What Inspires You?



A lot of photographers and other artists often struggle with inspiration. Sometimes the ideas that were the fuel for their inspiration runs out. Perhaps it was simply the newness or excitement of a certain subject or technique? Once it is gone, the drive to continue creating wanes, and then you are often left without ideas or motivation. Here are a few tips to keep you inspired as you continue to learn and practice photography:

1. Look at other work:  When I say this, I don't mean just other photography, but other art work. Paintings, architecture, music; they all can have a profound impact on how we see things. Sometimes listening to new music or visiting an art gallery or browsing pinterest can help motivate yourself to see a new perspective.

2. Try a new limitation: Sometimes the best way to be creative is to find ways to create within certain boundaries. When you are limited in what you can do,  your mind works better to see things differently so that goals can be met despite obstacles. For instance, what would happen if you stopped zooming your lens and shot everything at one zoom setting for a week? What if you turned off autofocus and tried using manual focus for a week? Shot in only black and white? Turned off your LCD so that you couldn't see the resulting shot on the back of the camera for a week?

3. Try out new gear: This idea can be expensive, but did you know that you don't have to buy new gear? Yes, you can actually rent new equipment to play with. Nowadays, there are lots of places, such as lensrentals.com, borrowlenses.com, lensprotogo.com. Even your local camera shop might offer the option to rent different lenses or cameras for the fraction of the cost of buying them. Take if from someone who has rented gear on several occasions: new gear helps you see and experience things differently.

4. Walk away for a while: For this idea, you might think: "But that's the problem anyways! I want to walk away because I'm no longer inspired to take pictures! Yes, but sometimes forgetting about what frustrates you and taking time off allows your brain to be refreshed and your ability to ingest other work (see #1) grows. Time off can be a beautiful thing.

Hopefully, some of these tips will be helpful to any of you struggling. If you have any other topics that you'd like me to cover, please send me a comment. I'd love to help out!

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