Thursday, April 28, 2005

Imagination and Inspiration for Photography

This is going to be a random article on my thoughts for inspirational places, ideas and creations for all of you photographers. I personally love photography and have found it to be a wonderful form of expression, beauty and life in general. I can honestly say that the world would be quite dreary and bland without the wonderful world of photography, as that is where a lot of our imaginations and thoughts rest. As they say... a picture says more than a thousand words, and I am quite sure that we can all agree on that statement. I have many different inspirations by photography, nature landscapes, old architectural building photography, animals, people and expressions, and still life elements such as a rose lying lifeless on top of piano keys. There are so many expressions and feelings that can be expressed in the world of photography. Two lovers posing with a soft kiss on the lips, a cat and a dog cuddling (perhaps meaning... maybe there can be peace after all?), a black and white photograph of a field on a rainy day with a rainbow broken out into the sky (maybe an English countryside?), all of these are inspirations. What would life be without inspiration? Let alone what would life be without photography? I personally used to take so many photographs of my animals, because they were just so darn cute and the camera loved them! I used to set my little beagle up in a pair of sunglasses and let him strike a Terminator pose. It was so cute, funny and charitable. Very sadly he passed away last summer, and I can only physically look at him by the preserved and saved pictures that I had taken of him. That is another reason why photography is extremely important. Maybe something you love will be there one day... and be gone the next, and the only thing that you will have to physically look at them by and smile, is by photography. Perhaps that is where the saying of a photograph is worth a million words comes into play. Taking pictures can be a form of meditation, especially if you happen to be a Freelance Photographer. I personally find inspiration and my own form of meditation within the realm of nature and its beauty. Nature gives expression. To me rain can represent creativity, deep emotions, mystery, eeriness, fantasy... while to many (and might I repeat many) people it represents sadness and gloom. Either way you can preserve a beautiful picture of the rain for someone to form their own imagination. I will make a long list of things that you can use to make your photographs come alive. Here are the items listed that you can feel free to use:

Candles, roses, piano's, rain, someone crying, lovers kissing, animals cuddling, animals individually, sunshine, the ocean, the moon, trees in the fall, a river frozen in the winter behind a cascade of frozen trees, ducks in a pond, zoo animals, a deserted and abandoned homestead, a sporting event such as; basketball, volleyball, track runner, swimmer, golfer, horseback riding, baseball, football, ballet, fishermen, sailing, water skiing, snow skiing/snowboarding, polar bears, seals, rain forests, Caribbean water, ice burg, ships, flowers, sunset against the mountains, an instrumentalist playing their instrument, an instrument without an owner such as a saxophone smothered in rose petals, cathedrals, churches, gothic architectural European buildings, farmland and the animals in it, castles, forests in the moonlight and stars.

There is a fun list to help you come up with creative photographs. Some of them are typical, but if you are a good photographer you can take an ordinary thing and mold it into something spectacular and amazing. You actually have to be kind of adventurous to be a photographer... willing to explore new things, new tastes and new styles. If you do your work will end up more recognized. If you limit yourself to one thing that is also great, because it allows you to form passion on that one thing that you are working with, and really turn it into something special and unique, though you may find something new to create a passion for if you keep an open mind. Either way, we all know that if you are going to be a good photographer, you need to portray an open mind as well as a lot of creativity. Photography is of expressions, style, uniqueness, words, stories, personal taste and inspiration. If you are a photographer for landscape (an extremely broad range for just one field), you may also want to incorporate animals or human expressions in that field as well. That way you can have a lot of options and things to work with, which will broaden your creativity and imagination (well it should anyway). If you are a photographer you also have to have a connection with what you are working with in order to really make it show, especially if you are trying to get a rise for emotion. Let us say that you are working with animals such as dogs. Before you just pose the animal, get it dressed up, or whatever you are going to do, be gentle with it and try to develop a connection with it, and you will be a lot more likely to get a stronger rise and emotion out of people. You can be a photographer that just snaps the camera and tells things how they are going to be, instead of working with them to help develop the natural state of emotion. A lot of photographers do not really ask what people are looking for in their photographs. Instead they demand what they want and tell them how it is. If you want a really truly beautiful picture the photographer should always be willing to work with things and try to set them in the best shape that they can be. Believe it or not, as wild as this may sound, music can help promote better photography. I listen to the relaxation station that plays Enya, piano and violin music, etc. and when I take my pictures I find a rise of inspiration that really helps me express what I'm looking for. Whether it is in my photography or whether it is in my writing, music can definitely tie in with excreting the emotions out of a photographer. This will also definitely help get the emotions that you are looking for, so you should at least give it a try if not anything. A true photographer will try to help bring out the inspiration of the picture by incorporating whatever needed (such as music in the background) to really help bring out the natural state of whatever kind of picture that they are taking. Photography is an art, and should be treated as an art full of creativity, imagination and other amazing elements that really make it stand out. One of my very favorite areas of photography is definitely landscape, so kudos to all of you landscape photographers out there! I find my best meditative state working at its best when I can look out my window and see the mountains captured in the glistening snow glowing under the moonlight and star shattered night sky. Or when it is daytime and the only view of the sky is pure gray skies with either a drizzle or heavy rainfall, when the grass glows a brilliant shade of green and everything looks fresh. These are the kind of things that you want to capture, are things that really inspire you and concoct up the deepest emotions. Remember to take the time out to really get a close bond and connection with the thing that you are working with to understand how things are supposed to naturally work. Sometimes things must be forced (but not by violent means). If you are going to imply that something need to done a specific way, then you need to do it in a gentle and appropriate manner (if you are working with animals for example). Photography is fun and amazing, and you can consider yourself to have a very lucky lifestyle if your passion is photography. I consider photography to be what I call "medicine for the soul," which to me is true, because that is the whole purpose and intent of photography. If you are a photographer just out to make money and snap the camera, you might want to consider finding a job that you will have a passion for, because photography is something that is very emotional, and for a lot of the time should not be taken lightly (if you are a true photographer). As I stated above, this is just a random e-mail, but I do hope that the list has encouraged you to stretch your imagination and photography to the next level. You should really enjoy what you are doing, because if photography is anything, it is nothing but amazing.

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