Finding Inspiration

Inspiration for photography is all around me.  I see compositions that interest me everywhere I go.  I love to look at a scene, weather it be in nature, a town, or in my camera room, and then find a new way to create a visual story about it.  For instance - in the collage below, are 4 images of the Courthouse in Coudersport - all taken on the same day, with the same camera, same lens, same focal length, and same f-stop.  Each image is unique, and presents the Courthouse in a different way - which I imagine is much different than most people viewed the building on the same day.

The image of the Citizen's Northern was a hired piece.  I was asked to create something to use for their website's header image.  They allowed me creative control, which is excellent.  I had a vision of the bank being backlit by the sun, with beautiful lighting - possibly a sunset or sunrise, and no cars or foot traffic.  Unfortunately non of those conditions were ever going to happen within the time frame given for the project, so I started working with what I could use.  I had walked over from my shop every morning, and often in the evening for about a week, and each time there was something that I did not like about the batch of images.  I looked for inspiration within my own body of work, and tried many things.  I gave a whirl at creating a big HDR panorama, tried getting onto the roof of the building across the street, tried laying down on main street, tried standing on the roof of my car from a few different angles, and I also tried just leaving the camera at eye level - also from many different angles.  I just didn't feel moved by any of the images I had created, and if I don't like it, I don't show it.

I needed some inspiration, so I went to Flickr and checked out some architectural works.  Then it hit me - I was overthinking this project, and trying to be too creative.  At that moment I looked outside, and though it had been raining in the early morning, the sky was starting to clear, so I grabbed a camera and tripod and made my way back to the bank.  As soon as I saw the scene I knew what I wanted to do.  The sky was beautiful - blue with gobs of clouds everywhere, so I opted to make a symmetrical image with the corner of the bank splitting the image in two.  I stood far enough back and used a wide enough lens to incorporate the sky and the street into the composition.  I only took 3 photos (I bracketed 3 different exposures for safety) and walked back over to my shop.  Within 5 minutes I had the final piece ready.  

When I am working with people to create portraits I have many places to draw inspirations from.  I think about my own past work, my hero photographers, the place I am at, art pieces that I enjoy, and mainly - the people I am working with.  

This black and white photo of the couple on the tractor had inspirations from many places.  I knew that I wanted to really show off who they were as people, and there are many ways to do that.  I chose to work with some more modern inspirations.  I remembered seeing an image set by Joe McNally of some dancers in a desert - which were made by using the sun as a rim light, and a few off camera strobes for the main.  Though his image set had a totally different setting, subjects, and story, his use of light was inspiring to me.  I knew that using that style of technique would allow me to make an image that would really show who this couple was.  The other main inspiration for this image came from the couple.  

They are farmers - they put in long hours, work hard, and love the outdoors.  I knew I wanted to tell that story in as much detail as possible using only one frame.  I used the rusty tractor because the groom to be loved it.  With the tractor I composed it to create leading lines from the bottom right corner, straight to the couple.  I also had the light on the tractor to give the illusion that it could be early morning, or dusk could be approaching and they are still out working the fields.  I positioned the tractor in such a way that we could see the rolling hills, the fields, a few pieces of farm equipment in the background, and of course the sky.  I then set up the lights with no modifiers to create a hard light because I wanted to show off the grungy details of the tractor, the bit of stubble on the face of the groom to be, and to create a natural vignette.  Lastly, to show their love, I asked them to have a hug and a kiss.  (I always ask for a hug and kiss - in that order.  The couple will almost always be more relaxed for the kiss, and forget I am there for a minute once the get to the kiss part - which makes a more natural image).

I am always looking for inspiration - especially when I'm not actually on a shoot, or editing.  I'll read other photographer's blogs, stalk their social media sites, and view their websites.  I also get lots of inspiration from magazines.  I read many professional publications for photographers, but I often find that some of the most compelling and interesting images are in magazines that aren't for photographers - such as wedding or fashion magazines.  My wife loves to knit - and some of the portrait images in her knitting magazines are fantastic!

My previous career is another place where I draw lots of inspiration from.  As a classically trained musician, and jazz artist I often used to think of music in a visual way.  Using form an analysis of classical pieces, I could draw out a map of a piece's construction.  Just listing to something could inspire me to think of a scene, or colors, or give me a story to think about.  When I am creating an image, often I think of music as in inspiration.  If I were to put music to the image... what would it sound like?  Needless to say, my photographs may be completely different from one shoot to another (on the same day) depending on the music that I was listening to before or during the shoot.

Inspiration is all around me. 

Thanks for reading!