Where do you get inspiration from?
This is a question I get asked time and time again, and one I always find difficult to answer because the answer is… Well, I get inspiration from everywhere!
You can be inspired by your surroundings, other people, your emotions, movies, tv shows… But I know that if you’ve clicked on this blog post you are looking for a bit more than these short sentences, so let’s get into some more depth.
1 Pinterest
Undoubtedly, Pinterest is one of the easiest platforms to get your inspiration from. You literally just have to type in ‘photography’ and you will have hundreds of thousands of photos at your fingertips. I use Pinterest a lot to look for inspiration for posing and photo concepts. Depending on what the idea is, I’ll search a related word and sometimes spend hours and hours scrolling through Pinterest when I should be sleeping – it’s super addictive!
2 Other People
I love being inspired by other people on Instagram and Tik Tok, that’s how trends are created after all! You see this a lot with video content now, but back in the day when Instagram was just about photos, there would be times where there would be weeks when you would see similar variations of a concept because everyone was being inspired by each other. It was so wholesome!
Of course, it’s always nice to credit someone when you have been inspired by them. This is harder to do with trends as you may not know who the original creator was, but it’s still nice to mention them in your caption!
3 Your Own Emotions
I’m not so good at this one because I’m not really that good at expressing my emotions or how I feel, but there are many visual artists who are deeply inspired by what they’re feeling and create amazing art from it!
I’ve done this a few times when I’m feeling burnt out because I feel like it is a pretty easy emotion to convey. But being vulnerable with your audience and showing them how you are feeling is often very inspiring and brings up great conversations.
4 Movie/tv
One of my favourite things to do is to Cosplay characters from films and tv shows, especially when they have an iconic look such as Maleficent’s horns. You don’t have to be really direct with your cosplays, either. You could just be inspired by the general story or have your photos loosely based on the character and the story. This works really well for iconic characters such as the Disney Princesses or character such as Alice in Wonderland.
5 Your Surroundings
I love shooting in places such as the forest or flower fields because I feel really inspired by the atmosphere. The sounds, the smells, just being in nature makes me feel really inspired and free. In your surroundings, you can play off the weather, what’s around you, and how you’re feeling at the time to create a really powerful story.
6 Objects
If you’re stuck for a little inspiration, objects can be a great place to start. For example, I’m looking at my desk right now and I can immediately look at it and think I could do a really cool work set up photo. Or I could walk into the kitchen, look at the apples in the fruit bowl and think of Snow White. Being inspired by objects can get really fun, especially when you come up with something really random.
7 Words
I have actually come up with a monthly diary made up of word and quote prompts that you can sign up to here (it’s completely free!)
Being inspired by words is great because it will conjure up something different for absolutely everybody. For example, if I thought of ‘water’ the image that comes into my mind will undoubtedly be completely different to what you thought of.
Word prompts are also great for if you’re struggling with finding inspiration or if you’re in a creative rut. We’ve all been there, but we all eventually get out of it!
8 Current Affairs
I’ve done this before where I have created imagery, or written a blog post, around something that is going on in the media or the world right now that means a lot to you.
I find imagery about the climate crisis SO powerful when I see it on Instagram, and it really inspires me to want to change and act. I also feel really inspired to create, whether it be imagery or to write when I come across something that has really touched a nerve with me.
9 Paintings
Recently, I’ve been inspired by renaissance paintings of women – mainly ones with cats. I recreated one a few months ago and am going to be recreating another one soon! I really love the poses of renaissance paintings, which is where I actually get a lot of my posing inspiration from nowadays, but it’s a lot of fun to mix the old with the new!
10 Books
You can be inspired by books in more ways than you would actually think! Of course, there is being inspired by the characters or the story of the book itself, but you can be inspired by books as objects themselves; a library photoshoot, a ‘bed of books’ photoshoot, stacks of books, a photo of you reading a book… Believe it or not, the possibilities are absolutely endless when it comes to books!
