The Best Idea to Make You a More Inspired Photographer
by
Kevin Landwer-Johan
How can you come up with more photography inspiration ideas?
Pick up your camera. This is the best way to find photography inspiration ideas. Put your favorite lens on. Take off the lens cap and start taking photos.
While your camera sits in its bag or in the cupboard you are not going to find your muse. She will only arrive when you are actively engaged with your camera.
The best idea to make you a more inspired photographer is to have your camera in your hand. Whether you’re
- into creative street photography,
- a landscape photography artist,
- or want to improve your portrait technique,
challenge yourself by just picking up your camera. The photography inspiration ideas will come.
You can waste hours looking for online photography challenges or photo inspiration on Instagram. It won’t help you as much as getting out and taking photos.
Handle Your Camera Often
Being very familiar with your camera makes you a better photographer. The more intimate you are with your equipment the more intuitively you will be able to use it.
Instinctively knowing where the dials and buttons make your camera more enjoyable to use. When you enjoy your camera you will be more inspired and take better photographs.
Not having a good relationship with your camera means you are likely to have to concentrate more on how to make it work. The more you have to concentrate on making it function how you want it to, the less focus you can put on creativity.
Challenge yourself to use your camera every day. You will learn the settings and know how to use them naturally in a short time. You want this to be easy. Eventually much of it will become subconscious activity. You’ll be able to concentrate more on photography rather than on your camera. If you seldom use your camera your mind will struggle to remember the settings. Frequent use promotes inspired ideas for photography.
With Your Camera In Hand
With your camera in hand you will think differently. Your mind is more open to acting on photography ideas when they come to you. You will see the world in alternative ways.
With your camera packed away somewhere, your creative flow is inhibited. You are restricted because you cannot act on concepts for photos as they come to you.
Holding your camera means you can start taking photos immediately. Often the first ones will not be the best. Stay with your idea and work it. Press into the creative inspiration and let it develop into something more.
Vary your point of view. Often the first angle you photograph something from will not be the best. Look at the background and how it relates to your subject. Is it helping or hindering your composition?
Experiment with different aperture and shutter speed combinations. Do you want a shallow depth of field? Would keeping more of the photo in focus make it stronger? If there is movement within your frame take some photos with a slow shutter speed and let the movement blur.
Try as many creative options as you can think of for photography inspiration ideas.
When Photography Inspiration Ideas Arrive
As ideas come to you stay with the inspiration. Having your camera at the ready allows you to begin immediately. Start taking photos. As you do, keep thinking of alternative ways you can work with the idea.
The more different ways you can photograph something the better photos you will take. Your creative imagination jumps into action and your ideas develop into art.
Don’t worry that you’re taking so many bad photos. You can delete them later from your computer. Keep all your photos so you can make comparisons and see what’s worked well and what hasn’t.
I love this video with Martin Parr encouraging a group of students to take lost of crap photos. He leads by example because he says without the crap photos you’ll not find the good ones.
Once you are used to taking lots of photos you will need to be diligent to cull them down and separate out your best ones. Keeping everything can get out of hand when you are prolific with your photography.
Take a look at this online photography course I have. In this course I walk through my method of culling photos and deciding which are the keepers. It’s full of helpful photography tips. This course will make your post processing life easier.
Build A Project Around Your Good Photography Ideas
When you hit on an idea that excites you, stick with it. Build the idea into a project, something you can work on often.
Begin to make a portfolio of photographs on the subject. As you return to photograph the same theme over time you will see your skills and creativity growing.
Once you begin, study how you can improve your photography project. Look online for photographers who can inspire you because they have worked on similar tasks. If you’re a Pinterest or Instagram user use these platforms to help keep fresh ideas coming.
Search Pinterest for the same idea or subject you are working on. Pin images to your own boards to make them easy to find. Follow other photographers on Instagram. Find some who are working on their own projects and learn how they keep the work progressing.
Are looking for guidance on how to work on a photography project? Please check out my photographer mentoring program. Working with people I mentor I guide them through to creating photography assignment. It is a great way to help ideas stay fresh.
Keeping a notebook can help keep your photography project progressing. Writing down both what you have done and fresh ideas as they come to you. Most of us can’t keep our cameras with us all the time, so note-taking is helpful.
Keep Your Camera Within Reach
Keeping your camera somewhere it’s easy to grab will mean you do so more often. Pick it up and start to use it. I often have a camera sitting on my desk so it’s right there next to me.
If your camera is somewhere you can see it you will think about it more and use it more often.
Don’t wait around for that next big burst of inspiration to happen because it probably won’t, until you pick up your camera.
Further Reading
If you’ve enjoyed reading this post you will also enjoy “Why It’s Good To Be Social and Build Photography Friendships.”
Thank you so much for sharing such an awesome blog…Good information to read. This post is very effective and images also helping us to understand your point.