We all have moments when the creative well seems to run completely dry, moments when you feel like you’ve exhausted every idea you’ve ever had for picking-up a camera, and shooting something.
I have these moments — a little too frequently. I decided to start capturing every interesting idea that popped to mind, and cataloguing each one here, in hopes that it will help others too. This article will be updated over time, so feel free to bookmark it and revisit regularly for new ideas. Last update was September 12, 2021.
DISCLAIMER: While I came-up with the ideas for this page (except if otherwise noted), I’ve no doubt stumbled upon things that others have thought of before me. In other cases, I may have inadvertently made a variation on someone else’s theme. Please know that if that’s occurred, it was entirely unintentional; I’m sort of the mind that as long as we’re all excited to shoot some film, that’s truly what matters. Oh, and if you have other ideas to add? Contact me. I’m all ears, and I’m happy to credit you for the submission.
Thematic Series
Come-up with something in the environment that you encounter with some regularity, then shoot a series. Some ideas: fire hydrants, hubcaps, manhole covers, pay telephones (to the extent they’re around anymore), playground equipment, mailboxes, road signage, traffic signals, doors, windows, neon signs, storm drains, tire treads, rear-view mirrors, food trucks, lawn sprinklers — you get the idea. You may be surprised at the images you get, and it’s an opportunity to pick 3 or 4 of the best, get them printed and framed, and hung together on a wall.
Go Closer
Some of us shoot macro or close-up with regularity, but if this is unfamiliar territory, try it out. You may need something like a Rolleinar for your TLR, or an extension tube for your SLR, if you don’t already have those accessories. But shoot some close-up or macro focus shots, with an aim to uncover the hidden beauty that’s in plain sight around you. The subject can be anything: your junk drawer, a pile of incoming mail, the texture of a stone wall, a drawer full of craft paints, odds and ends in your garage, the tires on your car, or anything else that has interesting textures, colors, or detail. (I’ve done all of these things at one time or another.)
Let it Hang
If you have a camera with a self-timer, you can try this one out. One of my favorite photographs that I ever took was shot in 1981 using this technique: I was on a high school field trip to downtown Denver, Colorado. It was midday, the sidewalks were busy with people, and I set the self-timer on my Minolta XG 1, put the camera in aperture-priority mode, and pressed the shutter button. Then, I held the camera by its strap, with my arm fully at my side, trying my best to keep the camera level and pointed roughly forward. The lens was just about at the height of a dog’s head. When the timer went off, the camera snapped whatever it saw at that moment. I got several shots that were lousy — but then I got the one shot I still like to this day, with an interesting perspective that couldn’t easily be captured any other way. I liked it despite the framing of the man standing against the wall.
Go Wide, Go Long
If you normally shoot with a standard lens, try shooting an entire roll with a telephoto or wide angle lens. The change in focal length can have a profound effect on your composition, your thinking, and of course the images. When I got my Mamiya RB67 body, the only RB lens I could readily find to buy was a 180mm — not my ideal choice. While I was waiting on the 90mm standard lens I finally found to arrive from its seller in Japan, I shot a test roll with the 180mm, and it made for some interesting compositional challenges that kept me on my toes. I did the same with the 25mm wide angle lens I bought with my Rolleiflex SL35. Doing this helps you understand the best shooting situations for your lenses, so it’s good experience in my view.
Give Yourself a Time Limit
There’s nothing like the pressure of time to tilt the threshold of “is this shot worthy of pressing the shutter button?” angst. This is much harder with 135 film (more shots per roll!), but if you’re shooting medium format, it’s kind of fun; load a camera with a roll of film, go someplace — or just outside in your own front yard — and start a timer. You pick the time; 15 minutes. 30 minutes. An hour. Shoot-off the entire roll before the time runs out. This is far more challenging in familiar territory, but the time limit does tend to force yourself to think more creatively.
