Who inspires you?

[grntrdtaco]

Who inspires me? My competition.

Nothing like someone competing against you to keep up the pressure.

seems that whenever i have that mindset i always end up constantly chasing what i think is good and dont normally get ahead.

I take huge breaks from photography, not touching my cameras for months. or only take timelapses and no stills for a year or so.. this was the first year in at least 5 years that I took out my cameras during the summer to take photos seriously (shot tons of wildflowers).

I find that collaboration and sharing info, techniques etc will get you so much farther than a competitive attitude will ever get you in the long run. there is nothing like heading out to shoot on a trip with someone you have never gone with to get you to see things in a new way. just looking at someones work is completely different than going out on a trip and talking, setting up, waiting around for light, sharing equipment, screwing up.. etc.

collect the 4 best photographers that you know and go on a weekend trip. I bet you a 16x20 print that you will come back with some of the best photography that you have ever done than when compared to going out for a weekend of shooting by yourself.

this only works if you are with people that are open to collaboration and sharing and stopping every half mile without people thinking they need to rush, asking someone to get out of your shot for a better angle, move a tripod or something.. etc.. if you are with 4 people competing with each other then it wont work at all.

a good technique to get this going is to do a night shoot with light painting where everyone is shooting the same scene from different angles but everyone is painting the scene with different lights (flashes, flashlights, EL wire, etc..)

all you have to do is compare photography where someone tells a story of the location, cameras used, the story behind the technique to someone that thinks you are competing with them so they wont tell you the location, equipment, time of day and the story behind the image or even worse lie to you to try to mislead you to try to prevent you from getting a photograph.

 

[john101477]

older images were olympus SLR i think, now shooting 5dmark2 with tilt shift lenses and 4x5 for a long time i think.

thats what i could get from reading through his site since i have found it.

It says for years he used a 4x5 large format with schnieder and Nikkor lenses and then switched to the canon 5D2 for trekking. is says he also has used the OLY E420 and E620 and that it was a good lightweight system for hiking

I also agree being competitive while shooting takes away from the reason to shoot in the first place.

 

[taco2go]

I think grntrdtaco is on to something here.
I find myself inspired more and more by what motivates people vs the end product.
Much to the chagrin of the photopraphic academe- most picture taking is, and always will be in essence an art form. In the last 4 years since starting on my own photographic journey, I too have engaged in spurts and stops. I've restricted visits to photo specific forums to avoid the trap of trendy jargon. But I certainly value the resources that serious photographers take the time to share. I choose to overlook arrogance- most don't really mean it anyway
My creedo- Let everything inspire: Algorithms, an irritating histogram, dinner, Lady Antebellum, heartbreak, paintings, a good book.

 

[taco2go]

I should add that (most importantly, and for many of the reasons above) the people that post on this forum still inspire me the most. :victory:

 

[grntrdtaco]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16536699@N07/

amazing and somewhat haunting portraits of homeless people.

more info on the project
http://www.yellowkorner.com/artistes/198/Lee Jeffries.aspx

 

[taco2go]

wow-windows to the soul.

 

[grntrdtaco]

norio matsumoto
http://www.braingiants.com/noriomatsumoto/gallery.html


this guys website sort of sucks but awesome images
http://www.mattaweb.com

 

[Jerome]

These are useful links for me if you have some more share with us.

 

[john101477]

norio matsumoto
http://www.braingiants.com/noriomatsumoto/gallery.html


this guys website sort of sucks but awesome images
http://www.mattaweb.com

Funny to look at these 2 photographers work. Norio's alaskan range shots are IMO not all that great but his Alaskan Forest and whales gallery is incredible, where as Matt's landscapes shots are amazing. deffinitly don't want to look at matt's scapes before Norio's. I also find it cool that Matt's approach to gear is basic in that from his site, he knows what he is going after so he only packs what he needs which in his case is a wide angle lens and his trusty 5D. IDK about you guys but I always have at least 2 lenses. 1 wide and 1 tele.

I did a little experiment last week though and only carried the 50mm. got some great shots , But found myself wishing I had my wide a few times and my tele a few times.

 

[LR Max]

I find that collaboration and sharing info, techniques etc will get you so much farther than a competitive attitude will ever get you in the long run.

Up until a couple years ago, I would agree with you but it seems like whenever I participate in anything like that its usually me who gives the instruction, sharing my information (why does everyone ask me the questions!!??) and everyone ends up using my equipment. I've done a few flickr walks and whatnot here in town, that really wasn't my crowd and we didn't jive.

I guess I need to hang out with a different group photographers!

In contrast, knowing my competition is catching up, I know now I've gotta get out and do something different. Get out, practice, ask myself the "what if" questions. Try 50 things, fail 49 tries and get 1 right. Take that one, put it in my notebook of "decent/good ideas" and pull it out again if when needed.

Its knowing that someone else could edge me out, that is what gets me up on a Saturday at 4:30 for a sunrise photo or drive 3 hours to the air show or drive back in the woods or spend all week charging batteries (I'm anal about slow discharge, refresh, charge...takes a little while to do all that stuff) or cleaning sensors or whatever.

 

[Lost Canadian]

LR Max, do you have a website?