Local inspiration?

Any thoughts or suggestions on finding inspiration where I live? I usually

travel to interesting places that I find inspiring and the creative process

seems to be so easy and fun. How can I find inspiration and motivation to

photograph my immediate surroundings which seem so boring and mundane to me? Is

it forcing myself to see things in a different way? Any comments would be

appreciated!!

 

Paul

"Any comments would be appreciated!!"

 

I literally find inspiration in my backyard.

 

One method of finding inspiration, is leave the camera at home and wander with your photogaphic eye; see what strikes your fancy. Later, go back and make the captures.

 

Hope the above helps.

Dunno! Where do you live? :)

 

I tried to break my stuckness last night. An associate took me to a neighborhood worker's bar. It's in the industrial zone. I was doing just great (love the folks) until I about got sh*tfaced trying to blend in. :) But I have pictures!

"I tried to break my stuckness last night. An associate took me to a neighborhood worker's bar. It's in the industrial zone. I was doing just great (love the folks) until I about got sh*tfaced trying to blend in. :) But I have pictures!"

 

Recreational boozing is a wonderful way to find inspiration. You'll constantly wonder 'why hasn't anyone photographed this yet'...and when you look at the results the next day you'll have your answer :)

"...until I about got sh*tfaced trying to blend in. :) "

 

"Profeshinol" hazard. :) Let us know when they're posted.

Being a caregiver, I have to stay very local, and at first it was frustrating trying to find epic shots. After a while, I began paying closer attention to the light and to my surroundings, searching out subjects as I went driving about my day (getting the mail or food shopping). When I found something, I wrote it on an index card (clipped to the sun visor) along with a quick note, such as "go back afternoon sun", or "go back Sunday", etc. I now have so many subjects, for so many light or seasonal conditions that I have NO problem firing a roll or two per week.

I had a photography professor had out assignments on small slips of paper like a fortune cookie. They were always one word like rhythm, balance, opposition etc. And he would give everyone in the class the same location. The last was the time limit: 24 hours. The hardest, more rewarding location was broom closet 2nd floor of the architecture building. I still remember the closet jammed with 8 students with 35mm cameras loaded with Tri-X film trying like hell to find something original. Most of us did. Because we had to.

"Where ever you go, there you are."

"forcing myself to see things in a different way".. could be a good start Paul.

 

Maybe include people? Taking a couple of feet off your perspective could work too. But painful.

 

May the sauce be with you Pico. Sh*t-faced. Is that like a complementary colour combination? Sitting on stool seems reasonably relaxed. But wiping your face with it? I suppose you could use a brown filter...or a green...depending on the ale.

 

You have got to love saturday morning on photo.net! It's just so...simulating!

I was driving to the post office this afternoon and the sun was shining on frozen lakes left over from previous rains. I saw some sheep standing, looking over the fence, and some beautiful horses on the other side of the fence looking back at the sheep. Did I have my compact digital camera with me? Nope. I bought the thing so I could capture just such photos. Next time I'll take it with me to wherever I go.

Sometimes you can look around your home, find macro objects, or still life objects....you don't even have to leave the house. You could find scenes around your neighborhood that otherwise seem boring but try shooting these scenes with a blur, especially at night. How about freeway/highway over passes at night? Bring the tripod and take some slow exposures of the cars going by. These often make for interesting comps. Often during stuckness times, I use the time to study advanced PhotoShop techniques, or remaster and reprint raw images I took in the past, changing some to sepia, or B&W, that sort of thing. One can do "photography" behind the computer, re-interpreting shots you took awhile ago.

 

It is often in the "meantime" that we do our most growing. If I used all my free time to shoot, then I would not grow as much, have as much time to read, research, learn new techniques in PS.

 

I shoot around 1,200 images per month for personal use, so it's not like I'm studying in the house all the time, but I do try to use my stuckness time productively, in regard to photography.

 

What about going out and not necessarily looking for great compositions, but rather, shots that are light-challanging, like back light subjects, indoor flashless; do this not to get keepers but rather to practice techniques....you get home and review your shots for the day, detemining what you did right or wrong, then after you learned something, delete all the images. For me venturing out with the cameras is not just about returning home with keepers necessarily, but returning home with practice shots that I delete shortly after I review them for critique on the PC....in these circumstances, I'm not worried about composition rules, rather about techniques to mitigate challanging shots.

 

But of course during my unstuck time, when I feel inspiration, my goal is to venture out and return with keepers.

do something for someone else. for charity. you'll be insipered.

"How can I find inspiration and motivation to photograph my immediate surroundings which seem so boring and mundane to me?"

 

Because you've become detatched from your surroundings.

 

The backyard? Light,.....work the light. The neighborhood? Photograph the neighborhood in the same fashion that you'd photograph a mountain stream, with love. If you photograph in the day, walk the night. If you photograph at night, walk the day. Reconnect to your surroundings.

 

I'm posting a capture I made three weeks ago, while walking the neighborhood. Not asking for approval or a critique; just simply posting it as an example of connecting photographically to the neighborhood, with love.

