When I first started, every professional photographer at least did the printed mailers once or twice a year, and a combination of various sourcebook advertising.  It was the go to standard, and if you had a photography rep it was mandatory.

The printed mailers could be very simple, for instance a basic post card sent out to 500 hundred potential clients that would cost you in the neighborhood of $2,000.  Generally it was recommended to do that 6 times a year.  And generally 99.9% of those mailers ended up in the potential client’s trash. 

Or they could be extremely ambitions (and expensive)… entire 40 page magazines of a single photographer’s work, or giant gallery quality prints. This was a once a year promo at the most and I saw photographers spend over $30,000 on just one mailing!  It’s a huge investment not just in money but also the time to put it together. But I suppose if that photographer got one big advertising job from it, well then it was totally worth it. 

But if you didn’t think it through, it could be a disaster.  Like the photographer that sent out a stainless steel saw blade with his logo and contact information printed on it, buried underneath sawdust inside a raw wood box…  a nice presentation and it fit his construction product advertising niche.  Sounded like a great idea…. until art directors all around the country dug their hand into the sawdust only to rip open the tips of their fingers on the extremely sharp saw blade!   

Sourcebooks were another expensive but ubiquitous option.  Every fashion photographer advertised in LeBook, from the most established and successful to the brand new and ambitious. For a young photographer it felt almost prestigious to be in it…. even though you were paying a hefty fee for the privilege at around $5,000 for a two page spread.  And if you weren’t Meisel or ripped by the biggest agencies you could pretty much be guaranteed that they would bury you in the very back of the book.

Later in my career the next big thing was email promos.  It’s from around $150 to $450 a month for an email list service like Agency Access depending on which client lists you sign up for and how many emails you send.  One of the nice things about the service is that you can see who clicked through your emails… but the numbers were abysmal and have only been getting worse and worse through the years.  If you sent 1,000 emails and 10 people clicked through to your website that was considered a success!  But we all know how much we love getting spam and I guess art director’s are no different..

I put a profile on Instagram around 2012 and really didn’t do much with it… some behind the scenes photos, lots of vacation pics.. I didn’t really know what it was all about so I didn’t pay too much attention to it.  It seemed like it was more a social place to share with your friends and I just didn’t want to put any time into it… I was busy shooting, and retouching and doing all the other things photographers have to devote their limited time to.

But then things changed… it started to become an important outlet for discovery, and the whole influencer thing took off… nothing has been the same since.

I saw that clients more and more were talking about Instagram constantly… how they discovered new models, or photographers, talent of every kind… even locations, and props… everything! 

About this time I removed the vacation snapshots, all the superfluous crap that had migrated there over the years, and just concentrated on displaying my latest fashion work. 

Quickly my profile went from a couple thousand followers to 10,000. And then I got a booking directly from a client that found me through Instagram… a 3 day catalog on a beach in Mexico!

I wanted more jobs like that so I started to invest more time and effort into Instagram.  I tried a couple apps that allowed you to more easily search and follow people that had an interest in photography, and my following grew a bit more.  I researched other techniques to grow my following, and it grew even more.

But when I signed up for a social media growth service, things really caught on fire.  It wasn’t buying fake followers or likes, and it wasn’t magic or some super secret sauce.  It was just hiring someone that really knew how Instagram worked, how to research the right audience, and then could make my account active 24 hours a day.

My following went from 15,000 to 80,000 in less than a year!  And more importantly, I was getting regular bookings from clients that never heard of me until they saw my work on Instagram.  Those jobs took me all around the world… Moscow, London, Armenia.  And all from a $100 a month investment..

The service I recommend is called Liked Lab.  They have a great promotional and research system, and they are more involved in the process than any other service I have seen… they provide me with analytics so I know the best days and times to post, and what kind of posts work best, what are the strongest hashtags to use.  They even give me advice on the look of my profile.  It’s been a big help, saved me time, and really helped my career. 

We recommend a social media growth service called Liked Lab

So at the beginning of 2017 I wanted to try an experiment… I stopped all other forms of promotion and only used Liked Lab for Instagram.  No emails, no sourcebooks or printed promos.  What happened? I didn’t see any drop off in activity.  In fact, just the opposite. Not only was I getting more work from client’s noticing me on Instagram, now my following and engagement on Instagram was getting so strong that I was getting offers to promote products as an influencer. Ok, that’s not something I am interested in now, I am still busy shooting. But it’s definitely something I can think about for the future or as a side hustle. 

