Harsh

I know!

If you’re guilty of this and I am pushing your buttons I apologise. I don’t want to rile you, I want to get you out of your rut!

The fact of the matter is, if your work isn’t distinctive you’re always going to be competing on price!

There are so many photographers out there these days.

You need to stand out in order to be noticed.

Humans are so bombarded with imagery these days, it’s going to take something exceptional to make people stop and really look at your work.

Otherwise it will just come down to money.

Creativity needs to be nurtured and if you want to create exciting work and stay inspired you need to make time for this.

• Go to art galleries and look at work that is not of your genre
• Go to bookshops and look at the art and photography section
• Watch films and study how cinematographers use composition, light and colour
• Hang out with interesting people who inspire you
• Journal
• Carry a book with you to scribble down ideas
• Write lists of your favourite photographers and figure out why you love them
• Drink in all the beautiful imagery that you possibly can
• Diarise time in your schedule to inspire yourself – this is as much of a priority as eating properly

• Get enough sleep
• Eat properly – A healthy body is a healthy mind
• Meditate – this has been proven to improve stress, anxiety, EQ, creativity, empathy. If you battle you can use an app like Calm or Insight timer.
• Get off your phone – Give yourself the time and space to day-dream. It has been proven that allowing your mind to wonder whilst walking or doing the ironing actually improves creativity. If you’re always on your phone whilst doing other things your brain doesn’t have the chance to access your creative ideas.
• Exercise increases serotonin and endorphins, which improves mental help which will ultimately improve mind-set which will help you with negative thought patterns.
• Read books
• Shoot for free! In other words don’t only make work for clients. This is where you can play, experiment and grow.
• If you’re feeling burnt out and uninspired take the day off, or even better take the weekend off, or better yet take a couple of weeks off. You only live once and having time and space away from your normal life will enable you to put things into perspective and hopefully inspire your creative heart.

Be more present. Be more curious. Stop and smell the roses. The magic is always found in the moment!

Stop making excuses and just do it! You start by stilling the mind and then putting one foot in front of the other!

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