Tammi Nowack Photography Photoblog

When I was in 6th grade I used to go to bed around 9 or 10 and then I would decide to clean out my nightstand drawer.

And then I would notice that all my books on the bookshelf needed tidying.

And then I’d ponder what I’d wear to school the next day and I’d end up organizing my entire closet.  My mom or dad would see the light on, open my bedroom door and eyes would widen at the mess I’d created in the process of cleaning up. But then it was 1 o’clock in the morning and I already knew I’d have to be applying some extra blue eyeshadow the next morning to brighten up my sleepy eyes.

Yeah, well.

Imagine me dead center in a pile of slouchy socks, clunky heeled jelly shoes, slap bracelets, Bon Jovi cassettes, and the entire Babysitters Club book collection and you’ve got an idea what you’re looking at over here in my brain.

It’s 2am.

And I am SO AWAKE.

So I thought we’d do a little Photo101. I know, it’s been awhile since the last installment but I really DO want to get better about it. So I thought that while I’m wide-eyed over here that I’d put up a couple tips to help you get your creative juices flowing.

Over Christmas, you may recall that I took a vacation and didn’t work for about a month and a half for a much needed break.  I didn’t even want to pick UP my camera and it sat in the corner getting dusty.  AFter a few weeks though, I was itching to grab it again but I was…BORED.  Wanting to do something different.  What to do when you’re in a creative rut? You’re tired of taking the same old pictures with the same old results?  Here’s a few ideas….

1. Take a break. DON’T take pictures for a day or two.  It might be just the rejuvenation you need.

2. Try a new perspective.  One of the earlier lessons I learned in my learning path is that there are literally HUNDREDS of ways to see the same thing.  Here’s a project I did years ago (wish I could find the pics but I can’t!):

Take an apple and your camera and take 50 pictures of that apple.  Make them all different.

Sounds hard, right? Impossible, even?  Hardly!  Give it a try and you’ll see once you get going that there are TONS of different ways you can take a photo of that apple – don’t be afraid to play around with different lighting, angles, etc –you might surprise yourself!

3.  Give yourself fun tasks. Over Christmas I spent about 30 minutes taking pictures only of things that were blue.  The boys and I all had fun scouring the house for blue things.  Do a color, a shape, a textile, whatever – have fun with it!

4.  Enjoy the process, don’t think about the after.

Sometimes I’ll have the urge to take some pictures but I dread thinking about the process involved in downloading the card, editing the pictures, resizing them for the web, etc. etc. etc.  Just take the pictures! Maybe you’ll edit them – maybe you won’t.  But you might enjoy the process more if you don’t think about the later.

5. Try something totally different.

There’s a whole world of imagery out there that is completely different than your style.  That’s what defines art – it speaks to different people in different ways.  I like happy, fun, bright, crisp photos.  I don’t really dig landscapes, or stuff that’s dark & twisty.  Which is why I decided to do something dark and twisty.  Just for fun.

6. Go find some inspiration! Look at all different genres…Documentarial, Nudes, Abstract, Fashion…there’s a whole world of wickedly talented photographers out there just waiting for you to soak up.  Enjoy their vision and feel inspired!

Lemme know if there’s anything YOU want to learn more about and I’ll try to do a tutorial or offer some tips in the future!

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 18th, 2010 at 11:19 pm and is filed under A Photographer's Life, Photography 101. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.