Five Things That Fuel My Creative Process (and two things that don’t)

I’m always advocating for looking outside your niche for inspiration that you can bring back to your photography, or any type of art you create. 

This practice gives us a different perspective and can help spark ideas for how to style a photo, create a mood, and fill a frame. 

There are a lot of things that I do that fuel my creative practice. They help give me ideas for new images to create, colors to combine, and stories to tell with my photos. 

And there are also some that I used to do regularly that no longer help me. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that over time they hurt my practice. It took me a while to realize this, but what I thought was helping to spark ideas was more often making me feel inadequate.  

Today I’m sharing five things that help me along with five that don’t and why. 

Five things that fuel my creative practice

• Art walks and museum browsing. I’m a longtime Monet fan and I love browsing museums with similar exhibitions whether from well-known artists or local, up-and-coming talents. Paintings spark ideas for color combinations and textures that I can explore with my food photography.
  
  

• Travel to experience culture. I travel a lot. And I realize that not everyone has the ability to do this. I can’t underestimate how important travel is in my work, though. So even if your version of it is watching a travel-related television show, I encourage everyone to work it in somehow.
  
  

  Travel gives us a better understanding of how things are done both differently and similarly to what we are familiar with. It sparks ideas for capturing how things are presented, how foods are served, and common colors and tones that relate to our cultures around the world.
  
  

  I’ve traveled to 26 countries and lived in Brazil for a while, but I’ll never forget the time I traveled to Italy specifically for a food photography workshop. My style was so stuck on neutrals, and stones, and woods, which I still love. But that isn’t the reality of kitchens in cultures throughout the world. The plaid, and florals and bright colors opened me up to new ways of thinking about my work. 

• Walking gardens and farms. Whether it’s a neighborhood walk looking at flower gardens or going to a u-pick farm, searching for unique angles, colors to coordinate, and layout designs is something that always benefits my creativity. 

• Flipping through home design and decor books. Reviewing the moods created with design styles gives me ideas for types of textures, layouts, and colors to use in my my food and product photography. 
  

• Observing wildlife. I’m an animal person. I can watch cows grazing, harbor seals lounging, and birds pecking for hours. At it’s simplest, it calms me and helps me to reflect on my work, but more importantly as I’ve started to photograph wildlife I see how I can work the colors and light of nature into my other types of photography as well. 

Two things that hurt my creative practice

• Browsing Pinterest. I still like this social media platform and I do still encourage beginners to use it as a place to see a lot of different types of photos to understand what they like in a photo style. But in the past I used it to help me generate ideas. Now, I really feel like doing that clouds my own creativity and keeps me from developing my own original ideas, those that come to me through the five things I mentioned above. 
  
  

• Browsing magazines. Photography, especially food photography, is a trendy thing. And magazines focus on what is trending. Don’t follow trends. Because they will change quickly and your work will soon look dated. It’s fun to experiment with trends, but its much more beneficial to focus on developing your own style that can be carried through your work even as your focus, and minor details around that style, change. 

For example, I was much more into dark and moody, deep woods, and all that with my work early on. It spoke to me. Today, I still love mood, but I also like a slightly brighter look. I’m not chasing trends, I’m creating what speaks to me and what I want viewers to feel when they look at my photos. 

Honestly, I stay away from most magazines for the purposes of reviewing photos. It can be a helpful practice when starting out and determining what you are drawn to, but just be sure you are viewing issues from a span of five years or so in order to see photos of all styles. 

Struggle to coming up with new ideas for your photos? Check out the creative guide,

Four Things To Do When You Need a Creative Break

I call it creative exhaustion. Though I’m sure I’m not the first person to use that phrase.

Those times when you completely run out of ideas. When the last thing you want to do is pick up the camera.

It’s a feeling that makes you wonder if you’ll ever find another moment of inspiration and that the time has come to move on. 

It’s not.

You just need to give yourself permission to take creative break.

Part of the practicing and learning process for any skill, including becoming more confident in creating your photos, is working in necessary breaks. 

Growing happens during these breaks. It’s the kind of growth that can’t happen when you are deep in brainstorming your next idea, styling a set, and selecting the right aperture. 

Step away from the camera.

Here are 4 things you can do during this much-needed break that will continue to move you forward without stalling your progress. 

Find something other than food and product photos to look at.

Whether it’s a book, online, or in person, browse paintings, pottery, poetry, illustrations. Set no expectations or a need to translate this into a photo. Enjoy it for what it is, the colors, the words, the art. 

Make something beautiful and delicious, and then don’t photograph it.

When we have such a strong urge to share our food because it’s too good or beautiful to keep it to ourselves, or worse, we need content (believe me, I’m with you), we sometimes lose the true enjoyment of what we love working with most - food. Whether its a bread, dessert, or a fruit salad - create it mindfully, appreciate its beauty, then enjoy eating every bite. 

Shift your focus to another task in your business.

Chances are you have a million things to do regardless of the focus of your work. Take a week off from creating photos and move another part of your work forward. Finally design a portfolio page for your photos. Draft your work or content plan for the next quarter. Get moving on that new logo. Start planning for next year’s growing season. 

Learn a new skill that supports either the technical side or the creative side of your photography work.

Sign up for a quick photo editing course or watercolor painting class. Review videos online on styling a home or a holiday table. Read through blog posts or catch up on podcast episodes from those sharing on topics such as prop styling, creating a brand, or business tips. 

Okay, that should get you started. Now set the camera down. I promise it won’t collect dust. Commit to not making yourself feel bad for taking a week (or more) off from shooting. Dive into something else and then return to it renewed when you are ready.