locally, what inspires you?

skywalkerbeth

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Hi everyone

I live way out in the big bad boring burbs of Washington DC. As in, 35 miles outside of the city, in the middle of what was farmland but is now subdivisions as far as the eye can see.

I find myself completely uninspired to take any photos locally. I know I could just get out there and start shooting for practice, but it's just too boring to contemplate (locally).

What do you do to give yourself a kick in the pants and get out and find things to shoot? To be honest I'm sick of going in to DC even, I'm about maxed out on monuments.

I find myself very jealous of people who live in scenic locations! Maybe this is just a crisis of creativity...
 
It's funny i just had a related talk with a teacher not very long ago. He lives in one of the bad part of town here in Montreal and he has been trying to reabilitate it.
His thing is that there is interesting and pretty things everywhere. But if you consider your surrounding to be boring or crappy, whichever it may be, you are not going to see it.
I come from suburbia too, and i have felt about the same in the past. I found that if you walk around for long enough you can always find something interesting.
And as a last resort, just start taking pictures of the people. There are some cool people everywhere.
Oh, and one last thing. Winter sucks! You might feel better when the weather gets better.

That was just some random guy's random thought. It is probably not worth much... but maybe it can help
 
What you say makes sense. Spring would help a lot! How to take random photos of people without seeming "weird" is hard (maybe I am just shy).
 
I live right in Los Angeles, so I just get out of my car and walk around. This doesn't sound like much, but you have to realize that nobody walks in LA, yes, that song is true, so when you walk around, you just see more.

You probably will seem 'weird' to other people when taking pics of strangers, but the way to get around that is to not let it bother you. Make yourself believe you're invisible. I haven't perfected this myself though.. i'm a little on the shy side too.. but sometimes if i'm feelin' ballsy, I can get some good shots.
 
Oh, at least you get the cherry blossums soon and have a pretty Fall! I lived up there for about a year and a half and thought it was gorgeous. Here in Texas it is brown, flat, and blah.

I found it very depressing to see all the pretty winter pictures everyone had of snow, ice, etc. So, I improvised. I started looking around when I was on the highways and decided to go industrial. I've been going out to mills, shooting bridges (even of the highway), old cars, etc.

There is always something :) I am kind of glad that it was Winter when I got my new camera because it has made me be more creative. (I still can't wait until its prettier out, though!)
 
Hike the local parks. There a ton of them close by. Go to Great Falls. Lots of opportunities there.
Macro is one of my favs so when I hike there is an endless supply of subjects (bugs).
Ski Liberty may not be to far from you. You can shoot shoot skiers and landscape.

This time of year is tough.
 
I like going out at night I like seeing reflections on water and how the light falls on buildings, I like trying to capture what I see to its truest form, because my relatives are in England and I am in the US I try and capture the character of what I see so they see it through my eyes, if that makes sense.
 
I think I could find things to shoot anywhere but I am jealous of people who get to go shoot without two kids under foot. I love and adore my kids and all, but I really never have time anymore to go anywhere even slightly interesting
 
Good God, of all the places to be in, Montreal has likely as close to an infinite capacity to find interesting places shoot pictures of as any place on earth!

This city is replete with buildings from brand new to over 200 years old. The culture is multinational as well as multilingual. Of all places in Canada, very few offer such a recepie of the perfect smorgasbord that this set of unique circumstances create for picture taking.

The architectures are not the only thing... the vastly different cultures make an interesting melange. With anything from Haitian to European to French or Anglo to Asian and more all in a relatively small area makes shooting people of different colours, race or creeds as simple as driving 10-15 minutes to a different part of town.

Want to shoot nature? We have a mountain (Mount Royal), that offers miles of places to walk and shoot nature scenes. We very likely have the highest concentration of beautiful and unique churches anywhere. A 35-60 minute drive outside of town and you are basically in farm country or forests or mountains big enough to ski from or lose yourself for days hiking in.

