Moving Forward – Finding Inspiration
I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus recently. I haven’t posted as much as I’d like and I haven’t been out shooting much either. I sat down a few nights ago and asked myself why. The answers that came back were the same as most of us have when we find ourselves not working up to our expectations; personal issues, family problems, lack of funds, lack of inspiration and motivation, and no organized plan.
I decided that personal issues and family problems will always exist and everyone has them. They make a weak excuse for not doing what I like to do. I find it hard to believe that every photographer except me has a perfect life. As a matter of fact, if you really pay attention to Twitter, you will find that everyone has these issues. Nope, that I can’t fix, so I’ll just have to get over it. I can do that.
I’ve always known that lack of funds is an invalid reason for not shooting or posting. Yes, I could say that I can’t afford to travel to the places I want to shoot and, as a matter of fact, a four week trip that looped the western United States was cancelled/postponed this summer due to the funding issue. But there are still great shots and opportunities to shoot without leaving my home town. This week’s photo of the week is one of those. I walked out my back door and into the shot.
That brings us to the lack of inspiration. I thought that by staying home, I would find some way to be inspired. Nope, that didn’t happen. I had to go look for the inspiration. I found it in two places. Google+ and 500px. Both are great sites to find some awesome images from amazing photographers. I recommend that you visit 500px just for the images alone.
After looking at the images on G+ and 500px, I have found a lot of new things I want to try photographically. Macro, lighting, different points of view, etc. and I’ve started pursuing those challenges.
I’ve also started going back and looking at my images from the past and reevaluate images that I didn’t think were good enough. I’m trying to use the photographic eye that I’ve learned from looking at G. Dan Mitchell’s work, things I’ve learned in LightRoom, and Photoshop to find images that are good. Not just good enough, but good.
As for the organized plan I am reevaluating my websites, their purpose and what I want to do with my photography. I have already started formulating some of the changes that I want to make in both my photography and on my sites.
When I was coaching, someone once told me that there are only two directions in life. You are either moving forward or you are moving backward. Nobody ever stands still.
There are changes in the future.
