Inspiration can be found everywhere, but the trick is to focus when you are looking for it. When was the last time that you looked at an image on the Internet for more than a minute or two? When we speed through everything on the Internet (as life these days seems to demand) we don't let our brains relax enough to gain some quality insight from the experience.

Before I delve into a few ways to find inspiration, I want you to take a deep breath and make a conscious decision that you will be still yourself, in order to benefit from the practice.

Behance.net

Behance.net is owned by Adobe and is a great resource for inspiration for photography. The site is full of wonderful creative work from photographers, graphic designers, jewellery designers etc. Choose what type of creative art you would like to see from the drop down menu choices and go through the images really slowly till you find one that catches your eye. You don't need to limit yourself to the photography fields as you could be inspired by any art. Once you have found an image that you particularly like, ask yourself why you like that image? What is it about that image that made you stop for a few seconds? Is it the colour, the texture, the design etc. You will probably find yourself stopping to look at other images, which have similar traits. Start writing down what you specifically like. This is the best way to start understanding what type of style you want to portray in your photography. Great photographers are known for their style and it could be something as simple as shooting only in monochrome using available light. Scrutinise the images carefully to draw inspiration from them. It could be the difference between you taking another day’s worth of mixed up looking images or a great series that of images that flow fluidly and respectfully from one to the other. Contrary to what you might think we actually do better with less choice. If you go to the supermarket to buy cereal and see 25 different flavours you are less likely to buy than if there are only 6 to choose from. So whilst you are browsing through the images, don’t clutter your mind and creativity. Choose to absorb the details from a few images rather than hundreds of them

Album Art

Look at album art, cd covers or old vinyl covers. A great deal of work goes into the photography and design of these and the way the images and typography is put together may spark something in you.

Art, design and fashion magazines

Go to your nearest newsagent and have a good look through the magazines section. Try to understand how photos were shot. Where is the light coming from in the image you like? Is it natural light or artificial light? What lens do you think was used in the shot? How can you create the same feel but with your own creative take on it?

Props

Sometimes a prop can inspire a shoot. Maybe you find an old magnifying glass and build a whole fashion shoot around that idea. Look at the everyday ordinary things that surround you every day and think up interesting ways that you could use them. Notice the colour and the texture. How can you put all of these elements together into a cohesive theme?
So I hope those few ideas will help you to put together that next shoot and fire up your creative muscle.

Keep creating.

Enjoy!

I Like this book by Brooke Shaden where she shares her way of getting inspiration from every day life as well as forming a regular habit to create art. Click here if you would like to have a look:

Inspiration in Photography: Training your mind to make great art a habit