Anyone that would be bored here is someone that is currently locked up in their home now due to the weather, but there are many places one can go to to shoot incredible pictures of almost any topic. Landscape, street, people, architecture... anything your little heart desires, you name it, Montreal more than likely has it somewhere!
 
I am a complete wuss when it comes to winter. The other night with the eclipse, I set up my tripod at 7:30, and through the course of 3 hours, ran in and out of the house until the eclipse was over. That was probably the most I've purposely gone outside all winter (other than going to the car to go to work/store/where ever).

I just got a half decent camera right before Christmas. I have 2 girls, 4 and 7, and have so many places we like to go when the weather's nice. There's the old mill with the waterfall, the lake, Kinzua Dam, Allegheny National Forest, Cook's Forest where there are canoe'ers, bikes everywhere, hikes through the forest. Also, I live in a very rural area with many small towns around as well as petroleum factories. I have many ideas for photos, it's just too darn cold for me.

Western Pennsylvania is full of very old bridges. I love old bridges. Also, there are old barns everywhere. I love those as well. The problem for me now is, I use to have a motorcycle and was known to go on 400-500 mile rides all by myself. I would stop everywhere and take pictures with my old 2 mp point and shoot camera. I no longer have the bike, and I find it is not as easy to just stop anywhere in a car for photos. I could stop nearly anywhere on the side of the road I wanted with the bike, but with a car, you have to find a place to stop. Also, I'm not likely to be out driving around by myself in the car. If I'm in the car, I also have the wife and kids with me and they wouldn't want to be stopping everywhere waiting while I run down the road to take photographs.

For non-landscapes, I see so many interesting photos posted here and elsewhere of just plain ordinary stuff. A doorway on an old building. An old window with a broken pane of glass. Others are even able to make a shot of a road sign interesting. My problem is with this type of subject, I just don't see it. I can't look around my surroundings and see the great photo-to-be of just ordinary stuff. I have tried around the house outside (on the days it is not freezing out :D) and I fail to achieve anything that stands out as an interesting photo.

But come springtime, when we are packing up a picnic lunch and heading out to the mill or to the lake or river with the kids, I'll have my camera hanging at my side and will have plenty to shoot at in a landscape sense. I just hope I'm able to eventually develop visualization skills to see the great photographs that are possible around me.
 
Town is kind of boring but I got the mountains an hour to the West and thje Ocean 1.5 hours East. I guess I can't complain.
 
You said it in passing, you already know the answer to your problem. Whenever people say "I don't know what to shoot, I'm bored, I'm out of subjects" that means to me "I'm afraid to take pictures of strangers." People are the most interesting subject. It's timeless, and the images get an additional edge as they become older. Heck, many of the old B&Ws wouldn't be half as interesting to us if (beyond their composition and the subject's faces) they weren't also a slice of life from "back then".

Figure it out. Learn to shoot people. Intimate and insightful shots of friends and family, as well as observations of strangers. Yes, it's hard, but it is worth learning how to do it.
 
I have shot a lot of where I live in and around Toronto and will still shoot much more. I like going to unknown places and venture out to where I have not been before. At times I find nothing and at other times I find some wonderful things. I turn on my GPS and just wonder on back roads, look for small towns and try and just keep my eye open for anything interesting and that was when I just had a P&S. Now I am going to be even more adventurous since I have a much better Camera. Plus I get my New Truck tomorrow at 11:00 am so I will be doing a lot of driving and hoping to start getting some real use out of my camera. I was on my way to take photos Thursday and instead bought a new truck and didn't even get one photo that day lol....
 
I don't know what your transportation circumstance is like but you do know you live within striking distance of some wonderful forests and natural areas in Virginia and the surrounding area and also, it seems you are pretty close to the coast as well. I find it hard to accept what you say being a fellow denizen of the northeast and having appreciated some of the nature in your area.
 

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