Here are some ideas for the unmotivated photographer. Unmotivated writers, see Tuesday’s post: 6 Writing Prompts for a Lazy Afternoon.

• Take another look at your backyard.
  You’ve probably taken plenty of photos in your backyard: family gatherings, barbecues, or the kids playing. Look again and and see what details you might have missed. Have you ever photographed the wildflowers along the back fence? What about the shadows the swings cast at sunset? What does the garden look like at different perspectives? What about when you zoom in on the squash plant or the row of beans? If you don’t have a backyard, is there a green space you walk past every day? Try to look at it as if for the first time. What do you see?
• Try a still life at home.
  All you need is a cloth taped to your wall and arranged over your kitchen counter. Try a variety of things as your subjects: the fruit and cereal you’re having for breakfast, the sandwich you made for lunch. Try an arrangement of vegetables from your garden, or hone in on single fruits and vegetables. While you’re at it, photograph those figurines you’ve been meaning to sell on Ebay. Pay attention to the light. Soft light from a side window might be best, but experiment with artificial light and flash too.
• Observe the light moving through your house as the day passes.
  Even if you’re busy working around the house, set a timer each hour to check where the light is now. Is there a soft glow that moves down your hallway as the morning progresses? What do the hard shadows from the blinds fall on? Take a look out the window every hour too. What interesting patterns of light are moving across your yard? Even if you don’t take any photos, observing light like this will make you more aware and better prepared when you’re planning a shoot.
• Go find some water.
  Even if it’s just water running over some fruit in the sink (an inspirational example), water can be a fascinating, complex subject for photography. My fiance and I like to visit a nearby dam several times a year. We’ve taken photos of the dam when the river flooded, when trees or other objects were caught between the dam and the current, and when fisherman stood almost in the center of the river below the dam. If you have a camera capable of taking fast photos, the “frozen” spray from the dam can make some fascinating abstract photos. Any body of water, constantly changing, can offer unique opportunities for photography.
• Photograph objects from an ant’s perspective.
  Especially if your camera has macro capabilities, try studying the textures of objects by zooming as close as you can, eliminating distracting objects. What do your jeans look like up close? The bark of a tree? Cracked mud on the riverbank? Try looking at objects in a different way, composing your photos for an abstract effect. Or try your hand at more typical macro photography subjects: flowers, leaves, insects, fruit, small objects like screws or pencil shavings.
• Experiment with post processing software.
  Sometimes, I just don’t want to go somewhere to shoot anything new, but I’m still in the mood to make a photo. I often take this opportunity to learn some new photo editing tricks. If you mainly use photo editing software to crop and reduce the size of your photos, try some of your program’s more advanced features. If you don’t have photo editing software, try downloading free software like Picasa or GIMP, both available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. GIMP has many of the features of the expensive Photoshop software. A variety of tutorials for GIMP are available online:
  • GIMP.org Tutorials
  • GIMP-Tutorials.com
  • Gimpology
  • GIMP Talk
  • GIMP Tutorials at the Tutorial Blog - list of tutorial websites

The next time you’re in the photography mood but lack inspiration, don’t just spend the whole day on Flickr. Try some of these ideas or brainstorm your own today to prepare for those lazy afternoons.

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