Do Some Latitude Testing
Film has great exposure latitude (unless you’re shooting reversal film, anyway). But have you ever found the boundaries of your favorite film? Take the concept of exposure bracketing to new extremes; load a roll of it, meter your exposure, then shoot five shots from -2 to +2 stops under/over-exposed. Or, do seven shots from -3 to +3 stops. Or, be bold — do nine shots from -4 to +4 stops, knowing that the extremes probably won’t be great (but may well be surprising). Process (or have processed) the film at standard times, and see what you get out of it. I did this test with some Fomapan was surprised at the results. It makes a nice baseline reference to know how your favorite film behaves. (NOTE: This is probably not a great idea with color reversal films, which have very limited latitude; Kodak claim that Ektachrome E100 has only about 1/2 stop + or – in latitude; that’s not much.)
Shoot Something Different
Let’s be honest: There just aren’t that many different films these days. And if you’re a real analogue head, you’ve likely tried them all. But if you haven’t, creative stagnation is a terrific excuse to revisit what’s out there.
- Always use one or two specific brands? Explore Kodak, Ilford, CatLABS, Foma, Film Washi, Fuji, Lomography, or something else you’ve not experienced. Or, pick a specific product from one of them you’ve not previously shot.
- Always shoot color? Try black and white.
- Always shoot black and white? Try color.
- Always shoot normal film? Try an effects film from Lomography (e.g., their purple film), Psychedelic Blues, Dubblefilm, Revolog or Kono — many of which are pre-exposed with interesting colors and patterns — and enjoy the process of discovery.
- Always shoot negative film? Try reversal (positive) film. Its much narrower latitude can provide a technical challenge.
Change Your Format
While it may require additional cameras in order to pull this one off (I love a good excuse to buy a new vintage camera), one way to break through your rut is to change image formats. I prefer and most frequently shoot medium format, so I like to switch it up and pull out a 135 camera sometimes for something different. There’s nothing like the shock of moving from an 8 lb. (3.6 kg) RB67 kit to, say, a tiny little Rollei 35 that doesn’t even have a proper viewfinder.
You can also switch image sizes. If you shoot medium format, change things up. I love (love!) TLRs, and I get used to shooting 6×6 images. It’s fun to pull out my Pentax 645 and shoot 6×4.5, or the RB and shoot 6×7. I’ve not done it, but shoot something even wider if you can; perhaps even a panoramic format camera.
Filtered Fun
This is related to the previous suggestion, but if you’re a black and white shooter, and haven’t dabbled in colored filters, give it a try. Yellow, red, orange, green and blue filters all can affect contrast and color (well, gray) rendering. Clouds can pop. Details can suddenly be seen. As for filters, you can always buy higher quality ones if desired, but try picking-up used ones from shops or online used gear stores, or if you’re lucky enough to have occasional photography gear swap meets in your area, you’re likely to find them there as well. Or, buy cheap grade new ones online to see what you like before investing in higher quality options.
Limit Yourself
If you’re accustomed to shooting with specific gear, or controlling depth-of-field and other factors, then limit yourself. Get a super-simple, point-and-shoot film camera, one without any ability to control aperture or shutter speed, and force yourself to use it and truly think through things in ways that may be unfamiliar.
One way to do this is with low-end disposable or semi-disposable (refillable) cameras from Kodak, Ilford or Lomography. Another way is to pick-up an old Kodak box camera, such as a Brownie or Duaflex, and use that. (You may need to re-roll some 120 film onto 620 spools, or buy pre-done re-rolls from FPP or other sources who sell them.)
I find using my Kodak Duaflex II to be remarkably frustrating and yet remarkably rewarding to shoot with. I especially like to do so paired-up with another suggestion on this page — the time limit. Stick a roll in the camera, go someplace, and give myself 30 to 60 minutes to shoot through all 12 images. Then come home, develop the film, dry it and scan it — all in a single afternoon. Some fun things can come out of it, like this shot.
New Perspectives
Let’s face it, most of us shoot from the same position most of the time. We’re humans; we hold a camera at a certain height, and we don’t often try to change that up a bit. One creative idea is to do just that, and burn through a roll or two trying it out:
- Go low. Get down. Way down. This is easiest with a camera that has a waist-level viewfinder, because you can quite literally set the camera on the ground — which is about as low as you can go. But if you don’t have one, then sit on the ground, or lay on the ground face down and get the camera positioned as low as you can. Then, shoot whatever you’re shooting by looking at it from your low angle. It’s amazing how different the world looks when you’ve got a squirrel’s eye or dog’s eye view of it.