 

We worry too much about other's approval of our photographs. The most freeing thing happens when one realizes that there's no such thing as a valid critique for in the end, there's only a person's bias cause we've all been taugh how to think.<div></div>

Photography is like driving, most accidents happen close to home. Just kidding.

 

I bought an infra-red filter and my backyard became a new world. Hang a backdrop and photograph against it. Endlessly change lighting on a still-life, its really hard ! Since I shoot people, any new person is inspiration. Use/get a macro lens. Shoot through a microscope or a telescope.

 

btw, great portfolio Paul :)

I'm going ramble a bit and post some images, with explanations for guidance. Hopefully the images will do what I hope they were posted for, to encourage you in what it is you're wanting.

 

"...find inspiration and motivation to photograph my immediate surroundings which seem so boring and mundane to me?"

 

I spend my time, mining the neighborhood and my life for images. This is where I live. Ansel had Yosemite, Stieglitz had NYC, I've got San Jose. You've got you and where you're at.

 

I find that I can get images anywhere I go, front yard, backyard, down the street to the local strip mall. The images lack the grandeur of the Rockies or the Pyramids and lack the grit of San Francisco but they're images of my town. :)

 

"Is it forcing myself to see things in a different way?"

 

No, it's falling in love all over again and not caring what the neighbors (critics and other photographers) say about the love afair you're having with your surroundings. It's realizing that it's about the image and your feelings, not what others think. It's okay to take shots of the "boring and mundane."

 

HCB gave us action and Eggleston gave us the banal ("I'm at war with the obvious.") and it's up to you to free yourself from the constraints, the locks, the chains that you've been saddled with; bias.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/2909087&size=lg

 

I wanted the trash can and the white of the deposited trash to be visible as that's part of the urban landscape. We're too quick to hide the obvious. Make it part and parcel to the image just as one would a flower in a mountain meadow.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/2585107&size=lg

 

San Jose, the Capital of Silicon Valley. I wanted to toy with this arrogance by making this capture; "so out of sync" with San Jose's motto.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/5174947&size=lg

 

We take shots, and almost kill ourselves to make images of rural sunrises and sunsets and do everything we can to hide from life's realities; here's a true urban sunrise, for those who have the time to stop a moment and appreciate life's gifts.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/2923818&size=lg

 

To stop, if but for a moment, to appreciate the blue of the sky, ignoring but for a moment all the clutter which surrounds us. When we forget to stop and appreciate, our soul dies a little bit each day until we find it empty, gone, forgotten and not knowing why.

 

"http://www.photo.net/photo/2752540&size=lg

 

We are surrounded by our questions, and yet the answers to who we are, are right in front of us.

 

Will these images be appriciated. Shrug. Probably not. Why? Because they don't hold sway to photographic canon. But when one learns more about them, the love that I have for each image, that indeed they have soulful meaning they grow just a bit in stature and I share these insights with you so as to hopefully open you back up and help you reconnect to your surroundings.

 

From my wife's backyard, I share her efforts with the world.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/5153110&size=lg

 

"Any comments would be appreciated!!"

 

You have to love where you live, be willing to share this love and when you do, you'll be able to share this love with the viewer via your photographic efforts.

 

Hope the above ramblings help.

Some great advice! I've also been a caregiver in recent years in an area (Plymouth, MA) that's been over-photographed to the point where it's tough to avoid postcard cliches. One solution, especially in cold weather, has been to get some flowers at our local supermarket and photograph arrangements near a sunny window or scan the blossoms and arrangements on a large flatbed scanner.

 

I've mentioned this before, but since the subject's come up, here's a link to some of the results: http://www.photo.net/photodb/presentation.tcl?presentation_id=288186

Thank you all for your considerate and thoughtful responses!! Photography is like anything else in life, the surprises are what makes it worthwile. I will try not to think so much and stop looking for that masterpiece.

 

Paul

Paul how ever did you come to that conclusion? Go on looking for the sublime and start by looking in your backyard. The irony of all us moving around to find the masterpiece, is that I might travel for days and weeks to arrive in your backyard to be sure to get a real exotic and unique photo!

"One day Dorothea Lange looked at my work and said: "I see your problem, Raphael, you

have no point of departure". She went on to explain that if I was going down to the drugstore

to buy toothpaste the changes of encountering a important photograph would be far greater

than if I just stood on the street corner waiting for something to occur. She maintained that

a photographer must be directed, have a <I>point of departure</I>. This admonition was to

become the backbone of my creative process."<P>Been working this way for the last 35 years

and it seems to work for me.

Since I first picked up mommy's poloroid camera when i was 4 years old or so, and pointed it up at a windmill, i have been a wanderer, hoping to cross paths with THAT image.

 

I have continued to wander....but it has gotten to be a stale practice for me....somewhat boring and mundane as you say, Paul.

Wandering seems to be the advice of choice from the responders of this question. I disagree with what everyone has said here so far.

 

Quite literally, at this moment, i have realized that just like making a sculpture or a painting or a drawing, a photograph should be MADE. THAT inspirational image or motovation needs to be MADE, not simply happened upon.