So what does it mean?  I think the entire photography industry is changing, and the old ways of getting noticed don’t work anymore. You don’t need to spend $5,000 on a sourcebook ad, or $400 a month on emails, or $12,000 on printed promos. I haven’t cracked open a sourcebook in years, all the spam emails I get go automatically to the trash.  I think the best thing you can do as a photographer now is just shoot as often as possible, get your work in every magazine or website you can, and then promote promote promote on social media.

What do you think?  I’m still experimenting with the best promotion methods so I want to hear what works for you!

The Liked Lab News

NJAL’s Katja Horvat questions whether fashion photography has a future amidst the radical shifts in publishing. How does our current technological milieu fundamentally alter fashion photography as we know it? Is the ubiquity of smartphones, advance in-image editing applications, social media, and the rise of fashion film rendering the canonised medium of fashion photography obsolete?

The Liked Lab News

Here are some images from my archive of favorite photography.

Melvin Sokolsky, Simone wears fashion by Venet, River Seine, Paris, American Harper’s Bazaar, March 1963, © Melvin Sokolsky/Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The photographer David Bailey described a fashion photograph simply as ‘a portrait of someone wearing a dress’. The roots of the profession are found in Victorian society portraiture. From as early as the 1840s, debutantes, actresses and dancers posed in their finery for portrait photographers, just as their mothers had sat for the great portrait painters of their day.

Yet Bailey’s own work shows the transformative power of the camera lens. Irving Penn, the photographer with the longest tenure in the history of Vogue magazine, saw his role as ‘selling dreams, not clothes.’ Beyond the simple recording of fabric and surface detail, the most memorable images fulfil or challenge the desires and aspirations of the viewer.

Fashion photography has never existed in a vacuum. Photographers have continually pushed boundaries, and the tension between artistic and commercial demands has generated great creativity and technical innovation. Whether as fashion shoots or advertisements, these images reflect contemporary culture, world events and the dramatic shifts in women’s roles throughout the 20th century.

---

Cecil Beaton, In the Manner of the Edwardians, Mary Taylor wears Channel, American Vogue, 1935. Museum no. PH.191-1977, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

A glittering new century

In 1911, at the height of Europe’s golden age of prosperity and elegance, the American photographer Edward Steichen photographed models wearing dresses by the designer Paul Poiret. Thirteen soft-focus images were printed in the magazine Art et Décoration, and Steichen later proclaimed them ‘the first serious fashion photographs ever made.’

In an earlier, pre-photography age, fashion magazines such as Le Costume Français and Journal des Dames et des Modes had included engraved illustrations but had only a limited readership. Advancements in printing processes in the 1890s allowed photographs to be printed on the same page as text, and fashion magazines became more widely available.

In 1909, the publisher Condé Nast bought an American social magazine entitled Vogue. He transformed it into a high-class fashion publication with international aspirations. Swiftly followed by the re-launched Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue sought to capture the spirit and fashions of New York, London and Paris through innovative photography and a growing supply of glamorous models.

---

Ilse Bing, Salut de Schiaparelli, Perfume Advertisement, 1934, © Estate of Ilse Bing/Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Challenging perceptions

The cultural movement of Surrealism had a profound impact on fashion magazines in the 1920s and ’30s. Paintings by Salvador Dalí and Giorgio de Chirico featured in Vogue alongside avant-garde photographs by Man Ray. Some fashion photographers adopted their revolutionary principles, attempting to give visual expression to the unconscious mind. New techniques and unexpected juxtapositions were used to challenge perceptions of reality, to amuse and to disturb.

Such bold experiments riled Vogue editor Edna Woolman Chase, who wrote angrily to her staff in 1938:

‘Concentrate completely on showing the dress, light it for this purpose and if that can’t be done with art then art be damned. Show the dress.’

As chief photographer of French Vogue, and later of Harper’s Bazaar, Baron George Hoyningen-Huene inspired a generation. His own work reflected a painterly fascination with light, shade and classical forms. His protégé Horst P. Horst produced similarly inventive images, fusing surreal and classical motifs.

