At times (even through my on-going 367-50 project) I've run dry when it comes to ideas. When this has happened, I've made a habit of hitting either my collection of photography books or getting on-line to research ideas for photo projects. What struck me is that many of the ideas that are around in terms of photo projects are basically the same. Read through the blogs, and the same ideas keep coming up. I'm not knocking this, and in fairness they're pretty good. The main ones that keep getting suggested are:
Start a 365 project
Take a shot a day for a year. Or a shot a week for a year. This does force you to think about shots and forces you you simply take shots, even when you don't feel like it. 365 projects have a fairly high drop-out rate as they do demand a big commitment to take, process and ultimately do something with a large number of shots. I post mine in weekly batches on the blog here and am currently up to week 42 of my own year-long project. It's been a learning experience for me and while not all my pictures have been great ones, I've tried out new techniques, styles and ideas. Picking themes for a week has also helped - a nifty 50 week, a movie stills week, a self portrait week and so on. These need a bit of planning in advance but for me, have been well worth it. 365 projects are great, but you need to be sure that you'll keep it up.
Constrain yourself
Take one lens (commonly suggested is the 50mm) and shoot with nothing but that lens for a day, a week, a month. If you don't have a 50mm (or 60mm or 85mm) prime lens, take what you have and work with it. If you have a standard 18-55mm kit lens on your DSLR, set the zoom to 50mm and stick to that, or tape the lens at a set focal length. Mind you, at under £100 for both Nikon and Canon a 1.8 50mm lens is within most people's budget. With no zoom, you have to think more about composition, work with your feet more and consider your viewpoint. The upside is that a prime lens will give you very sharp shots, nice depth of field and ultimately some great shots.
Shoot from the hip
Go walking around town with your camera on your hip and snap away without looking through the viewfinder. A reasonably wide angle lens is best for this and you need to click a lot of times in order to get a collection of good shots. It does produce candid street shots but is (by its nature) hit and miss. Think of it as an experiment.
Look up/Look Down
Instead of walking around the same places, try looking up and viewing your street/town/city from that viewpoint. Buildings especially look different when you get low and shoot up. The same applies to looking down - we rarely pay much attention to what is at our feet. Pavements, rads, beaches, paths all have things to offer if you look for them.
A-Z
Shoot all the letters from A to Z - either literally by using signs, graffiti and so on or try to shoot something beginning with each letter of the alphabet. Put these together in a collage when you've got them all.
Pick a Theme
Pick one theme and shoot this theme for 10 minutes, one day, one week. It could be a colour, a shape, an object - anything that keeps you shooting. Again, a collage is a good way to show these off afterwards.
Self Portraits
Working with yourself as the model will teach you a lot about lighting. posing and setting up your camera. It's a good idea to get you into portraits, especially if you're not happy approaching people to model for you or you don't have easy access to models. All you need is a tripod and a self-timer and the world is your oyster in terms of self-portraits.
Sunsets/Sunrises
You can't fail to love sunrises and sunsets. Get up before the sun comes up (easier in the winter) and take yourself off somewhere scenic and shoot away. The same is true for sunsets. A tripod is handy, and cheapo filters (ND's and Grads from Cokin are good) can offer you a bit more to play with.
Get Painting
Light painting is fun, surprisingly easy to do and requires very little equipment. Indoors, you need a dark room and a torch. Try writing with the torch (remember to write back-to-front) or using it to paint objects. Long exposures are needed for these shots, usually anywhere between 10-15 seconds with a reasonable f-stop (f11) and low ISO (100/200). Outside you'll ned darkness too, but you have more variety. Take a large torch and paint buildings, rocks, landscapes etc. Make shapes (battery-operated fairy lights can be duct-taped to hula hoops, frames, even people) draw pictures. Use a combination of this with light painting the background or subject.
Ok - those are the ones that keep cropping up. Here a few of my own, which have mainly come about through my own 365 project.
Shoot one room in your house and shoot it to death
Pick a room and shoot it from every angle and perspective you can think of. Close-up and macro shots come naturally if you do this. My house has seven rooms, so that would be one room each day for a week. If you have a garden, all the better - it's just an extra room.
Shoot your family
Try to take portraits of as many family members as you can. Parents, grandparents, children, aunts. uncles etc. Try to do them in a certain style, or try to match a style to the subject. If nothing else, you'll end up with a nice snapshot of your family at the time you took the pictures.
Try something different
There are masses of good photography tutorials on Youtube and every camera mag has a wide selection of "how to" articles. Pick something that fits your existing gear (it's not hard) but that you haven't tried before. You'll soon find that one project leads to another and then another until you're coming up with a lot more ideas than you started out with.
Pick a Photographer and try to emulate their style or approach
Or copying, if you prefer. Slinkachu's work with little miniature figures got me started on something similar. Cartier-Bresson is always an inspiration for street photography. Read photobooks and see what you like, figure out why you like it and see if you can replicate it. Even if you don't succeed 100%, you will still learn something from the process.
Go Somewhere different
A change of scenery can help you see things differently. Take a bus, a train, cycle or drive somewhere you haven't been before. You'd be surprised at how many places near to where you live can offer something new or different. Stick a pin in a map and see where it takes you.
And Finally...
Here's a couple of books, reasonably priced, that offer some really good ideas, suggestions and pointers and that have helped me expand my creativity:
The New A-Z of Creative Photography by Lee Frost
52 Photographic Projects by Kevin Meredith
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