Thursday, March 24, 2011

Inspiration - photographically pt 2

"We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action."- Frank Tibolt
One of the guys in my camera club shared that quote with me. Thanks John!

Some more of the random like thoughts in my head about inspiration.






Inspiration Stealers:

  • Frustration
  • lack of energy
  • lack of sleep
  • lack of time
  • stress
  • fear
  • comparing your work to others
  • hurt
  • clutter in your mind
  • clutter in your life
  • failure avoidance - that is, feeling "I can't do that yet, so I won't try"


Inspiration for me comes easier when I'm relaxed and not overly stressed out.  I'll be thinking about that part in a bit.
Creating stuff for me is very emotional. Both in a good way and a bad way.  Once I get moving on doing stuff there's a great sense of purpose and calm and things just flow.  I think it's one of the coolest parts of this hobby of photography.  When things click - it's just awesome.  However, when you're not feeling it.... even picking up the camera can be difficult.

I think the positive side of that is why photography is somewhat therapeutic for me.  If I can get to a point where I can pick up my camera and start shooting, then within that process of shooting I start to find some perspective on all the stuff that I'm stressing about 'outside' of the photography.  The act of seeing (looking through a viewfinder is great for this) forces me to  see things differently - so I start to see the rest of my life and circumstances differently too.



How emotional is photography for you?

(the photos in this post are all mine and I included them only because I like them for different reasons)

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