---

Erwin Blumenfeld, Model and Mannequin, American Vogue Cover, 1 November 1945, © Estate of Erwin Blumenfeld/Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Post-war revival

During the Second World War ‘make do and mend’ was the prevailing approach to fashion. As the world gradually recovered from the horrors of war, a fresh cohort of designers emerged. The desire to embrace glamour and femininity after years of wartime austerity found its most extreme expression in Christian Dior’s New Look, launched in 1947, with its nipped-in waists and extravagantly full skirts.

The elegantly sensual vision of photographer Lillian Bassman complemented the new fashions. She pioneered an approach in which evoking a mood took precedence over depicting the details of the clothes. Bassman’s grainy images frustrated Harper’s Bazaar editor Carmel Snow, who warned her in 1949,

‘You are not here to make art, you are here to show the buttons and bows.’

Erwin Blumenfeld also pushed the boundaries of experimental fashion photography. He favoured Kodachrome colour film, which enabled his vivid images to leap from the magazine page.

---

John French, Skater wears a Digby Morton fur trimmed velvet coat, city gentleman, Michael Bentley in the background, London. Daily Express, 1955, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Shooting in the city

In the 1950s a fresh dynamism infected the major fashion magazines as photographers adopted a more spontaneous, photojournalistic approach. Models spilled out onto city streets, studio backdrops were replaced by city skylines.

In 1957 Richard Avedon photographed a model striding along the Place François-Premier in Paris for American Harper’s Bazaar. She appears mid-step, her Cardin coat billowing behind her. Both feet are off the ground, as though a gust of wind has lifted her into the air. Avedon titled the photograph In Homage to Munkácsi, a reference to one of the first fashion photographers to work primarily outside the studio. Writing ahead of the trend in his 1935 article Think While You Shoot, Martin Munkácsi advised:

‘Never pose your subjects. Let them move about naturally. All great photographs today are snapshots.’

This new cinematic vision was vigorously promoted by the powerful art directors Alexey Brodovitch at Harper’s Bazaar and Alexander Liberman at Vogue.

---

Ronald Traeger, Twiggy wears Twiggy Dresses, Battersea Park, London. Unpublished Fashion Study for British Vogue, Young Idea, July 1967, © Estate of Ronald Traeger/Vogue The Condé Nast Publications Ltd/Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Sixties liberation

In the 1960s the feminist movement gathered pace as women campaigned against inequality. In the fashion world, the structured formality of 1950s designs gave way to a more youthful look and the body was liberated from constricting undergarments and corsetry. New designers and photographers emerged, their work showcased in magazines such as Queen (relaunched 1957) and Nova (launched 1965).

Photographer David Bailey was employed to revamp the ‘Young Idea’ section of British Vogue. His vivacious documentary approach, and those of other London-based photographers, turned teenage models such as Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy into international stars, the embodiment of Swinging London. The mood was captured in Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blowup (1966), in which David Hemmings starred as a character partly based on Bailey.

From 1966 onwards, exotic fabrics, clashing patterns and colours were boldly combined. Penelope Tree’s unconventional looks made her the ideal model for the hippy fashions popular in the latter part of the decade.

---

Arthur Elgort, Wendy Whitelaw, Park Avenue. Personal picture taken on American Vogue fashion shoot, July 1981, © Arthur Elgort/Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Picturing femininity

In the 1970s photographers increasingly tested the limits of acceptable fashion imagery. They engaged with society’s changing attitudes towards femininity and sexuality, and the potentially controversial themes of religion and violence often informed their work.

These fashion images invited viewers to be voyeurs of highly charged scenes. Helmut Newton’s work brought together themes of emotional ambiguity and sex, capturing confident women in glamorous and contrived settings. Guy Bourdin and Gian Paolo Barbieri created darkly provocative images, which focused less on garments and more on the character of the woman beneath.

The notion of ideal beauty broadened in mainstream magazines with the more regular use of black and androgynous models. The photographers Deborah Turbeville and Sarah Moon were both former models and their engagement with the female form was distinct from that of their male counterparts. Their contemplative images provided female perspectives on the themes of beauty and sexual objectification.

---

Corinne Day, Woman dancing at a London club, 1992, © The Estate of Corinne Day/Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Capturing real life

In the 1980s, new style publications aimed at both sexes emerged as a counterpoint to the airbrushed perfection of the major glossy magazines. They featured articles on contemporary music, culture and emerging trends. Their pages were populated with figures representing alternative types of beauty, who were often not professional models.

Portraits by Steve Johnson of punks and New Wave youth appeared in i-D magazine. The images became known as ‘straight ups’ as they showed the figure in full. The approach garnered many imitators, keen to capture personal and innovative street fashions.

