Finding inspiration

Calina

Hi.

I know I haven't been posting on here much lately but I've been kinda busy with other stuff in the background.

I'm interested in what strikes people about this: do you lose inspiration, your way photographically, whatever?

I'm only asking because I'm at that position again - I seem to be there a lot lately - where I've no real clue in what I want to take photographs of. Next up is probably small flash stuff/strobe things off camera, but apart from that...it gets to a stage, I work out how to achieve something with the camer and then I get bored of it. And for a long while it was fine because there were other things I kept wanting to try.

I'm finding I'm slowly moving from photography to digital art - if you follow my flickr, you'll see a bunch of majorly messed around with self portraits, for example, and away from pure photography.

I'm wondering if volume has anything to do with it - the liberty of being able to take 1500 photographs without worrying about development costs makes you blasé about taking photographs.

Or do I just need a holiday?

smelltheglove

I loose inpiration all the time and have to pic it up again. Recently under advice from others after loosing inspiration I went out and shot loads of colourful photos to get me going again. I like your most recent addition to the photo thread, gorgeous.

I think sometimes you need to sit back and relax and wait for the urge to grab you, which I have found editing wise over the last few weeks, I tend to sit here and waffle on boards rather than get that work done.

Fajitas!

I'm in a rush, but being as brief as ever...

Grab a magazine or two - One you'd read normally, and one you'd never read before - a picture/illustration heavy one - browse through both, and see what you like, and even more importantly, what you don't. See what stands out as different and what you'd never have though of, then go out and shoot something completely different from what you've seen in the magazines and what you've shot before.

Go buy a new camera. Some incredibly simple. An SX70 or an Olympus Trip - Don't spend over 50 quid. Just walk, find compositions, shoot them. Think about how you could use the compositions for other photographs. Reshoot the compositions if you want. See if you like them any better, or less. Limit your film. Either rate them as a pick or a fail. If you can't decide, then it's a fail.

Get drunk.

smelltheglove

Fajitas! wrote: »

Get drunk.

I like the last recommendation, actually so much so I may do that myself now.......

dazftw

Fajitas! wrote: »

Get drunk.

and get a film camera :pac:

It will open up a whole new of looking at everything.

Calina

I own film cameras, an OM10 and an AM100. Yes I used to be an Olympus baby. AM100 might be fun for a roll though.

Sleepy

LOL, I've the exact oposite problem - plenty of ideas and no time to do any of it!

my 2c? Grab a prime / fixed length camera, get in the car and go somewhere random. Limit your equiptment and you'll find something to spark your imagination...

AnCatDubh

Don't matter if you own a film camera. At the prices you can now get them at adverts/ebay, you can get one just for the fun of finding out how to use it. Then sell it at the same price if you don't like it. I've a few rolls of film running through various film SLR's at the moment (seriously limiting the film I take) - can't wait til I finish one tbh and see what turns out.

I'm finding it great fun, very entertaining, and I think i'm learning lots at the moment by pushing back as far as I can. Go film. Go manual. Go with no metering. I see myself ending up with a pin hole cardboard box at some stage but to be honest it is really interesting to regress down that path and in my opinion you learn loads along the way.

For inspiration, set yourself a goal or a challenge. Al's magazine idea is good. Try reproduce what you like and then try innovate or add a twist. Mock the masters - find someone's image that you like and see how YOU would recreate it. For example, iirc, you posted before about Robert Doisneau and 'Kiss by the Hotel de Ville' - well why not set out with a goal to recreate this classic shot. So what do you need (assuming you aint going to France), a couple - willing subjects, a location, and time to do it. Shoot it as the master did, then shoot it the way you see it.

The lulls in this lark probably mean that you have too many other things to be doing.

AnCatDubh

Actually, you have just reminded me. All of us in about 3-4 weeks time will be suffering a little from a small case of the blues. You know, dark evenings, bad weather (yes what's new), living for friday only to find that conditions aren't suitable on Saturday or Sunday to take what YOU want and you are back to Monday.

Guess we'll be seeing a few more of these type of threads. Yes, indeed I remember a few from last year.

Hmnnn..... thinking caps on everyone.... need something to get us through to spring.

ThOnda

I am in a little different situation, but my advise is to break the habit.
New competition, new perspective for the topic you do and see in magazines/on-line that is different, outing with other people, visiting gallery...

By the way, let's go to the bots tomorrow to see and shoot the Sculpture exhibition? Lot's of colours there during (hopefully) another sunny day.

And lot's of kiddies to snap with long lens being hidden in the bushes... interesting subjects to shoot.

Borderfox

I have a few projects lined up for the winter months and they can be group based eg. go into fruit/vegetable market and buy fruit/veg and then shoot them in a still life type of way/high key

Chorcai

Take on a photo buddy/pet :P :P

LimeFruitGum

I am thinking of getting a macro lens so I can at least experiment with things at home, if the weather is too bad to go out.

