Inspiration

Confused

Confused

Confused

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
8,016
I'm not sure what my expectations are from this thread, but I'm a trifle bored, so here we go...

I've decided I want to learn a bit more about photography over and above the basic point at a subject when I see something and shoot it.

Probably a bit prematurely, I've decided that I'm not going to progress with a P&S (well, technically, my phone camera, as I don't own a separate P&S camera, and haven't done for 2.5 years) and have decided, after having a play with one last weekend, to buy myself a Canon 400D. My justification is that with a half-decent camera, I will be more inclined to learn, and to go out and take photos.

Now comes the fun bit - I've had the camera since Tuesday, and as of yet, have not had a single thought as to what to go and take photos of! *insert laughing out loud style smilie here*

So, where do you guys get your inspiration from? Do you just drive around and look for places to stop? Do you know of a possible place and go there, and see what's there, and hope to find something? Do you know what is at a location, and go there? How do you decide what to go out and shoot that day?

It might be because it's dark and dreary, but I just don't currently seem to have the motivation/inspiration to say "I'm going to go here and take a photo of this"

So, OcUK, inspire/motivate me! Hell, I guess this could even become a "spec me a theme" thread, and I could use the suggestions of subject matters to actively go and try to find something that would fit the theme...... all the while of course improving my ability to scout out locations/ideas, and improve my technical skillset :)


Garry
 
Just go for a walk, there is a photograph in everything.

I very rarely feel 'inspired' to go and take a specific shot or do a specific shoot. I just go for a wander and things catch my eye.
 
I had a similar feeling for while. But now, I just sort of plan some time aside, and pick a location, rather than head out aimlessly. I know its kind of basic, but literally, 2 weeks ago - I spent 2 hours in the local park, last week I took a tube into London, and walked around. You don't need to plan anything complex, just set some time aside, and pick somewhere to go.
 
^ basically that :)

ConfusedTA said:
It might be because it's dark and dreary, but I just don't currently seem to have the motivation/inspiration to say "I'm going to go here and take a photo of this
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I feel the same, cause this winter has been terrible. so go and take some dark and dreary photos. Personally these are the easiest for me to take, I think i have too many and really just want to take a photo of a colourful field or something on a day that is not overcast. ;)

Set some time and go for a walk somewhere. If your luck enough to have decent natural areas near by or if not some street photography.

Since your bored like you said, set up an account on deviant art or flickr, and then go through there some of the photos there and look for some serious inspiration. That has helped me a lot. and may help you decide what you'd like to take photos of landscapes, portraits ect.
 
Just look on google maps for somewhere local that looks interesting, then head there and take lots of shots. Simple as that. Eventually you might have things that you want shots of, so you can start planning your adventures around these, but for now it really is as simple as heading out, then looking for the shots. :)
 
I've spent my photographic life only with public transport so I'm a bit shocked you're struggling if you have a car.

Just go to towns, go down the backstreets. Walk through fields, go where the road doesn't naturally take you. If the sky is good GO OUT. If it is a pretty sun rise/set GO OUT.

Also be aware you'll need to build your confidence up whilst on the street. People will react to you differently. Don't be embarrassed when people walk past you kneeling on a highstreet pointing at a phonebox or whatever.
 
I think the fact I have a car makes it harder - I've not even thought about just going for a walk around my local area!

Saying that, though, I went for a walk tonight, and just a few hundred yards down the road, saw that this house looked quite nice when it's all illuminated - I've lost count of how many times I've driven past it!



A bit further walking, and once I'd walked up this rather steep hill (which you really don't notice when in the car!), I remembered there was quite a nice view towards London at night - so set myself up again, pointing down the hill.




As you can probably tell, I quite like light trails... ;) The photos have been purely resized and saved as JPEG from RAW. I think I set the ISO a bit too high, because they're a bit noisy - but, it's all learning :) They looked OK on the camera's LCD, but the noise is more apparent on the PC.

Out of about 15 photos I did take (most very similar to those), they were the ones I liked best. The advantage of digital, I guess! ;)
 
I like them dude. I had great fun with light trails when I first got my camera.

I am in the stage 6 months down the line where I don't know what to take pics of. There are no insects out to take macro shots off (not that I know of)

However, I am off to Cornwall in 2 weeks with a new wide angle lens and 10 stop ND so should have some fun :)
 
Well ive got loads of things lined up for when i get my camera.

The local park and lake, the local wind farm, the scenic view of my village, scenic view of the whole city, shots of the sky.

Like divine` said, go for a walk man, you got any public footpaths along a river or lake or something like that, or even a high up shot, hills etc.. Cool looking streets etc..

There is a picture everywhere and its how you take the picture that tmakes it good.

I do it all the time on the bus home, i just watch the world pass by and i see so much potential. Old factories, streams, quarries etc..
 
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ScarySquirrel said:
I like them dude. I had great fun with light trails when I first got my camera.

I am in the stage 6 months down the line where I don't know what to take pics of. There are no insects out to take macro shots off (not that I know of)

However, I am off to Cornwall in 2 weeks with a new wide angle lens and 10 stop ND so should have some fun :)
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I spent some more time in St Ives before coming back up to Notts, and can safely say you could easily spend your entire stay taking long-exposures without leaving and not get bored :)
 
King4aDay said:
I spent some more time in St Ives before coming back up to Notts, and can safely say you could easily spend your entire stay taking long-exposures without leaving and not get bored :)
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We are staying in St Ives :)

Unfortunately, I think my GF would get bored of me taking long exposures (of the photographic kind) :(
 
ConfusedTA said:
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Well at least you've not resorted to taking endless macro pictures of your watch or doorhandle, that the rest of us sometimes do when we're bored ;)

For me I spend a lot of time checking out the weather forecast which helps determine what I might want to do, last week the weather was bleak and raining so despite me really wanting to do more shots of birds in flight, it was going to be pretty pointless with cloudy dismal skies and endless rain, I decided that towering cliffs and stormy seas would be a better idea, and as a result I ended up at Flanborough head and rattled a few decent shots off...

If you can drive then you can get whatever you want, if you can be bothered. Its just like MK said, look on maps/websites for places and go, pack your gear the night before, up at 5am to get there for first light :)

I guess a lot of inspiration for myself comes from looking at other peoples photos, and not necessarily copying, but using other pictures to create ideas for what I may want, for example with the seals at Donna Nook, I spent ages looking through what the pros had taken, and discovered hardly any of them had mega close portrait shots of the courtship rituals, despite it being quite difficult @ 600mm to get full frame face portraits of seals biting and thrashing about in the waves 6 meters away I came away very happy with something different.
 
like others, i just wonder around and take photos of what i what i see. i know from past experience i do see things differently to other people sometimes and it's my view of a subject i try to capture. of course snooping around old buildings has led to some great picturegraphs too :D
 
Really like the 2nd shot. Sometimes I find it hard to get inspiration. The trick is to actually go out and bring your camera with you when you go out, if I am not working or not going out for a specific reason I always bring my camera with me.
 
Hey dude,

I know exactly what you mean, I was suffering from this problem last night!

So what did I do?

I looked around my room, and took a picture of the damn computer in an odd way and made it artsy and came up with this :p
Mac_Ice_by_je_design.jpg


Now I'm browsing this part of the forum more today alone and I WILL go out this weekend and take a decent picture of something.

It's determination and finding the spark which makes you want to go out and take pictures :) - It's hard at the minute with the weather being so crap...
 
Other photographers work, namely famous ones, its mostly all been done b4 in someway, just stamp your own style on some inspiration from their work.
 
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