In the 1990s, the leading exponents of this naturalistic, documentary approach to fashion photography included Corinne Day, David Sims, Craig McDean and Jason Evans. At the heart of their work lay an interest in everyday life and real people, celebrated for all the flaws that make them individual and uniquely beautiful.

---

Miles Aldridge, Blooming #3, 2007, © Miles Aldridge/Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Fiction and fantasy

Today’s most dazzling fashion images are rich with colourful and poetic narratives. Big budgets, set designers and multiple stylists are employed to create elaborate fantasies. Photographer Miles Aldridge describes the process as akin to making a film:

‘If the world were pretty enough, I’d shoot on location all the time. But the world is just not being designed with aesthetics as a priority. What I’m trying to do is take something from real life and reconstruct it in a cinematic way … condensed emotion, condensed colour, condensed light.’

Just as fashion designers reinvent and recycle the trends of decades past, photographers often look to their forebears for inspiration. Tim Walker conjures a whimsical, technicolour England, inspired by the opulence of Cecil Beaton’s early work and classic children’s fairytales.

For the past century women’s fashions have dominated magazines, but in recent years more publications aimed at male readers have emerged. The V&A is now consciously collecting men’s fashion images to reflect this growing area.

This content was originally written to accompany the display Selling Dreams: One Hundred Years of Fashion Photography, on at the V&A South Kensington 28 March – 4 May 2014

Liked Lab for Social Media

Today I took another dive into my folder of inspiration, years of gathering images that have particularly captured my attention. 

What is Fashion Photography?

The term “fashion photography” describes a type of fine art photography devoted to the promotion of fashion items such as haute couture clothing, as well as mass-market clothes, shoes, perfume and other branded products designed by fashion houses around the world. Practiced by many of the world’s greatest photographers, “fashion photography” should be seen primarily as a form of visual art, rather than an applied art, since the images created do not serve a utilitarian function. Furthermore, 21st century fashion photos – like mainstream TV commercials – are primarily concerned with the promotion of a brand (that is, a concept), rather than a physical product. (Please see also: Is Photography Art?) Whatever its precise meaning or aesthetics, “fashion photography” is closely linked to contemporary art and popular culture. Not only does it reflect popular attitudes, aspirations, and tastes, it also reflects the views that women have, about their self-image, gender and sexuality. In addition, “fashion photography” is inextricably linked to the media. Emerging initially to satisfy the needs of women’s magazines published by Conde Nast and Hearst, such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar – today augmented by publications like Elle, Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair, W, Grazia and Seventeen – it now has instant worldwide impact thanks to the digital computer revolution and the Internet. Although New York replaced Paris as the the mecca of fashion photography as far back as the 1940s, Paris and Milan remain important creative centres, while Far Eastern cities in India and China will no doubt emerge as international fashion centres before long.

A list of websites that feature the hottest editorials ever published

We all pull inspiration from different sources. For some, it’s books and/or magazines that we go to for visual inspiration. For others, it could be going to a gallery and seeing art hanging on the walls, in person, in all its glory. And yet now, because of the internet, it seems we are finding our inspiration regularly from various websites. In my opinion, some of these sites aren’t so good. On the other hand, though, some sites really stand out!!

So where do I go when I want to look at some truly inspirational work? There are a few sites I signed up for their email updates because they consistently show great work by photographers who’s work I truly admire. Then there are other sites I just check in on every once in awhile when I find the time to surf the web, which truth be told, isn’t that often and getting less and less these days. However, I have to admit, it’s good for me to keep up to date on who’s being published and where. There’s a lot of amazing websites out there but for this list I want to highlight the sites that showcase awesome and beautiful editorials. Not every site on this list features an editorial all the time, but for the most part, they do. And it’s these sites that draw me back repeatedly because of their discerning taste.

Take note: while I think it’s perfectly fine to be inspired with other people’s work, take care to use their work as inspiration and not to copy. Use your own unique way of seeing to execute your own vision. That’s key to developing your eye. And stream lining your style

AND: (no, I’m not done yet) I have this to add as well. I think a lot of young people (young photographers) do this thing I call “compare and despair”. It’s where you go out and shoot what you feel is a fairly good shoot and then race home, jump on the computer and start comparing yourself to photographers who have been shooting for 20, 30, maybe even 40 years more than you have. You then cancel out any good feelings you might have for your own work. Try to look at the following sites for visual aids to help inspire you, not make you feel thwarted, thereby squelching your own natural learning curve.

