How to be inspired - Photographer edition: 10 ideas to get you unstuck
Every so often, I find myself in a place where I’m not hitting on all cylinders or everything feels monotonous and tiresome. Some people call it a ‘creative slump’. For me, the range of emotions that come with this peculiar downturn starts with frustration, carries through to irritation and ends with helplessness. Nothing feels inspiring and when you look around at the world, it feels as if everyone else is thriving when you’re just trying to survive. How do I find my mojo again? Will I ever find my mojo?
“As we get unstuck, we can change the world”
If you’re anything like me, one of the first things I do is start googling and searching for inspiration online. I found a lot of advice that reenforced the importance of a healthy lifestyle like getting more exercise, sleeping more and eating healthy (agree with all of those points!). Some people even recommend drinking more coffee. Less screen time, more time outdoors. Less this, more that.
My hands-on approach to trigger thinking differently
I found that often times, I need something more than the basics that I find on Pinterest. Over the years, I have taken a ‘question’ first method approach to my creative slumps. For me, this forces me outside of my day-to-day actions and triggers my brain to think differently. These questions might not work for everyone (heck, it may not work for anyone but me) but I want to share it in case you can use it, adapt it and benefit from it in some way, shape or form.
10 Photography self challenges - to get you out of a slump
Spend a day photographing only blue objects. Try to find as many as you can inside, outside or within a 10 min walk. Challenge yourself to notice all colors of blue. Are there a few teal pieces? How does the sunlight give way to blue colors?
Try defining the word ‘essence’ through photography. Spend a day trying to capture what this word means to you. For a fun exercise, consider trying this once a month and see how your visuals change over the course of a year.
Photograph sound. I know - not possible. Or is it? How would you portray music or how would you show what you hear in your house?
Consider macro photography - try getting as close to something as you can. Shoot for a full hour this way. What details do you usually skip over? What textures do you pick up? How do you bring the small things to life?
Create a photoshoot setting. If it is around the holidays, set up a tree, gifts, a fireplace. If it is around Autumn, bring in a few hay bales, pumpkins and corn stalks. Instead of looking for a scene, create one. The one that you envision in your creative mind.
Begin compiling photos for a book, memoir or saga. Go back through your existing photos and pull together your most compelling shots into a coffee table book. Consider selling them for gifts.
Have you ever worked with film or experienced developing film in a dark room? Do a quick search online to see if there’s a local place that still dabbles in film. It is a fun experience and it helps reground you in the power of light.
Find a beam of light - whether natural such as the sun pouring through a window or something human made like a street light or a candle - and experiment. What shots can you get when the light is strong? soft? Can you maximize your exposure time just enough to not allow your work to be over exposed?
If you were asked to create a label for a candle, bottle of wine or spice bottle, what would you create? How would you do it in a restricted space such as a label. What colors would you focus on or what if you had to create a whole line of candles?
How do you capture beautiful human moments? Smiles on faces, warm embraces, laughter, surprise and delight. The joy of a child’s laughter or the excitement around the holiday? Consider taking some time to capture these precious moments with your loved ones.
Importance of thinking differently
You’ve probably heard the expression before that “Humans are creatures of habit”. Most of us sleep on the same side of the bed each night, have items on the grocery list that we consider ‘staples’, put our right sock on before our left sock and take the same route to work each week. Sometimes all it takes is switching up our routines a little to allow space for new and fresh thinking. Hopefully the questions mentioned above reinvigorate a sense of wonder for you.
In my experience, I do my best work when I feel a sense of purpose behind my actions. Sometimes, when I am not sure why I doing something or when I start to lean away from why I want to do something, it makes my work feel harder. Getting grounded in “why” is often the key to unlocking the stagnant feeling, ironically, to do that I often find that I need to get outside of my habits, allow myself space to be creative and then I’ll be able to find my why.
What do you do when you get stuck?