Inspiration and where mine comes from.
“Where do you get your inspiration from?” “how do you stay inspired?” “how do you get inspired?” are questions that I seem to get constantly on Instagram and it’s a question that I find difficult to answer. Because, really, inspiration looks different for everyone and everybody creates something different on Instagram. Therefore, the way I get my inspiration and stay inspired may not necessarily work for you. However, this is a blog post that has been requested a lot, so I thought I would answer it the best I can hoping it will help some of you!
Pinterest like your life depends on it.
Pinterest is a great source of inspiration if you have an idea but not completely sure how to execute it. For example, if you’re looking to do a Halloween type post, you just have to search ‘Halloween photography’ and thousands and thousands of photos will come up. I spend a very long time on Pinterest searching for inspiration.
Don’t look to Instagram for inspiration.
Once I stopped looking to other accounts as a source of inspiration, I found that it took my creativity to new heights. It also means that your content will be more original. When I used to look at accounts I was following to get inspired, I found that I wasn’t using my brain as much as I could and the ‘heart’ and ‘love’ wasn’t in the photo so it never looked as good. You have to rely on yourself.
Look for Concepts rather than Photos
I find that when I have a concept for a photo, it’s a lot easier to see the final result in my head. Take my Moby Dick inspired photo; I knew it was about whales and my brain pattern led me to the underwater window photo found on my Instagram. It’s really important to have a concept and an idea behind a photo (at least for me, anyway) otherwise the photo doesn’t mean anything. I guess what I’m saying it make sure your photo tells a story, then your photo will be more impactful.
Know what your account is about
I can’t stress enough how important this is. After my name change, I lost all sense of direction with my account and I had no idea what it was about anymore. It had no purpose and no vibe. If you want to keep your inspiration alive, you need to know what type of photos you want to be taking. I found that the easiest way to do this was to come up with a few words that you want your account to be described as (some of mine include ethereal, vintage, romantic…) and then start creating photos that go with those words. It’s more helpful than you think because you find yourself asking “does this go with my vibe?” everytime you want to create a photo!
Theme your months!
Obviously, this isn’t a requirement but has been an absolute God send for me! October is the first month where I’ve themed my month properly, and it’s been so helpful for me! It narrows down the photos you create so you don’t become overwhelmed with ideas. For October, I themed my month around Dracula, so I took a lot of inspiration from the story of Dracula, the town of Whitby and of course, Vampires. When my content has a theme and a structure I find it so much easier to come up with photo ideas.
I hope this has been helpful to some of you! I know it can be a struggle to find inspiration, trust me I know, and it’s really frustrating to see people create photo after photo and you’re feeling stuck. But once you give yourself some direction and purpose I promise that it becomes easier – it did for me!