Lastly, I’d love to know if you have any sites that you guys frequent. It’s always good to hear about what you find inspiring. I’m sure the other readers would love to read about them as well.

The List:

1. Haute Macabre http://hautemacabre.com/
   One of my favorites sites to visit. I’m subscribed to them and I check every email. I might not click through every one but they are at the top of my list because they regularly feature two of my favorite photographers, Javier Valhonrat and Paolo Roversi. Plus, they’re theme leans towards beautiful gothic looks. Which is a big part of my own style, I think. And….well…..they’ve featured me on their site. That’s always a plus.
2. Cali Kartel http://calikartel.com/
   Cali Kartel has consistently great editorials. I haven’t been featured on there, which unnerved me at first since I once LIVED in Cali and I’m FROM Cali. Still, not one to hold a grudge, this site rocks!
3. Ben Trovato http://bentrovatoblog.com/
   A site dedicated to showcasing exclusive fashion editorials by up-and-coming photographers.
4. Fashion Gone Rogue http://fashiongonerogue.com/
   Up to date, current, still on the newsstands fashion editorials delivered right to your monitor! Fabulous site.
5. The Fashionisto http://thefashionisto.com/
   All men’s editorial features. And since I shoot men and love shooting men, I like to see what’s being published out there.
6. The Contributing Editor http://thecontributingeditor.com/
   I fell in love with The Contributing Editor awhile ago. They always feature gorgeous men’s editorials.
7. Homotography http://homotography.blogspot.com/
   The hottest of the men’s editorials.
8. The Ones 2 Watch http://theones2watch.com/
   Because you should be watching the ones to watch. ; )
9. The Photography Link http://thephotographylink.com/
   Their motto says it all: “Because Images are Everything”. I agree.
10. Fashion Editorials http://fashioneditorials.com/
    This aptly named site has exactly what their url promises: Fashion Editorials. While they sort of run the same editorials that Fashion Gone Rogue does, sometimes you’ll find some random spreads that are worth taking a look at.
11. The House of Editorial http://houseofeditorial.com/
    I love this site because they run the editorials that everybody else isn’t running, which is important. The work they feature is just as gorgeous and just as compelling as the “bigger magazine” spreads.
12. Noir Façade http://noirfacade.livejournal.com/
    This is a livejournal site and it’s well thought out. I love most of the stories they feature.
13. Paper Mode http://papermode.trendland.net/
    Great resource for looking up older editorials that are outstanding in every way!

Diving into my inspiration files today to pick out some of my favorite images from some of my favorite photographers. 

“Fashion photographers are the new painters,” Peter Lindbergh said as he prepared the show of his dramatic black-and-white images that opened last week at the Gagosian Gallery in Paris. Who would have guessed in the heady 1980s — when Mr. Lindbergh’s new, natural images of Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford and others created the supermodel — that the art world would lose its disdain for fashion photography’s commercialism?

Today, fashion photography is art’s rising star, drawing large crowds to exhibitions (which produce much-needed revenue from sponsorships, rentals and even merchandise) and enticing more collectors. Even the fashion industry itself is showing more respect for the form.

Big names are in museum spotlights, from Horst’s classical elegance since Sept. 6 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, to Mario Testino’s “Alta Moda,” Peruvians in local dress, at Dallas Contemporary from Sept. 21.

The Sims Reed Gallery in London, which shows prints, is capitalizing on the trend, too, exhibiting fashion photography for the first time, starting this week with Miles Aldridge’s hyper-real, sensual photos, including the sunbathing woman in “Tan Lines” (12,000 pounds, or about $19,400) alongside his preliminary sketches, lithographs and screen prints. As Lyndsey Ingram, the gallery owner, said, “Showing fashion photographs will set us apart from our competitors.”

Are you struggling for new ideas? Do your creative batteries feel as flat and lifeless as a skunk in the fast lane?

Here are 60 ways to breathe new life into your love of photography and re-energize your inspiration.
[update — we wrote a book “inspired” by this blog post — Inspired Photography: 189 Sources of Inspiration For Better Photos]

1. Play with Photoshop
So much of photography these days happens after the shutter release has been pressed. There’s probably a ton of things that you don’t know how to do in Photoshop. Learn something new and see what that does for your photography potential.