 

I'm not suggesting going out and photographing is some terrible practice, but you should have a goal in mind, something TO capture specificaly, something to work on. Be like Weston, make a still life with very specific intent to be photographed. Or maybe go to a specific place, choose the time, the weather, the camera, the lens, the filter, the method of printing or display. MAKE a photograph!

 

!Give yourself an assignment!

 

If you want to wander and hope for catching the best....go grab some tackle and bait, fill your cooler with a beverage of choice, and head to the muddy slope at the water's edge. Photography is not fishing.

Paul, you will have a much better chance of catching your local area when there are good or interesting light conditions. When traveling the light is often just luck and usually not ideal. With your local area you can take your time and wait for the right conditions.

 

Also you should be much more aware of the details and minutiae of your local area that a passing visitor is going to miss.

"Quite literally, at this moment, i have realized that just like making a sculpture or a painting or a drawing, a photograph should be MADE. THAT inspirational image or motovation needs to be MADE, not simply happened upon."

 

What you write is a personal opinion as both are valid forms of aquiring focus lock. And considering that you wrote, "...at this moment, i have realized that just like making a sculpture or a painting or a drawing, a photograph should be MADE."

 

There is no "right" canon as to how an image should be created. Wander, ispired or by assignment, it's all photography.

 

This shot is a wander shot......

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/1915720&size=lg

 

.....and this shot is an inspired shot.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/3955716&size=lg

 

Is one image more valid that the other?

 

When I wander, (This is a hobby isn't it?) sometimes there's purpose in mind, other times it's serendipitous in photographic nature. Sometimes I've seen the shot in advance, go straight to the location and get the shot.

 

A bit of a morning ramble to follow.

 

What's wrong with photography being fun? Why all this need for rigid structuring? Go with the flow of the moment and have a good time by not making it an assignment. Or is photography really about making money and getting the shot is an assignment which must be consumated so you can hang the next great shot in a gallery and make ten grand so as to pay the bills?

 

Is photography about having fun or is photography a money making, "work" related proposition?

Hop on a bus.

 

Ride to the end of the line, then walk back toward town, taking shots at every bus stop and other points of interest as you go along.<br>

1. You'll get tired and</br>

2. Run down a battery and<br>

3. Have more shots than you'll want to process/post process.<div></div>

Well yes, you can happen across an image that is remarkable when wandering, i don't disagree with that. I mean...i used to shoot a lot from the car on the freeway, just screwing around, and happened upon some interesting and amazing compositions. But if thats ALL you do, then thats ALL you'll get in the end, some images happened upon.....thus my fishing analogy. If photography is your hobby, that's really as far as you might need to go for enjoyment.

I play music as a hobby, and wander around the fretboard or keyboard. I still wander with my camera too.

 

But if you are like myself and want to MAKE something rather then happen upon something , You need to make a project for yourself, set a scene up or set yourself up in the right place and moment with the camera. I write out a composition with the music, and record it meticulously for 2-3 days, and yet it is still my hobby purely for satisfaction of making something. I find more enjoyment and thrill tackling a project i set for myself. I want to catch a wide mouth Bass, not just any fish.

 

The wandering aspect of photography is like a sketchbook. It serves as an idea platform. You dont even need the camera to wander and gather ideas. If you're having trouble finding inspiration in your local area just wandering, and are trying to look at things another way, setting a goal is one pretty solid way to tackle the problem.

But if thats ALL you do, then thats ALL you'll get in the end, some images happened upon.....thus my fishing analogy.

 

And then there's the skilled fishermen who know what they're doing. It really is a skill based pursuit as is photography. Me thinks you're not giving enough credit towards the skill building aspect of the hobby. Making images happen, where ever you go, is part of the photographic experience.

 

"If photography is your hobby, that's really as far as you might need to go for enjoyment. I play music as a hobby, and wander around the fretboard or keyboard. I still wander with my camera too."

 

When one takes any pursuit too seriously, one has a tendency to lose sight of the "fun" factor.

 

"But if you are like myself and want to MAKE something rather then happen upon something , You need to make a project for yourself, set a scene up or set yourself up in the right place and moment with the camera."

 

That's where we might differ in that I don't belive in setting a scene as the set scene is the art, not the photograph as the photograph is "nothing" more then a recording of the created scene.

 

"I write out a composition with the music, and record it meticulously for 2-3 days, and yet it is still my hobby purely for satisfaction of making something. I find more enjoyment and thrill tackling a project i set for myself. I want to catch a wide mouth Bass, not just any fish."

 

Why not do both and enjoy the experience.

 

"The wandering aspect of photography is like a sketchbook. It serves as an idea platform. You dont even need the camera to wander and gather ideas."

 

And if you note, one of my suggestions was wandering, sans camera.

 

"One method of finding inspiration, is leave the camera at home and wander with your photogaphic eye; see what strikes your fancy. Later, go back and make the captures."

 

"If you're having trouble finding inspiration in your local area just wandering, and are trying to look at things another way, setting a goal is one pretty solid way to tackle the problem."

 

And if you're void of ideas, it's kinda hard to set a goal.

 

Wandering is good both with and without a camera.

 

Wandering:

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/5286714&size=lg

 

Inspired:

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/3805361&size=lg

 

"It's all good man." :)