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It was only a few years ago that my camera spent more time in the corner of my closet than in my hands… but spring always inspired me to dig it out again.
I’d go out for a walk, always intrigued by the first daffodil of the season. The burst of yellow like a beam of hope, cutting through the chilly air, and warming up my mood in an instant.
The resulting photos are just snapshots, though – beautiful to the sentimental me, but ugly to the critic I’ve turned into. So many snapshots with busy green backgrounds and unflattering midday sunlight.
My photos never stood out back then… back then I took photos, but now I make them. I used to go searching for pre-made scenes, but now I only search for the ingredients to cook up my own.
Spring still inspires me, but I no longer let my level of inspiration determine whether or not I will work. After 68 weeks of photos, and a bit of retrospect, I can see that my inspired work is never as good, nor as satisfying, as the work I have to push myself through. Inspiration is for lazy artists.
What are these numbered posts all about? Read the introduction to my Photo & 100 Words project and find out!
I can’t work without some sort of inspiration. It’s not that I’m copying what I see outside, but I do find elements of it creeping into my work. Even if you think you’re “uninspired” (a strange choice of word for your work!) you are still inspired by or influenced by the world around you. But you don’t rely on a naturally occurring scene to make you get out the camera. You create the scene yourself. Likewise, I don’t paint the view from my studio window, but it sure influences all the leaves, seed pods and now birds that are appearing in my paintings. They are painted from my imagination, but an imagination that has been well-stoked with the inspiration of reality. Certainly, when you create from your own vision, you never run out of “inspiring” material with which to work!
Forgot to mention – absolutely gorgeous photo!
Thanks =D You’re absolutely right, too, we are always influenced, we just have to make ourselves tap into it sometimes.
I visited your Pinterest boards recently and I see a lot of your influences in the nature photos you’ve posted. None are exact copies, like you said, but I totally see the similarities and your take on these fascinating pieces of nature.
So maybe inspiration is always a part of the process, but it doesn’t always just come to you… you have to go find it!