2. Read the Manual
It’s not just Photoshop that can do all sorts of things that you don’t know about. Your camera probably has more settings and functions than you know… or know what to do with. You might find a lot of new ideas in the middle of your camera manual.

3. Watch a Movie
Manuals are all well and good, but movies have cinematographers too. There’s not much you can’t learn about landscape photography by sitting back and watching an old Sergio Leone film.

4. Read a Newspaper
Or you can be a little more intellectual and read a newspaper. The Sunday magazines have the best photos but the work by the staff photographers can be great models for creating striking images for amateurs as well as for photojournalists.

5. Visit a Flea Market
Strange objects mean strange shapes, odd shadows and plenty of potential for unique compositions. And you don’t even have to buy anything.

6. Shop at a Farmer’s Market
You never know what you might find at a flea market. At a farmer’s market, you know you can find colors, spheres, people and displays. And dinner too.

7. Check out Some Wedding Photojournalism
It might not be the sort of thing that your clients expect, but the images on display at the Wedding Photojournalist Association’s website might get you thinking about brides and grooms in a whole new way. Instead of the posing and the tripod, you’ll get to blend into the crowd and document the scene. It’s a whole new skill and it could give your wedding photography a whole new lease of life.

8. Hit the Water
You don’t have to be a scuba diver to shoot underwater images. You just need waterproof housing and access to the sea, a swimming pool or even a pond. And once you’re wet, don’t forget to look up as well as down. Some of the most inspiring images can be taken at the point where the light hits the surface of the water.

9. Hit the Streets
There’s a good reason that street photography is so popular: there are so many good things to shoot there. If you haven’t been photographing roads and crowds, give it a go. And if you have, try a different road.

10. Join a Demonstration
Demonstrations are full of flags, banners, placards and crowds. You can lose people in the mass or pick out expressions in the crowd. The only cause you have to support is photography.

11. Watch a Sports Event
The pros have it easiest at sports events with prime positions and lenses longer than your arm. But you can still try something new at your park on a Saturday afternoon.

12. Visit the Zoo
It might not be as thrilling as a Kenyan safari, but a zoo still has the sort of photographic subjects you can’t find anywhere else. Of course, you don’t have to try to squeeze your lens between the bars. Shooting the kids in awe at the monkeys can create some interesting images too.

13. Shoot Fast at a Race Track

Photography: joel.weismann

Race tracks also give you an opportunity to use a new technique: speed. Fast cars and a faster shutter speed can make for some inspired shooting.

14. Visit an Exhibition
Obvious, really. And yet so often overlooked. Any decent-sized town is likely to have at least one photographic exhibition on at any one time. Take in yours and see what the top photographers did to get on the wall.

15. Browse Google Images
You don’t even have to leave the house to find inspiring images though. Toss keywords into Google Images, admire the good photos that turn up and ask how you would have improved the poor ones.

16. Join Flickr Groups
The pictures in Flickr Groups are great places to see what other people are doing with a theme; the discussions are great places to find out how they did it. And you’ll probably find that the feedback you get on your own photos will give you plenty to think about too.

17. Just Step Back and Watch
For children’s photographers in particular, there can be a temptation to just dive in and get the photos. Sometimes though, lowering the lens, stepping back and watching the subject can reveal whole new sides. That’s true for portrait photographers, wedding photographers, animal photographers… in fact just about any photographer!

18. Roam the World with Flickr Maps
Flickr Maps might be a bit slower than Google Maps, but it comes with Flickr Images built-in. Choose a part of the world with interesting topography and see what photographers have done with it.

19. Change your Angle
Most people shoot an object by placing the lens right in front of it. When David Rubinger lay on the floor to shoot up at paratroopers in front of Jerusalem’s Western Wall during Israel’s Six Day War, he created an iconic image. What would you create?

20. Change your Time
Find yourself shooting at the same time of day each weekend? So break a habit. Discover what the light at dusk, mid-afternoon or early morning can do for your ideas. And it’s not just the light that can make the difference here. Just breaking your routine can often be enough to give you a new perspective and a whole new way photography habit.

21. Browse Stock Sites
You don’t have to be a buyer to check out the images on stock sites. You can be a professional photographer looking for ideas too… especially ideas for commercial images. And the searching is simple. Looking at the top-sellers will give you a good idea of what the market is buying, and browsing by category will show what other photographers are doing with their themes.

