How to find ideas of taking pictures

[ColoradoFlyBoy]

How do I find ideas to take pictures of things. I struggle with this all the timeand i dont know what i can do to find cool things to take pictures of.

 

[sunbeam]

Freeman Patterson has some cool books/ideas on seeing regular things in a more interesting different way... check out his website. He can make the most simple things look like paintings. Pretty amazing. It's all in how you look at things, I guess. Good luck

 

[Randall Ellis]

Look for what interests you. Don't worry about whether it's been done before (its ALL been done before) and just do what you want, work out ideas, explore. When you find something that draws your eye try to figure out why it did so and present that to the viewer. Look at the work of others (all sorts of stuff, not just what you like at first glance), set aside the images that you liked and then look for something similar to work with. Use the idea of what you liked in their work with your own subjects.

It's not always easy breaking out of a rut, and I can only really speak from my own experience, but when I first started photographing I tried to make my pictures look like what I though people liked. Only after I dropped that line of thought and just let myself explore my own ideas did I begin to really do something I liked. I took the time to find what I liked in my pictures and thought about why I liked that aspect. I tried applying that same idea to other things. It also helped me much later in life to talk to people who were not into photography - people who painted and worked in mixed media specifically, but anyone should do - about what inspired them. This opened my eyes to a whole new world of possibilities, and it allowed me to see my own work in a whole new light. I was able to do quite a bit more after than than I even could before...

- Randy

 

[ColoradoFlyBoy]

well at 14 its hard to find places to go since I dont have a car. Riding my bike with a camera isnt a smart thing to do so, im kinda limited in where i can go.

 

[lbridges]

Once upon a time I wrote the alphabet down the vertical side of a piece of paper, then I sought to put in a word (noun) for each letter. Then whenever I thought I went cold on ideas I would take the next letter and go find something.

Obviously if there's no zoo nearby you probably wouldn't want to pick something like a zebra, but how about a close up of a zipper?.

For "R" how about looking in the neighborhood for rust.

Use a word; replace it with something else that starts with the same letter. Go from gate to GTO (Pontiac that is).

 

[EleanorW]

well at 14 its hard to find places to go since I dont have a car. Riding my bike with a camera isnt a smart thing to do so, im kinda limited in where i can go.

Save up for, or ask for a camera backpack - then you'll have more freedom to go places with your camera.

 

[bigtwinky]

Find one interesting subject (or not that interesting of a subject) and take 10 photos of it. No less, but you can do more

Think of taking a photo at a higher angle, lower angle. Take a wide (aka zoomed out) photo and take some closer up photos. Try photos with different backgrounds, different sides. Add people to the image.

Force yourself to take 10 photos of things for the next month and that should kick start your brain.

Look at other people's work and get inspired. Maybe someone took a fun picture of a building. No harm in trying to do the same thing as long as you are trying to understand what they saw and why they took the image.

 

[hulk]

Also, I would recommend Bryan Peterson's Learning to See Creatively.
Lots of interesting stuff to get the flow going!

 

[KmH]

Riding my bike with a camera isnt a smart thing to do so, im kinda limited in where i can go.

You do, what you need to do.

Do you routinely crash while riding your bike? Just sayin'.

As far as ideas? Look at lots and lots of other photographers images.

 

[icassell]

There are several themes and contests right here on TPF ...

Why don't you pick a posted theme and try to shoot for it? That will keep you busy for quite a while