Taking pictures is narrowing your view in a good sense. Looking through the square hole makes you focus on the composition, colour and details of what you see. It’s all about making choices.
When I was 12 years old I got a camera from my granddad. It was an Agfa, that I know for sure. But I am not sure anymore whether it was a Click or a Clack.
All these years I was convinced it was a Clack-II, but googling pictures of it made me wonder. The image in my memory resembles more of the Click-II.
On a first superficial look at the province of Murcia in Spain, you might judge this as a place of little significance. Some parts are even ugly and I sure have mixed feelings about the area where I live.
If you are able to see the beauty in ugly things, there are a lot of places of interest in Murcia. If I look with my photographic eye, I see the beauty of the blossoms and (almost) forget about the poison that is sprayed on them.
No way to forget the ugliness of the chemical industry in the neighbourhood of Cartagena but still I can enjoy the lines and colours of the machinery.
At most of the exhibitions where I showed my work, I tried to be present to talk to the visitors. The most frequently asked question was: where do you find the inspiration for your subjects? To which my answer was that I had some tricks for that.
Developing inspiration is a conscious process. Or at least it could be. It also depends on our character what our favourite method is.
In this article, I give you 30 tips to spend your free time finding inspiration and spark your creativity. It is a random list of all kinds of things I occasionally do. Get inspired.
There has been a period in my life I didn’t take any pictures at all, making me regret that later, because I don’t have any pictures of my son aged 6 to 9. The reason was that I wasn’t inspired anymore and didn’t feel up to the effort of taking the camera and shooting.
Nowadays I have found several ways to get inspired and to develop my creativity. And to stay inspired because, in the end, it’s all about keeping on going and pushing ourselves forward. Don’t settle for a result too soon.
I will share my tips on how to stay inspired in photography with you in this article and I hope you will add tips of your own at the end of this article.
Of course, we should take pictures of the highlights when we are visiting an unknown region or country. Yet, it is also fun to restrict yourself by taking pictures according to a theme.
It is important for a photographer, or any creative person in general, to always try to improve. However strange it may seem, limiting ourselves is a major contributor to betterment.
I do it often, assigning myself to photograph only round objects, or movement, just vertical lines, S-like shapes, contrasts in thick-thin or big-small, and so on. I can assure you, you will see different subjects to take pictures of.
A lot of countries have flags in the colours red, white and blue. The USA, the Netherlands, France, the UK – to name a few.
I looked for inspiration by sorting several of my photographs in specific colours. As a result, I made this article about red, white, and blue in pictures.
Thematic photography is an unending source of inspiration in my view. Try it yourself, if you want. Maybe the theme-spark will catch you as well. 🙂