22. Write a Blog
Darren Rowse, over at Digital Photography School, mentions how much just writing about photography has helped to improve his picture-taking. It doesn’t matter if no one reads it; just putting your thoughts on the page could give you some new ones.

23. Read a Blog
Of course, reading a photography blog is even more inspiring thing than writing one. Not only can you learn what went into a photo and where the idea came from, you can also discover how to sell it. But then we would say that, wouldn’t we?

24. Buy a Photography Book
You can never own too many photography books, and each one you buy should give you a bunch of new ideas. Although that’s true of both books of photographs and books about taking pictures, you might find that photography guides give you more inspiration than a collection of images. The former will give you techniques to try out, while the latter will show you the techniques the greats have used. Stil, if you’re really stuck, go shopping.

25. Browse a Bookstore
Or save your cash, take a pile of book to the store’s café and sit and enjoy yourself. In fact, you don’t even have to take the photography books with you. Even the dust jackets of the hardbacks can give you ideas for shots, especially commercial images.

26. Step Away from the Magazine Racks

Photography: cathyse97

And if book covers can give you ideas, just think what magazine covers can do. These are designed to be eye-catching and stand out on a shelf. They could make your next photo stand out too.

27. Make Friends in the Photography World
Some photographers find it easiest to shoot alone. Others like to shoot as a group. Everyone can benefit from the feedback, discussions and habits of other photographers.

28. Join Photography Organizations
If you’re a professional and you’re not a member of a professional photography organization, you should be. Not only can organizations help with insurance and legal matters, their news, contests, and profiles of other photographers can inspire to make your own splash among your peers.

29. Shoot Yourself
Photography: hen power

When you’re stuck for a subject, always remember that there’s an interesting one behind the lens too. Be brave. Put yourself in the shot for a change.

30. Revisit Your Past
You probably have a stack of old images that you rarely review, including many that you can’t bring yourself to look at. Give them another chance. A shot that failed a few years ago might well be achievable today — and give you ideas for more.

31. Revisit Places You’ve Been Before
And the same is true of locations. Even if you’ve taken a photograph in one location, it doesn’t follow that you’ll take exactly the same image a few days, months or years later. The light will be different, your skills will be different… and so will you.

32. Ask “What if…?”
Some of the greatest artistic answers have come from asking the right questions. A good one to start with is always “What if…?” What if you focused on the foreground instead of the background? What if you changed the ISO? What if you got a flash of inspiration?

33. Leave Constructive Comments
We’ve mentioned that writing blogs can help to give you new ideas, but so can writing comments on other people’s images. Just make sure the comments are constructive. Praise the photographer’s use of shadow, for example, and you’ll be telling yourself how to get similar praise.

34. Join Photo Contests
Everyone and their uncle these days seems to be running a photography competition. And for good reason. They’re a great way to motivate photographers to shoot outside their boxes.

35. Choose a Theme
Photo contests are helpful because in addition to prizes, they also give subjects to shoot. But you don’t have to actually enter a contest to win one of those. You can pick your own theme. You could even use the categories on stock sites as inspiration for subjects.

36. Check out the Big Winners
And of course, taking a look at images shot by the winners of big photo contests, such as the Pictures of the Year, can show how far your image are from those at the top of the profession… and what you need to do to join them.

37. Go Back to the Rules
You probably know the rules of photography. And you probably know how to bend them and when to break them too. So maybe go back to when you were first learning techniques and try working strictly to rule for a while.

38. Just Shoot Anyway
There are always times when you lift the camera, look at the screen and think, “No.” But what would happen if you did it anyway? At worst, you’d waste a bit of disk space. At best, you might surprise yourself and find a new kind of composition.

39. Get a Cause
Few people are more motivated than those who believe they’re working for the common good. So join them. Pick a cause, offer it your photography skills and the end will help inspire the means. You could find yourself shooting all sorts of things from campaign posters to t-shirt images to angry demonstrations. The variety should be as satisfying as the campaigning.

40. Play with Textures
While photographers often pay attention to light and composition, the texture of the materials in the subject can be left behind. Try focusing on touch rather than vision for a few shots and see what happens…

41. Play with Colors
Or be traditional and paint your pictures with bold colors and sharp contrasts. Or try using different tones of just one or two colors and see what that does for yourt results. It might not be original but if you haven’t done it before, it could be time to give experimenting with colors a try.