I've been blank for a while, hadn't a bog-notion what to photograph but today I got the bus up the Phoenix Park to go to the Septemberfest.
Here's what I've come back with today: Pap-snaps of Gerry Adams in O'Connell St, some macros of various cheese samples and beers, candid crowd shots, architechture snaps, some foliage shots, horse pics, and snaps of a polo game in Phoenix park.
I'm dead pleased with the way most of them came out and feel excited and buzzed again. :-)

Just pinpoint a day for photography, take the camera with you and see what happens :-)

Perfect fit

since i stopped working i got really lazy and was gettin annoyed with myself for doing nothing all day so myself and a friend mcguire2 on here....decided we would do a 365 project to help motivate and inspire us everyday. its helped me look around at things i would normally pay no attention to and also look at other peoples work(mostly on flickr) and get inspired thinkin thats great id love to try that. Its working so far but then again its early days . .

Tallon

Perfect fit wrote: »

...Its working so far but then again its early days . .

can you give us any more info? What exactly are you doing?

Perfect fit

Tallon wrote: »

can you give us any more info? What exactly are you doing?

basically i was doing nothing most days and then the days i wanted to do something i couldnt get motivated or inspired, so decided that for the next 365 days i had to go look for inspiration (inspiration wont come sitting at home!). Go for a walk, jump on a bus/train to a diffferent town just do things i wouldnt normally do, walk down alleys every other day id walk past etc. And its just motivated me, i look forward to figuring out what im going to do the next day and where im going to find it

Tallon

Perfect fit wrote: »

basically i was doing nothing most days and then the days i wanted to do something i couldnt get motivated or inspired, so decided that for the next 365 days i had to go look for inspiration (inspiration wont come sitting at home!). Go for a walk, jump on a bus/train to a diffferent town just do things i wouldnt normally do, walk down alleys every other day id walk past etc. And its just motivated me, i look forward to figuring out what im going to do the next day and where im going to find it

I was thinking about doing something similar, except taking a picture of somethign everyday, something that was out of the ordinary of what I usually do.

I know it's been done to death but it's still something i'd love to have said i've done in my life :pac:

You may have just inspired me......................

Hugh_C

Calina wrote: »

I'm wondering if volume has anything to do with it - the liberty of being able to take 1500 photographs without worrying about development costs makes you blasé about taking photographs.

Was talking to a (pro) friend a few weeks ago & she was telling me that she's been on photowalks / sessions where the rule is that you're only allowed 3 exposures per day. 3.

Means you have to think a lot about every precious shutter release. I love this idea. Next time I'm up the mountains I'm only going to take the medium format and one roll - I know it's a cheat at 12 exposures but hey!

Fajitas!

Hugh_C wrote: »

Was talking to a (pro) friend a few weeks ago & she was telling me that she's been on photowalks / sessions where the rule is that you're only allowed 3 exposures per day. 3.

Means you have to think a lot about every precious shutter release. I love this idea. Next time I'm up the mountains I'm only going to take the medium format and one roll - I know it's a cheat at 12 exposures but hey!

Try it on a Polaroid SX-70 - You really want to take a photo, because you know how beautiful and instant they are, but you also know it's £20 for 10 shots... that's 2 quid a shot (Or €2.50 when I'm home :pac: ) I try allow myself a maximum of 5 photos in 24 hours, so I have to make sure they're perfect - And I'm still only getting a 3/5 keeper ratio...

RCNPhotos

I suffer from this a lot. And since I'm not working anymore thanks to "the current economic climate", and college hasn't started back yet I find myself turning into a bum infront of this damn computer. I find looking at other peoples work I love and listening to certain music inspires me. I always turn to Eugene Smiths work to pick me up and headin to town tomorrow to get some film for the FED-3 I just bought on eBay. Fun fun fun.

kjt

I go through spurts of inspiration quite a bit. I save a lot of photos I see online and put them in an "inspirational folder", then on the days I'm bored out of my head I can go back and try retake one of these.

I wrote a bit of an insprational photography post a while back when I was struggling and a lot of people here where saying the same.

Also if I think of a good project/idea I'll write it down in a notepad and look back on them every so often. I have about 20projects to do when I have some spare time

Getting out with more people, photowalks, challenges, limitations, goals, projects << lots of ideas

Tallon

kjt wrote: »

I go through spurts of inspiration quite a bit. I save a lot of photos I see online and put them in an "inspirational folder", then on the days I'm bored out of my head I can go back and try retake one of these.

I do the same thing, Im going to have to start going through them though, the folders getting full

Placebo

you need to watch some foreign films with good cinematography

kjt

Tallon wrote: »

I do the same thing, Im going to have to start going through them though, the folders getting full

lol full shmull, got about 4,000 shots so far and counting. Great way for finding inspiration

l pearse

lulls in this lark probably mean that you have too many other things to be doing.

Posted today after 6 month lull...(missed you guy's).Lots of reasons for this, work, inspiration, didn't travel anywhere this year...etc, etc.

Recently having ideas for model/fashion shots. Have the model just need to push myself....Spring photo idea!? l'v got nuff'in..

KarmaGarda

Well, if you didn't fancy such a hardcore project like 365 photos, myself and xshayx have a "photo a week" thing going between us. We each in turn pick a theme each week. Then we have to go out and take a photo of that theme. I will admit, so far most of his photos are much better than mine!

You could start up something like this with another photographer buddy and see if it kicks off a new interest

trishw78

I seem to lose my photograph mojo come winter time... I've a few ideas since last year I might try out.

another idea is an ideas book, get a small notepad and write down any crazy thoughts you've had, lyric's or poems that you like have a flick through it and develop some of the ideas. I've done this in the past some of them went nowhere others seem to be going places.