- Go high. Get a ladder, a step stool, climb a tree, go to a balcony or overlook, and shoot whatever you’re shooting from a higher angle. This is something that happens more naturally and more often than low-angle shooting, but again, if you mostly shoot from your own body height, try going up and looking down for new views on the world around you.
Capturing the Seasons and Changes
This is a sort of long-haul idea — the sort of thing you’ll do over the course of a year, perhaps multiple years, or even decades. But the central idea is to take a shot of the same thing across seasonal changes, or other, longer-cycle changes.
The genesis of this idea is something I’m rather embarrassed to admit in writing, but it was basically born of the observation of seasonal changes gazing out the window from, of all places, the toilet. I didn’t do this on film, but on digital. But these two of the images show the sort of thing I’m talking about:
I’m working on a much longer-cycle series I most certainly hadn’t planned, exactly; in 1981, I took a series of images in downtown Denver, Colorado as part of a high school field trip. In scanning and recovering these images for the modern era, I used a combination of Google Street View and clues in the images themselves to identify the location and direction of the shots. (It was quite a process to figure it out.) My plan is to return to the same locations, with the same camera and same lens, and take the same images today. Forty years is a long time, and a lot has changed. The original images were shot with Kodak Plus-X, and I might even see if I can find an expired roll of it. But regardless, it should be very interesting indeed to see the contrast.
Change Your Light, Change Your Metering
After browsing the feed of Tennessee photographer Daniel Lively on Instagram (@danielalively), I was really taken with how he used light in many of his photographs. Certainly the lighting itself had a lot to do with it, but Lively seems to use metering of highlights to his advantage to make the most of these shots, adding a moodiness to them that I really liked. He’s inspired me to play with the idea too, which is why there are not (yet) any sample images for this. For now, browse his feed, and you’ll see what I mean. Great example? This kitchen shot of his. I can’t think of a more mundane subject, and yet, interesting use of light (and metering) has made a hugely creative, interesting image.
It’s very tempting to compose images using the method we’ve all used since we were kids, and I’d call it “snapshot composition.” You see something, you want to record it in a photograph, and so you meter the scene as a whole, make sure everything is in the sun (or light source) from the front so everything is nice and visible. That can be a good photograph too, but clearly mastering highlights and the use of shadows and darkness is a creative avenue I need to spend more time mastering, and focusing specifically on shots that do is yet another way to mix things up when you’re feeling creatively at a loss.
Go Architectural
Shooting buildings may already be your thing, but if not, they’re a rich source of subject matter for shooting — and a rich source of ways to experiment. One of the interesting things about shooting buildings is their (usually) straight lines, and how you choose to compose the shot can use them to your advantage. Wide angle lenses can provide interesting exaggerations and distortions that provide visual interest, while a large format view camera, through the use of movements, can often allow you to control lines and perspectives in interesting ways as well, while providing opportunities to experiment.
Look What’s Hiding Here
Choose an object — doesn’t much matter what it is — and throw it in your camera bag. Could be a rubber ducky, a screwdriver, a Barbie doll, a coffee cup; what it is doesn’t much matter. Then, place the item in a scene where the object would be unexpected: a hiking trail, a shopping cart, a tree branch, a sand box, a snow drift… Whatever, wherever, whenever. Then, if you wish, repeat (and repeat) — creating a series of images based around the same object in a range of contexts. The object will need to be large to be visible in the frame, and this may require a camera and lens capable of closer-range focusing. But the randomness of such a shot can be interesting and artistic.
Bonus Points: Double Up
Looking for an even greater challenge? Double-up some of the ideas on this page. Applying a time limit to any of the other ideas can double the challenge — and double the fun.
More Ideas to Come
As I said in the opener, I’ll be extending this post as more ideas come to mind, or as you provide your suggestions. Just contact me, and let me know whether I can include your name with the suggestion.
Happy shooting!
