Lately, there has been a lot of buzz about where photographers get inspiration. Most people give credit to magazines and pro blogs, which are undeniably inspirational. We can’t help but to be influenced by what we are exposed to, but I like to take it one step further. Last year during the Winter Olympics, I was watching skier Lindsey Vonn preparing to head down the slope. She was at the top of the incline with her eyes closed and her head bobbing around like Stevie Wonder. Now I’ve only been on the bunny slope once in my life, so naturally I turned to my tennis pro husband  and asked what she was doing (you know because all athletes understand each other). Well he’s not only handsome and talented, he’s smart too. He explained the technique of previsualization to me and my world was changed. Now I previsualize every shot. The night before a shoot, I think about angles and different poses, I actually try the poses in the mirror, and I think about what lens I’m going to use for each shot. Another thing I do is carry my camera with me everywhere. If I see something inspiring I shoot it. I love architecture and symmetry so I get easily inspired just walking down the street.

I spent last week at the La Quinta Resort with Jeff for the USPTA Conference and while walking around I came across some gorgeous locations. Here are my favorites…

When I saw this door I had poses flying through my brain, plus there a huge white wall behind me perfectly lighting the shot. Here are a few ideas for this type of shot: Couple kissing just in front of the door, couple sitting on the ground/girl leaning into guy, guy’s back against the wall/ girl’s head on this chest looking at the camera.  If any of that makes sense at all… Man, I wish I had models there!

I love this spot. I’m not giving away all my ideas, how would you use this space?

Both of these were shot with a 50mm 1.4. But if you don’t have your camera, I don’t know of a modern cell phone without a camera…

Taken from a golf cart on my Blackberry. And if all else fails, take a mental picture. It’ll be easier to access when you’re doing your previsualizations anyhow.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 7th, 2010 at 6:26 pm and is filed under blog about it, Photography. Tags: baby photographer, event photographer, family photographer, Los Angeles Photographer, newborn photographer, portrait photographer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

One Response to “blog about it | Inspirations”

1. Sachin Khona says:

   October 18, 2010 at 8:58 pm

   Hey Steph,

   Great to see how your mind works and pre visualizing is something that I need to do more of for sure..

   Thanks for sharing!!!

   Sachin