Inspiration – from where?

In art, we talk about inspiration.  That thing that gets you all jazzed, throws you into a new creative realm and unleashes your inner being (whatever that is).  I’ve been fiddle faddling around for the last few years with photography.  Many years ago I studied art photography at college.  I loved creating images.  Light and dark, negative space, give me a few glasses of wine and I can espouse for hours about the beauty of negative space.  A photo is a moment that can last a lifetime.  But how do we find inspiration as photographers? 

It isn’t like being a painter, where you can stare at your canvas and take hours to put the first stroke.  As a painter you can choose to make great art at 6am, midday, 6pm or midnight.  As a painter you are not held captive to outside influences.  I know, I used to paint oils.  I acknowledge there are exceptions – landscape painters who go out in the field and those who paint portraits from a live sitter.

The delight and the burden of photography on the other hand, is that if we want to photograph outside, we are at the mercy of day and night, seasons, rain, wind, sun and shade.  Of course if you go into a closed studio with no natural light you command complete control of your environment.  You could choose to have rain – but only if someone brought a rain machine inside! 

So as a photographer, I have found there are three stages to a great photo.  Sometimes all the stages coincide at once and you wander past, snap! and there is your magical photo.  I have a few of those photos over the years.  But while sometimes they were planned, often they were lucky.  To be consistent, to produce repeatable results – you need the three Ps.  Planning, Patience, and Practice. 

Planning.  A year or two ago before I gave myself a kickstart (2 month in Paris), I used to feel bad about not going out shooting.  But I was waiting for inspiration.  Huh.  Inspiration usually only happened to me on vacation, hence I have fabulous shots of Italy, New York etc.  So I thought it was a fabo idea to move to Paris for two months to immerse myself in my photography.  So I did… and it was a wonderful thing to do… and I still had to motivate to get out the door, choose where to go, when to go, and what my idea was.  Sometimes surfing the internet seemed easier.  In Paris, you say?  Tragically, after a few weeks and some bad foreign language encounters… yes.  Hence, if you can be in the heart of Paris and still have troubles with inspiration; here are my thoughts.  These are words to live by as a photographer… that sound simple, but are often far harder to put into practice.  I am living proof!

Planning.  Hrumph.  I should go take some photos.  What’s the weather forecast?  Rainy.  Can’t take good photos.  Rain/sun.  Dunno.  Golden light is at sunrise and sunset.   Should I bother to get up early if it is a 50/50 chance?  Should I skip the usual dinner time to take photos and annoy my husband/other friends?  Did you notice that I put planning as a category in bold twice?  It’s because I have found that without a plan, you might take good photos but the odds are against you.  With a plan, there is no guarantee but the odds are increased.  What does a photo plan look like?

– Where?  Location
– What/why?  Why that location?  What is your story or what is the visually compelling opportunity?
– When?  What will the light be like?  Do you want golden light, pre-dawn, post-sunset or harsh midday light?  If you are shooting a specific object, consider the direction of the light, the shadows and highlights.  Do you want to show texture, drama, shape, form?  What time of day will offer you the light to achieve this?

Patience.  Now you have a plan, you need patience.  You can just walk around and snap off shots.  Okay, you can.  But you will likely achieve a better photo with some patience.  Walk around and look at the objects, the light, where the shadows are falling.  Are there people moving?  Is there water in motion?  What if you snapped someone’s shadow in motion against a wall?  There are constantly changing images in front of you.  Have the patience to wait for the one you want… or the one you didn’t know you might see.  If nighttime is falling, take a few test shots to anticipate your composition when the light is perfect.  You only get a few minutes to take the perfect shot.  Take an hour to be patient and plan as much as you can so that “spontaneous shot” is great.

Practice.  Pretty simple.  Do it often.  Get better.  More consistency in each shoot.  Higher chance of a great shot from each shoot.  Yay.  Concert pianists practice.  Baseball players practice.  Anyone who wants to be great at something where you have one shot… one moment to make something great… needs to practice.  (Note to self.)