42. Drop Color Altogether

Photography: cayusa

Of course, you could also be super-traditional and focus on practicing your skills in black-and-white. Do you know which shots would look best without color?

43. Play with Settings
Chances are, once you’ve found a camera setting that works for you, you don’t stray from it too far. So start straying. Play with the exposure, change the ISO, switch the shutter speed. And build on the results.

44. Play with a Point-and-Shoot
When you shoot with a DSLR, you can get used to all the bells, whistles and options that come with an expensive camera. So lay it aside, pick up an instant and shoot on the cheap. You’ll be amazed at what downgrading can do for your creativity.

45. Just Play
The beauty of digital photography is that there’s no penalty for making mistakes. That gives you a free ticket to stop worrying about whether a picture will turn out well or be an embarrassing flop, and just shoot. So try just enjoy taking photographs without thinking too much about the results.

46. Try a Different Specialty
Whether you specialize in wedding, portraits or anything else, try a niche you’ve never done before. You don’t have to do it professionally but just doing it for a while could give you a whole new bag of techniques and inspire new ways of creating your images.

47. Read Forums
We’ve mentioned that Flickr Groups can be good places to find inspiration but so can photography forums. Often, photographers use them to pose questions, but even those questions can get you thinking. The answers can get you shooting. (That can include your answers too. Tossing in your own two cents’ worth can get you thinking about all things you’re not doing — or haven’t been doing yet.)

48. Start a Project
Inspiration might come in a flash but you want it to hang around. Instead of thinking of an idea for one photograph, try thinking of an idea for a series of photographs. If you’d decided to take pictures of lightning for example, expand the concept to include extreme weather as a whole and add photographs of windswept trees and sun-bleached rooftops. That should keep you busy for a while…

49. Take a Photography Class
Photography classes make thinking up ideas very easy. You’ll even be given assignments so that you don’t have to think up subjects at all, just novel approaches to them.

50. Take any Class

Photography: absolutwade

But you don’t have to limit yourself to a photography class. A cooking class will let you create photography subjects that you can eat. A flower-arranging class could give you new ideas for floral photography. Even an origami class could provide a pile of new ideas for images.

51. Define the Perfect Image
Do you know what the perfect image would look like? Bet you’re thinking about it now, right? Instead of thinking how good the next shoot would be, try thinking about what the best shot would look like… then find it.

52. Create a Shooting Schedule
One way to cut back on the regular head-scratching is to plan ahead. Pull out a calendar and decide in advance what sort of images you’ll be shooting each weekend for the next few months. And leave room for flexibility.

53. Pick a Different Model
If you always use the same models or models with similar looks go for something completely different: the opposite sex, a different height, a new age group. See what a different subject can for your ideas.

54. Ignore the Silly Criticism
This one won’t boost your inspiration but it might stop it being blocked. Ask people to comment on your photos and you’ll always get someone with something dumb to say. The challenge is to pick out the constructive comments and leave out the smartass ones that can make you think twice in the future.

55. Do Something Totally Outrageous
Ever told yourself “That would never work?” Well, here’s a “what if…” What if it did work? Go ahead, surprise yourself. Shoot what’s under the sofa. Snap the top of your head. Do something outrageously silly… and see if it works.

56. Give yourself Limits
Some of the greatest literature has been written under the strictest censorship. So limit yourself. Close the door and shoot only an object that you can find in the room. Or tell yourself that you have to produce a fantastic image within the next half hour. Take up the challenge

57. Tell a Story
Good pictures always tell a story. So try thinking of a story then go out and create the images that illustrate it. That could be the story of your street, a narrative describing a community or even the progression of a cub baseball team. Find where your story begins then use your camera to follow it through to the end.

58. Print your Pictures
It’s one thing to view your photos on a computer screen but printing them out and holding them in your hand can be something else altogether. Try printing a selection of your photos and see whether they still work on paper… and how you can improve them.

59. Take an Object, Any Object…
We started this list by pointing out that flea markets are full of strange objects to photograph. But there’s a limit to how you can photograph an individual object in a flea market. So take one home or pick something off the shelf and give yourself a whole new set of still lifes.

60. Buy New Equipment
And if all else fails, you can always use cash. A burst of new ideas always seems to come free with a new lens.

Sharing beautiful fashion photography for everyone to enjoy.