographics they went back for someone else to read. I also picked up the latest book from Nan Golden “The Devil’s Playground” at the transfer station. Picking up stuff at the transfer station costs nothing. You just have to get over the fact you are picking trough someone else’s junk.
Having said all that I find I am more inspired by going for a walk. It doesn’t matter where. Just being outside and seeing all the light and interesting shots developing all around me.
when shoting models sometimes simply conversation with a model before sesion can be a great inspiration. Also I see then how the model natural looks (when my camera os off
) and how he/she looks and moves best, so I can use it when I’m shot.
Also a good thing is to take a walk sometime. A often see a location and I have an idea - ‘here would be the great place for (some kind of) … pictures’.
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I really admire your site, Bert and Pieter. Sometimes your site is also a nice inspiration
I’ve learned a lot from this site. Thanks to you. Keep going - I’ll be watching and I hope, I’ll learn more.
Greetings from Poland.
Alll like me
very true
here, strobist, flickr, chase Jarvis. Skateboarding magazines, movies are a big one, I try and figure out why something is so visually appealing and try to emulate those techniques. I’ve noticed that y photography changes the more I pay attention
Sometimes, going out to take pictures with a friend is a good way to reinspire yourself. A simple idea from another person might spark up your imagination again. And it’s just more fun to play with someone else than alone.
it is a nice thought,reading the words of what i feel and do,
being put in to a txt
so much to explore,so little time
I usually use some innovation techniques to go forward in new images and in business. It works!
It is funny to read we all do same things to get inspiration and then again end up making different pictures. Culture, technique and vision drive these differences which again inspire allow us to learn, experience and stay motivated in doing more and more.
On my personal blog http://www.bernardpanier.be I wrote what inspire me and referenced some magazine, photographers and movies.
My inspiration comes from my surroundings and what’s shown to me thousands of times a day - if I just keep my eyes open to them :o)
My day job is in London so every billboard, bus stop, shop window, tube advert, over the shoulder newspaper, book cover etc.. gets analysed, reverse engineered and picked apart.
Even sitting on public transport or in a park watching how different coloured light falls over stranger’s faces or how someone gets perfectly framed for just a second in their surroundings and thinking about how you could take a shot with ambient light or (gelled?) flashes.
It’s all there around us
I’m also a big fan of the occasional personal “play day” where it doesn’t matter if all you shoot is rubbish as I think it can be a useful tool to free the mind. A day where there’s no pressure to get ‘the shot’ and if something different works then it’s a bonus.
CW
try watching MTV.. the lighting in music videos rock! (no pun intended)
Music videos often have funky/effective lighting. I always wanted to replicate those in my pics.
Hmmm, where to start…
- Keeping a file of things that look interesting - don’t care if it’s the message conveyed, use of colour or a pose or background
- Based on the previous point: read books or scrawl the intaweb for articles on “how-to” shoot and/or post process. I love my RSS feeds from Chase, Lime, Strobist, PGS, John Nack and Joe McNally.
- Limitation: by limiting myself I have to work around those limitations
- Alcohol, preferably consumed with friends: brainstorming with friends always yields new views and ideas
- Shooting with fellow shooters: see previous point
- Try to combine two ideas which have no apparent relationship. In absence of ideas pick 2 words at random from a dictionairy or newspaper. Works very good when done in the presence of prevouisly mentioned friends/fellow shooters.
- Music - close your eyes, listen and feel. Try to capture the feeling.
And one things I still on my to do list:
- Long term self assignments: projects that always run in the background with low priority e.g. Bryan Peterson’s red ball project (http://www.7photographyquestions.com/2008/10/p21-inspiration-creates-a-lighthearted-dalmatian-picture.html). So when the muse has taken a day of, work on one of those projects.
When I have no inspiration, I take my camera and begin shooting… quickly, inspiration comes and plenty of ideas too. The thing is to be not too lazy to make the first step ..
I get my inspiration mainly from photo’s on the internet or things that pop into my head while I’m shooting.
Books are a good source too.
Just last week I was in a store where they sell clothes, everyting from one brand was placed together and here and there
were a few catalogues. I was looking into one and one of the sellers said that I could take it with me if i wanted.
So now I have the O’neill spring/summer catalogue right in front of me. It’s 255 pages of pure photography and digital artwork!
Very nice and fun to look into.
Like you said watching movies is a great way to find inspiration… but i moving further and i say… the movie posters are great too! …And, like all of us in here, I squeeze the lime
Light be with you, people!