At one point or another, we’ve all gotten into a creative rut. Sometimes it just feels like you’ve run out of things to photograph. Sometimes you just don’t feel like taking pictures anymore. I’m willing to bet that deep down, we know it’s not true but we just don’t know what to do next. We feel lost in the creative doldrums. Here are some of the ways that I try to avoid getting stuck with photographer’s block:
1. Start with what is closest to you.
Take pictures of things around your house, apartment, room, backyard, street, park across the street, etc. Take pictures of anything and everything. If you’ve already done this, make it more challenging for yourself; make it so that you obscure what the subject is.
2. Focus in on a specific element.
Follow some sort of theme whether it is looking for a specific type of texture, or a pattern, or a color. Try it in a variety of scenarios and locations and see how you can carry the element from photo to photo.
3. Experiment with your camera and/or photoshop.
Have you never touched the ISO settings? Don’t know what changing your white balance will do? Start playing around with it. Learn about what it does and then find situations to test out the full spectrum of the function. Have you never used like 80% of the functions available in photoshop? Try them all out and play around with your favorites. Maybe you like using some of the artistic filters or playing around with hues; if you don’t try, you’ll never find out.
4. Try out new equipment.
Find a camera store or service that allows for camera equipment rentals. Try out a niche piece of equipment like a fish-eye lens, or filters, or a macro lens with a tripod and give it a go. I would recommend researching before going, not only to know how the equipment works before receiving it to save you time, but also make sure that if you are doing something like renting out a lens, you rent one that is compatible with your camera body.
5. Change the venue.
Check out all of the photos that you have taken in the last year. Now see where they all register geographically. Have you been photographing 10 square miles for a year? Maybe it’s time to try somewhere new. That’s not to say that you need to fly halfway around the world (although it would probably be amazing). Maybe it’s a matter of going to an area of town you’ve never photographed before. Or maybe there’s a mountain with great hiking trails an hour’s drive away. Change it up.
6. Try a different photography style.
Do you consider yourself a nature photographer? Try your hand at street photography. Have you only taken pictures of people? Try taking some wildlife or still-life photographs. You never know what styles you might enjoy working with, and who knows, maybe the eye that you have developed doing one type of photography can make for an interesting take on a different genre of photography.
Happy Photographing!
– Hazel
Photo © 2015 Hazel Arroyo
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