Inspiration

[AlexColeman]

When you get stuck or bored, how do you find inspiration?

 

[fwellers]

I look at other people's stuff, forums, mags, artist sites etc..
There is ALWAYS something to spark my imagination when looking at what talented people have done.

 

[Beth81]

That's what I've been doing to get inspiration. I'll look at other people's work. I can't explain it but sometimes.....as corny as this sounds....sometimes there is just something about pictures and art that reaches down in me and just pulls out all this passion.

 

[ksmattfish]

I like to visit art museums and galleries. They are almost always free, and sometimes they have snack trays out so even if I don't find inspiration I get fed.

I am very fortunate to have the Spencer Museum of Art and the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art close by. Both have extensive photography collections. I love getting to see a real print of the famous photos I see in books and on the internet. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the real deal and thought "Ohhhhh, that's why this guy (or gal) is famous." The reprints in books (and low res scans from those books we see on the web) rarely do the actual photographs justice.

Art museums also often invite various artists and photographers and others working in related fields to speak. The last one I went to had the photography curator of the museum and a Russian historian go through an exhibition of 20th century photojournalism from the USSR. It was really interesting, and I learned about some photographers that we don't hear about much in the US.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art | Photography Collection

Photography | Collection | Spencer Museum of Art

 

[doylie]

i'm just starting out with photography, so i find myself stuck alot. it's like i have these 5 ideas in my head that i always stick with. but i've found it really helpful to look at other people's stuff ALOT. which means that i sit on here for hours a day magazines, photo blogs, posts on here, museums... these are all the things i use for inspiration.

 

[elemental]

Like everyone, I go through inspired/uninspired cycles. I am handling my current downturn by looking at lots of great work by other people. My university has a nice collection of books of photography, and I've been working through those. It's very inspiring, and once I feel like picking up the camera again (I'm just playing with cross processes to keep me entertained, but nothing serious or digital) I'm going to have a ton of ideas. William Wegman's Polaroids is a recent favorite (all work done on 20x24 Polaroid cameras, only a few of which ever existed).

 

[xposurepro]

When I need inspiration I go and rent a movie.

 

[GeneralBenson]

When I need inspiration I go and rent a movie.

I kind of agree with that. For one, I think venturing into any other kind of art medium is worthwhile and good at creating inspiration. But since I've been geting more into lighting technique, I find myself watching movies and just being blown away by the light they use. I'll watch some movies and just hawk-eye the light the whole time, and watch the way it plays in with emotions and what's going on, and how different characters get different kinds of light, and most of all... that fact that the light is almost always believable and realistic. Movies go the extra length over a lot of photographers to always make sure that teh light makes perfect sense. If two people are talking face to face, and the show one person first, and they have light on the left side of their face from about 45 degrees, then when they show the other person, they should have rim light from the back right behind them. Believable lighting, that's what makes pictures amazing.

 

[xposurepro]

Cinematography is also typically where new post-processing trends are born. There is always a new movie coming out and shortly after an explosion of photoshop tutorials then after awhile the movie is forgotten but the style continues on in photography without association to the movie