Inspiration Information: How to deal with creative blocks

Photographer’s block, aka “I don’t know what the hell to make photographs of anymore,” is a perennial problem for we creatives. We buy books of other photographers’ works, we attend inspirational seminars, maybe even start to think we’ve complely lost our creative spark.

Happens to everyone, right? Perhaps. But here are seven tips to either recover that missing creative mojo or, even better, to avoid losing it in the first place.

1. Stop buying all those books, at least when you’re feeling down about your own work. Bad photography seldom finds its way into coffee-table books, and there’s no better way to beat yourself up than to look at the best work of the best people.
2. Do talk to an understanding peer. The best person to talk to is a good listener, not someone who thinks they have all the answers. Sometimes a little sympathy is all that’s needed.
3. Try accepting different kinds of assignments. For example, even though my focus is on architectural and industrial work, I do about six event-photography gigs a year. Having to dig out that speedlite, leave the big strobes behind, and actually interact with human beings is a refreshing change. I have to plan and execute the shoots differently, post-production is more like triage than the deliberate process I’m used to, and everything is moving all the time. I find great joy in doing something out of the ordinary every so often. And the stuff I have to remember how to do when working fast and light only serves to improve my efficiency when working in my primary genres.
4. If No. 3 doesn’t do it for you, then go assist a friend. You’ll learn a lot, you’ll feel good for helping someone, and you’ll get yourself out of your normal environment for a while.
5. Go for a walk in your neighborhood, but leave your camera at home. Pay attention to your surroundings with all your attention rather than trying to impose a viewfinder over everything. You’ll be surprised at the new things you notice. Then start paying attention like that everywhere you go, and then start making photos of what you see.
6. Make photographs for fun. Seriously. Just photograph what’s interesting to you; it makes no difference what the subject is, or whether the images are all that good. Rekindle the joy connected with making photographs that drew you to the profession in the first place.
7. Social media is fun. I use my Instagram account as something of a personal-work gallery, and direct people to my proper site for professional work. It’s fun to show clients how I see things when I’m not under their watchful eye, and I find quite a lot of creative satisfaction in letting other people share in how I see the world, and seeing how those folks do the same.

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