inspiration?

[dannisnokiller]

i'm currently in pittsbugh, and thought i'd get all these great shots, we went to the zoo; i fired off a roll of film there, and then we went into point park, and around the ciy - however i am not pleased at all with my shots, i could'nt find anything to 'snap' there was always something in the way - or something?

i'm afraid i'm loosing inspiration, or i'm afriad i'm not knowledgable enough to maintain more than just 'close ups' on things i find interesting (witch is what most of my blog currently is)


hmmmmmmm..


where do you guys get your inspiration?

[mikelangelo]

That happens to me a lot. But then something will just jump out at me. The more I take pictures... the more I start to see things that might make a good image. For me... I'm always 'training' my eye to see things to capture.

More often than not, though... I'm clueless. I say keep snapping shots (or at least keep your camera close), and something will jump out at you.

Or you can give yourself an 'assignment.' Something like photofriday. I always find it easier to get a reasonable shot when I have a sense of what I want. hth.

[blinking8s+]

when im down, i go to the library and just pull out photo books, sometimes losing whole days in there...i swear im going to fail college because of photography, and its my damn major!

ys, if you give yourself assignments, themes or something...it helps channel your thoughts rather than trying to look at EVERYTHING in every which way. Although I dont like the themes from these online photo sites sometimes, and its not like anyone shoots for the theme, they pick something they already have that suits it, this is wrong...and i think it should be a judging panel, cause most often the results of voting are horrible.

sometimes i get real caugh up in work stuff, shooting sports gets so old, so when i burn out on a topic, i go shoot something totally random, either i walk downtown or go to a junkyard and just fins ways to play with lines or shoot graffiti or something

[nephoto]

I had a long time where I fell into the same slump. The problem I was having when I look back on it now was that I was constantly looking at the photographs other people had taken, and in wanting to make a beautiful image as they had, went out looking for similar situations. The trouble with that is, situations rarely happen more than once as all of us discover at one point or another, so trying to imitate them is impossible.

Now I pretty much carry my camera where ever I go, some days I'll find nothing to shoot, other days I can't seem to pull the camera away from my eye, and even once in a while I'll just start shooting and find a piece of gold hidden somewhere amongst the pictures that I took for nothing more than to waste some time.

I guess what I am saying in a long-winded way is that its not uncommon to feel like you are 'losing inspiration' at one point or another, especially when you are shooting for no one but yourself, but all of the sudden one day pops up where you get an amazing shot and it comes flying back at you full throttle, so don't fret. Chances are if you feel like you have been in a slump for a bit its coming to its end soon.

Also, which helped a lot for me, is I try to shoot things now that I have never done before and I am not totally comfortable with (different sports, people on the street, wierd lighting, etc) and it really helps to push you to take shots, just don't worry so much about the final product, but work more on perfecting the different situations so you'll always have something at the end you'll be happy with.

Photography is all about learning, forget about your blog for a bit, realize that people are going to survive if you don't update for a while, and that they will come back when you start again. Spend a couple of weeks shooting for just you, and things will turn around.

End of Book

[dannisnokiller]

thank you everyone for your replies, it's good to know that i'm not the only one that has days like these. when i get back home i should have digitized my photos and have them up, maybe some friendly critique could help aswell. and maybe because this is the first time i've photographed something i'm un-familiar with (animals at the zoo) i just need to practice more, or as blinking8s suggested, hit up the library.

thanks again for the replies, i'm this loosing streak will end soon.

-danN

[mikelangelo]

I forgot... critiques help a lot. I had an episode like this recently. So I posted to the critique forum with one of my older horse photos. The critiques I got back were very helpful and got me thinking about the images I was getting and how to improve them. I immediately started getting some ideas and wanted to get out there and make better images. Very motivational.

(Blinking was one of the critiquers, as well...Heck of a forum we got here...)

[dannisnokiller]

here are the some of the shots i got in pittsburgh

http://www.dannisnokiller.com/index.php?showimage=68

http://www.dannisnokiller.com/index.php?showimage=63

http://www.dannisnokiller.com/index.php?showimage=62


critique would be awesome.

thanks

[blinking8s+]

pick what you feel is your three strongest, and post them n the crit section

part of photography is identifying what you're strongest is, thats the main reason why i ask people to limit their critique, we'll browse through you're other photos ont he blog naturally, and if i feel you have another stronger shot then i will say so.

[Joe[y]+]

another thing - not good for a poor student like myself. but it's true for any photographer whatever they say! new equipment whether it's a brand new spanking telephoto lens or an old pinhole camera is HUGE inspiration and gets you doing new stuff.

[blinking8s+]

i try to limit my gear cause i dont feel its what should define a photographer, but yes, when i get a new lens i tend to spark up a little more interest for a few weeks and shoot like mad