I have three distinct main sources of inspiration and each relates in some way to toy photography. That makes it very convenient for our sticky note exercise.
Wanderlust
I love traveling and until recently, most of my pictures were taken while traveling abroad. Even though I’ve always thought that the place I used to call home has a great photographic potential, I never really managed to find the inspiration I needed to take photos at home. But in addition to the need of a change of environment, there is simply the fact that I love the world. The Earth is a great place with such a variety of landscapes and people. Even if I can’t travel, the Internet is there to inspire me. It’s an open window on the world, with almost unlimited photos, videos, and text created by people. There is not a single day that goes by without stumbling on something truly inspiring, something that makes me think that I need to get out with my camera.
Cinema
Although I don’t have a very broad cinematographic knowledge, it’s the only form of visual art that always had a great impact on me. There are a few movies that had such an impact on me when I was a kid: Star Wars, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, the Tim Burton movies from the late 80’s and early 90’s are the first to come to my mind.
But beyond those movies which marked me, and although I’m far from being a huge film-lover, I’ve always been fed with images from the cinema industry. The inspiration from movies is one of the reasons why I shoot most of my photos in landscape mode and more recently have tried to use widescreen cinema standard ratios more often.
Music
Music is an integral part of my life. Even though I don’t listen to music as much as I used to, it’s by far my favorite form of art. If I wasn’t such a terrible musician, neither I would be taking photos of toys, nor would you be reading this post. This year one of my objectives is to find a way to link my passion for music with photography. Ideally, I’d like to transmit through my photography what I feel while listening to music. To be honest I have no idea how I (or anyone else) could do that. But maybe the link between music and photography can also be simpler. For example, there’s countless of photo ideas that come to me while I’m listening to music, and many of the photo titles I use are inspired (if not taken directly) from song lyrics.
Have you ever tried to share, through photography, emotions that you felt while enjoying some sort of non-visual art?
Have you succeeded?
If so, I would love to hear about your own experience.
Sharing the Adventures in The North of my Plastic Friends.
Great article and great inspirations. I totally relate to your 3 points. And awesome pictures ;-) Thank you for sharing your inspirations with us.
Thanks my friend! ;-)
Music (and the lyrics) and movies for sure also have a huge influence on my ideas. And an interesting point: Movie ratios. I can´t tell whether it derives from watching movies (which happend a whole lot more back in the days) but for quite some time I´ve been absolutely fascinated almost panoramic views. By the time I went to different camera shops to ask for the possibilities in that field connected with a DSLR a being told that´s there´s nothing they knew of I was massively disappointed. I haven´t given up on that dream yet though. How do you achieve… Read more »
I feel a post upcoming on this topic, Stefan.
I love widescreen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_Panavision_70
Do YOU hold the key then?? Looking forward to sharing this passion!
Yep by cropping. I think some mirrorless allows to choose which aspect ratio to save photos. But on the other hand I like having a full file so I can always use another aspect ratio if I change my mind at post-processing. The drawback is that you need to train yourself to frame your picture for widescreen ratios with a 3:2 viewfinder. And sometimes it’s frustrating when you realize you didn’t enough space for cropping…
Or stitching :)
Never tried with macro shots of minifigs.
Reiterlied, I absolutely love your Rock n Roll, Baby image.
That one is just awesome. The fire in the hair, the deep blues, and that smile.
Luv it !
So I guess trying to nail that one for multiple days was worth, even though the final result is very different from what was my original idea :-)