How to keep the Photographer live inside yourself ???

Never ending motivation with high energy is very difficult to achieve. Many times, we come across many creative ideas but it is very difficult to execute all of them and, suddenly, a state arrives when we start feeling de-motivated because of lack of new ideas... This can happen in any walk of life and Photography is also the same kind of creative ark which needs a lot of inspiration to move ahead... 

What all can we do to keep a high energy level for our creative senses? 

 Actually, this  came to my mind when I opened my photographs and realized the lack of creative ideas for the past few months.. When I tried to find out the reason, there were many... But I don't want to know the reasons, I need a solution.. and here are few things I identified to follow in future to get the inspiration for Creative Photography.......

1. TRY TO HAVE YOUR CAMERA WITH YOU ALL THE TIME:

Many times I feel the need of camera while going to Office on Auto-Rikshaw, Cycle-Rikshaw OR going out in Trains or Buses.. Many times I find some interesting happenings around but fail to capture due to lack of camera as that moment...  

When this happens many times continuously, we stop noticing those small things that make a big difference in our society or the environment around us... This habit of ignoring interesting happenings leads to lack of Creativity... So a Camera is always helpful in improving your creative skills over time... We don't get good shots always but there is always a learning associated in terms of creativity or technical use of our equipment...

2.  EXPERIMENTS ARE A GOOD SOURCE OF LEARNINGS

Many times, I go to different Monuments of the same kind in Delhi and shoot many photographs of the same kind. This is a big block for my creativity. Many times, I  am stuck in the same types of thoughts... We should try something new every time and if all goes wrong with new experiments, at least we know what went wrong and why.... Which will in turn improve our creative analytical skills... So we should take risks and try photographic styles/techniques we have never tried before....

Using different camera settings, Playing “What if…” game.... It is real fun to play with different compositions which may not be good in Photographic sense but you actually get to know why they are not good :-)

3. SET SMALL GOALS AND HAVE AN EYE ON FUTURE

Set small realistic goals and plan your photo-shoots. This requires a lot of discipline and patience.... so start with small goals and try your best to achieve those..

Evaluate your results from time to time but always remember  your goal, your ideas and your photographs. Don’t let anyone discourage you... Any artist can develop a new methodology and any comments from others should always be welcome... Use these comments for improvements and don’t get discouraged by them....

                                                                                                              
4. GO TO PHOTO EXHIBITIONS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS’ MEETS AROUND YOU

Its always a good idea to visit Exhibitions and other talks around Photography... on weekends I used to visit different places in Delhi like IHC to see other's work and other aspects of Exhibitions.. It also gives an opportunity to analyze how people see these Photographs and what they actually want to see... What all they like or dislike and why...

Also it is a good idea to join some good groups on Facebook and see Photographs of friends from different geographical areas and different creative tastes...

5. LEARN AT EVERY MOMENT OF YOUR LIFE AND DEVELOP A THIRD CREATIVE EYE 

I have recently started reading books about art and photography. And have also started reading about some Photo editing softwares. This helps me understanding other technical aspects of a Photograph.... I have also subscribed to newsletters, websites, Blogs and feeds.

In my office, there is a group of few Photographers who plan some outdoor shoots on weekends and this is really a real good opportunity to trigger new ideas, increasing our skill levels and boost our confidence...

6. VISIT NEW PLACES

We don’t have to go overseas to find something exciting to photograph or something very clean or organized. Exploring neighborhood can give us fruitful results in terms of Photographs or learnings... These are actual Challenges... When we revisit those places through photographs, there is a different kind of enthusiasm...

7. DON'T FORGET REST OF THE WORLD

Taking proper rest is always necessary, so  taking time out for other things is equally important... You may feel like Clicking Photographs every time but it is a different type of a charm to relax with family and friends without Camera...Chatting with your girl friend will help you chill out and feel fresh for the next shoot…and your girl friend will also be happy J

As a result, no one will frown when you take out your camera again...

8. USE YOUR MOBILE TO CAPTURE YOUR IDEAS IMMEDIATELY

It is always a good practice to utilize free time in productive thinking... Many times while travelling, or shopping we come across some good ideas about doing something in a better way.. but we forget those ideas when there is actual need of executing them.. The same is true with Photography... Many times, we see some interesting situations to capture but can't do that due to different reasons... So we should note those ideas somewhere and I think a mobile is the best gadget to achieve this.. We always keep our mobile phones with us and some of the new mobile phones provide a fairly advanced notepad to capture our ideas...

9. READ ABOUT GREAT PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS

Biographies and Photographs of some great Photographers can be a good source of inspiration. There can be many things to learn from their life, experiences, photographs. The Challenges they faced in terms of technology, infrastructure and the way they worked hard to achieve their goals can be very motivational. Their Photographs sometimes compels me to think about the time they clicked a particular photo and what all they must have done to do that...

I have compiled this list of to-dos after a lot of introspection and am learning new things every day. Will keep posting new things as I learn more. For now, I would like to conclude with a rather clichéd:

PHOTOGRAPHY IS FUN, ENJOY EVERY MOMENT OF IT...