24.08.09
What shall I shoot? Why should I shoot? How should I shoot?
1. Good shoes and 50 steps
Put on some good shoes, grab your camera, and start walking. After 50 steps, take a photograph. That image is the beginning of a project. Keep walking for a further 50 steps and take another photograph. A narrative will suggest itself. Keep going all day. It could be a one-day project, it could be the beginning of a new way of seeing. Either way keep going and don’t stop. Each day set off in a new direction. See where it takes you.
2. Look outside the box
Inspiration can come from anywhere.
So look everywhere!
3. Get inspiration from the past
There are hundreds of websites where you can look at images, but you’ve got to get away from that screen. Instead of spending a day clicking, take a trip to a local library, second-hand bookshop or high-street bookshop chain. Find the photography section and work your way through the shelves. Look at everything. Don’t simply stick to your specialist area.
4. Get in the picture
The only model you’ll have consistently available is you. Self-portraits aren’t vanity, they are a difficult problem to solve. So think creatively and move on from hiding behind a camera in a mirror.
5. Coffee and shoot
Get a coffee, sit at a well-positioned table and shoot every five minutes. This works especially well with street photography and still life. Go ahead, shoot first and ask questions later.
6. Every meal I eat
It worked for the Japanese photographer Araki. Start shooting what you eat, every time you eat. Explore composition, angles and lighting. There are a million ways to approach a single subject, so try a few.
7. Get informed
If you’re at a crossroads, get reading about other photographers who have been in the same place. Find out how they got their photographic ‘mojos’ back.
8. Shoot out of your comfort zone
If you’ve been shooting in one specific area, the problems posed by another subject may well free you up and teach you things that you can bring back to your area of expertise. Don’t label yourself, there are enough people out there who’ll do that for you.
9. Look backwards to go forwards
If you really are lacking the inspiration to shoot and none of the previous eight tips work for you, take time to look back through previous shoots. Use the benefit of hindsight to re-edit and reassess the work. It may be a way of bringing old work to life on your website or in your portfolio.
10. Help your fellow photographers
We’re all in this together, and we all face the same problems so lend a helping hand to a fellow photographer whenever you get a chance. Photographic karma is good karma.
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