When my shutter finger gets twitchy and I don't have anything in particular to shoot, it's productive to come up with a theme for myself. During the photo workshop that I taught in Tuscany in 2008, students found it helpful to have a theme to fall back on for their daily photo excursions. It helped them feel less overwhelmed and more focused, so to speak.
And honestly, it's just a whole lotta fun. Here are some ideas:
• Shoot one color or one shape
• Reflections
• Shadows
• Texture
• Grab three disparate things (piece of fruit, your toothbrush, a rusty nail?) and do a still life
• Think of a place that does not inspire you at all - a dying garden, the waiting room at your dentist's office, whatever - and go there to shoot a really beautiful abstract interpretation.
• Find one object and photograph it in a dozen different ways
• For a challenging ongoing project, shoot all the letters in the alphabet as long as it's not literally the letter. Some letters are much easier to find that others. (I personally have a plenty of the letter "M.") Reward yourself when you're done by publishing it with a book from mypublisher.com.
Here are some images from my "yellow" collection. Above, a scene in Acapulco.
This is a photo I like to call "Mona Saves" - to be found on the corner of Paseo de Peralto and Washington in Santa Fe:
Ubiquitous laundry, in Venice, Italy:
A little daisy pail in Madrid, New Mexico:
Rainbow near my house in Santa Fe:
Number 3, number 3, number 3...
Again I've broken the "don't shoot the mannequin" rule:
Escalator at Marshall Fields, Chicago (I refuse to call it Macy's):
Buddha statue in Myanmar:
Fireworks, Detroit:
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