— Not that I’ve ever fallen OUT of love with photography, but at times the passion invigorates me afresh, and I find I can hardly think of anything else for days on end.
Hits me a few times a year. And there’s no shaking it.
There’s work to be done, life to be lived … yet all I can think about is my camera, a particular lens I want to work with, and new things I want to get out there and try.
Trying out NEW things is always the most exciting part of photography for me.
That or re-exploring things that have fallen out of my repertoire for whatever reason.
And whenever I get hit with the urge to spend hours and days with my camera, I tend to turn to a few specific resources to grab a bunch of fresh ideas to go out and explore, new techniques to try (or sort-of-familiar techniques to revisit, hoping to master this time out), as well as a handful of completely new methods to dive into and see where they take me.
My go-to resources when I’m stocking up on ideas to carry with me into the field tend to be:
— My collection of classic works of photography (from Alfred Steiglitz and Henri Cartier-Bresson … to Vivian Maier, Sally Mann, and Trent Parke).
— My collection of books by David duChemin (one of my favorite writers on the artistic side of photography).
— And one especially awesome book by Brooke Shaden: Inspiration in Photography.
Indeed, this last one inspired me so much I eventually found myself in conversation with Brooke, whereupon we came up with a great way to share our combined vision and talent through a brand new collaborative course:
Conceptual Fine Art Photo Artistry
My hope now is that this course will inspire many, many other creative photographers looking for fresh ideas to re-ignite their love of working with their camera again.
– Sebastian
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