More often than not, many of us find ways to inspire ourselves through other people who are doing the same things as ourselves. If you’re a musician, you look to other musicians who perform similar styles of music. If you’re a basketball player, you look at how other ball players train. If you’re a wedding photographer, you look up galleries of wedding photographers you admire and try to dissect how they achieved a particular photography technique.
I used to do that, until I realised that it imposed a restriction on the ideas I had. I started looking at images from other genres of photography: sports, commercial, landscape, to name a few. These photos gave me new direction, and new pieces that brought me closer to my own distinct style. For instance, I could apply a certain way of lighting with the compositional rules of a landscape image, and then break that very rule to create something unique.
What’s more interesting to myself, is it dawned on me that watching movies and basketball games (yes NBA games!) actually inspired me in terms of photography too! Every time I finished watching a film, I just feel like going for a shoot immediately, with various ideas and concepts floating around in my head. I can’t pinpoint what caused it, could be the cinematography involved, the technicality of lighting actors’ faces, or the intricately designed props and film sets. One thing I do know, is whenever I feel depleted of inspiration, catching movies always seems to pull me right back in.
What is your unique source of inspiration?
And to make your day better, here’s a random picture of Eva :p
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