Last Updated on 10/01/2020 by Chris Gampat
Photography is fantastic; but if you’re going to do it then consider having other fulfilling hobbies.
While photography is a fantastic passion and hobby to have, I don’t at all think that it should be the sole thing that brings you joy in life. The world is a fantastic place filled with tons of variety and if you limit yourself to just one hobby, it can get boring and monotonous. Instead, you need to be able to give yourself a variety. Think of it as a diet. Unfortunately there isn’t a single one food that you can have over and over again to stay very healthy. However with a variety, you can stay healthy and continue to go about your daily life. Sustainability needs at least a small variety of things. But flourishing is best done with a plethora of choices.
You Need to Stay Inspired
When we are fed the same stimuli every day, it can become almost like a scar where we are just so used to it that we don’t care. So in order to stay inspired, we need to search for outside influences. Part of this comes with personality. From the photographers who we’ve interviewed, many introverts tend to search internally for inspiration while extroverts tend to receive inspiration from others. Of course, this isn’t always the case–but human beings are social animals. So staying inspired can come from finding ways to channel your own feelings and emotions or from putting your own unique and creative spin on something from before.
But no matter what, never copy. Always credit sources of inspiration. I’ve always felt like schools in America teach you to just find better ways to cheat at life and I feel like that’s what the internet has become. Instead though, we should be crediting each other.
Observing How Others Create Can Influence You
In the photography world, lots of folks get joy out of learning and seeing how other photographers go about creating their images. But the same thing happens in every other medium. Creativity is an energy and it is just channeled in different ways–but that doesn’t mean that we can’t embrace it. Creativity is beautiful and so you can be inspired by:
- Chefs
- Musicians
- Painters
- Sculptors
- Charcoal artists
- Chalking artists
- Calligraphy
- Dance
- Theater
- Acting
- Writing
- Cinema
- Sewing
Basically anything that involves the creation of art can be an inspiration to you. How?
- Long exposures
- Multiple exposures
- Creative Lighting
Those are just a few! Of course, all of this involves working with other people in some way or another.
Collaborations Can Keep You Creating
Of course, bouncing ideas off of one another and conversations can help with the creation of images. Collaborations often involve us trying to create art–not content. Content has a different intent of getting some sort of engagement on social media or a sale afterwards. Art could be content, but isn’t initially created in that way. As a result, art is often not as perfect as polished content.
The Photography Community Can be Very Toxic at Times
Let’s be very honest here, the photography community is very toxic at times. So we need a break. We need to find a balance between ying and yang and the best philosophy to have is to balance both the light and the dark so that you can always tell the difference between the two. This is a problem often encountered by beginners and only made worse by the internet. In person meets are much different encounters most of the time; but eventually the toxicity tends to fizzle out in real life. On the internet, it only fizzles out when someone deletes their comments.
You’ll Help Hone Your Creative Vision
Your creative vision is something that is unique to you. It has your stamp on it and when people look at it, they can tell that it’s an image that you made and not anyone else.
