Boosting your photography inspiration
Behind every great piece of art, there’s a driving force: INSPIRATION.
This is also applicable to photography. Inspiration is the spark that drives creativity. But just like a novel writer may suffer from a writer’s block, a photographer also can find himself in a creative rut. Especially when getting older, there’s a risk that inspiration and creativity is crushed out of us.
Here are some ideas to help you recharge your inspiration batteries.
Listen to your favorite music album
Everyone has one or more artists that really inspire him. Take the album and put it in the player. Close your eyes, listen to your favorite songs and try to visualize the music. Think of an image that best can describe the song, the first verse, the song title or the mood of the entire CD.
I remember myself shooting with a model for some hours, ordering her to take different poses all the time. When the session was nearly to come to an end, I really needed a fresh dose of inspiration to find a pose we didn’t do before. That’s when I remembered the evening before when I was listening to ‘Greetings from Asbury park, N.J.’ Bruce Springsteen’s first studio album and the first album track, called ‘Blinded By The Light’. Finally, this led to the picture below.
'Blinded By The Light'
Photography: BDW Photography
Model: Chiara Bianchino
Check some entertainment art
The entertainment industry is full of artistic inspiration, movie poster for example. The net contains a lot of searchable databases to find movie art. One of those great sources is https://www.cinematerial.com , allowing you to search on movie title, director or actor.
Album covers can be just as if not even more inspirational than movie poster. All you need to do is browsing your CD’s. Shooting an image inspired by the cover of an old CD is a great project to work out.
Browse the work of others
Online communities are a great place to visit when you’re in search of photographic inspiration. One of the most popular is Flickr, containing a huge variety of photography styles, techniques and ideas. 100% guarantee you’ll find something that will spark your creativity.
And in case there’s a photography exhibit in a museum near to you, consider going to it. While it’s great to be able to scour the internet in search of images, there’s nothing quite like seeing photos, in print.
Think about a photo shoot concept
Just think for a minute about the kind of clothes you like to wear. Are you into Hawaiian fashion? Or do you prefer the bohemian chic style? Maybe punk or gothic is what you like...
Think about the kind of movies you like to see. Are you a fan of film noir, horror movies, road trip movies?
Think about to food you really enjoy to eat? Is it Italian or do you prefer the Asian kitchen?
All this can inspire you to come to a photo shoot concept. One of the concepts I’ve recently worked out was inspired by the theme of 7 Deadly Sins. The idea was to create some images for every sin. Here’s an impression of what came out.
7 Deadly Sins: 1. Vanity - 2. Greed - 3.Envy
Pictures by BDW Photography
Model: Jules U.
Join a photography challenge
Joining a photography competition or a themed challenge is a great way to find inspiration. Most photo challenges will give you a specific theme or word to interpret, which will be a perfect starting point on moments when your inspiration is dry.
This week I joined such a challenge started on Facebook. The theme was ‘Rhythm & Repetition’. I did choose for an image of a military cemetery.
Stay inspired,
Ben
