What inspires you to take photos?

[iGBH]

Strange the thoughts you have whilst outside cutting wood....

Anyway, I figured it would be interesting to know what inspires people to become interested in photography? Is it the subject matter (ie to enhance your memory of a certain occasion) or is it more the process as a form of art? (or any other inspiration).

For me, I have always loved the outdoors and find photography the best way to re-live that experience whilst I'm stuck at work or at home. Certainly helps too when my memory is not as good as it used to be.

I love getting back from a trip and then going through all the photos. Invariably I cycle these as a background or screensaver until the next time i go away.

So what inspires you?

[BT*ist]

My growth in photography (as will be detailed if I ever get around to documenting my Personal Photographic Journey) can be directly matched to my holidays too. Simply, every holiday since my first trip (Sydney to Perth by Indian Pacific) has resulted in yet another incremental "improvement" in the camera/equipment I use, number of shots I've taken, and the freedom I've felt in recording my impressions of a place. The motivation to move to SLR (film) from point and shoot (film) happened on my third trip. The motivation to then move from film only to digital (in addition) happened on my fifth trip. The motivation to then move to Digital SLR came in preparation for my seventh. My 10-20mm lens purchase was justified for my eighth. My 50mm f1.7 was bought for my most recent.

I love travel. I love the different sights, and these could be as little as a different name for a company or product overseas, to churches that pre-date Australia by a millenium! Also, I try to get more ambitious with every trip. It's my excuse and my justification. Occasionally I'm trapped by others who challenge me to trying to figure out whether I take photos because I'm on holiday... or whether I take holidays because I want to take photos. It's a good question, very chicken-and-egg.

I find it's harder to live in the same city day in and day out and keep photographing the same things, or waiting for some 'special' occasion to occur. I came back from a Europe holiday four weeks ago and am STILL editing through the photos. After I finish I'll print some and put them in an album with commentary. And post some here for comment (you know... in prepration for my next trip!)

Great question, can't wait to see some others' responses.

[phillipb]

I'm sort of in the same category as the previous posters, although I'm a little more sure of the chicken and egg thing. Definitely the photos come first. I know because sometimes I may go for a day trip and if it's somewhere that I know is not going to offer much photographically, I don't particularly feel like going.
Other then that, what motivates me is this forum, I read about what other people are doing and I see the results, usually makes me feel like trying it out myself.

[Yi-P]

For me whatever being written down 'upstairs'...

And I find looking back at my photos, prints, either on screen, through the loupe or just the slide out the window, I find it very satisfying knowing that was taken by me. Specially those ones that being praised many times over...

Then coming after that is seeing other's spectacular works around inspires me to use that same idea to develop a new photo from it. Trying to figure out how they did it or how to improve my own work is part of this never stopping learning curve.

[Big V]

I like to record that which I see going on around me..

[Matt. K]

I like the 'click' sound when I press the button.

[Matt. K]

Seriously....you have asked a big question and I am working on a big answer...if I can find an answer at all.

[phillipb]

Don't knock your original answer Matt, that's the reason I went from an instamatic to an SLR way back in the dark ages.

[Mr Darcy]

For me, it is recording processes, things and people.
This includes trips, and people I care about or that just catch my eye, but it also includes work in progress, or a particular process or result. e.g. my Avatar at the moment is of some shavings I made while trying out a new plane.

I find digital particularly satisfying here because
a. I set the photos up on the screen saver, so I actually look at them (I have 10's of thousands of slides & prints that I never look at. I eventually stopped using film because the waste disturbed me.)
b. The film is cheap, so I am more likely to record an ephemeral event or dubious thing. e.g. When my daughter had her school formal, I took photos of dresses in pattern books so we could discuss ideas without dad & daughter actually having to go clothes shopping together (eeuw yuk! from both of us!)

Now all I need to do is learn how to make good photos & remember to always have my camera with me.

[Raskill]

I've always enjoyed it, from varying degrees to another, now I'm mad about it!!!!

I enjoy the click, the fast shutter speed, capturing images that others enjoy, the envy of those in the 'cheap seats', owning the gear, it's all good!!!

[digitor]

I started off typing a long involved post, detailing my photographic history... but to cut a long story short - I don't know.

I've been at it since I was nine, so surely something must interest me - I wonder what it is?!

Cheers

[big pix]

you have got to love a hi speed motor drive.........

[adam]

New gear inspires me :D:D:D

haha... mmm,
Firstly, when I started, it was the thought that I wouldn't be any photographs
Now it's whenever I go out and see something beautiful

[iGBH]

Some really interesting responses so far.

A few people have mentioned some other things which increase my interest in photography...
a) the learning curve - i love learning new things and trying them out; and
b) new gadgets to play with - must admit i'm a bit of a gear freak.

[Kyle]

I get a kick out of getting that perfect shot, or culling your shots and spotting an absolute winner. It's a great feeling

I've loved cars all my life, I've loved tinkering with cars. These days I cant afford to spend wxcess cash on cool cars, but I can continue the automotive passion by photographing The things I love.

I always troll the web looking at the cream of the crops shots wondering how they achieved that, and what I could do to get something similar, this keeps me focussed on trying to achieve my best

Ok i'll stop now

[moz]

I've been interested about 3 times so far.

At school and early uni, it was a job. I took mediocre photos for a small town camera business and some photo libraries, mostly stuff where any photo was better than none. It paid for the camera gear and gave me a chance to learn a bit about image composition and selling photos. I didn't like the latter at all.

Then a few years ago I rode from Darwin to Perth with a bunch of people (on bicycles) and took a couple of hundred photos over three months using slide film and a Canon AE1p that I bought for the trip. That got me back into taking real photos, and I started to actually think about getting the shots that I wanted, rather than what would get the customer off my back.

Then when digital compacts became affordable ($500 for a Kodak DC3200) I bought one and started taking documentary photos of stuff I was doing. During and after the ride above I realised that I had very few photos of anything I'd done over the previous 10 or more years, and often nothing at all to show for quite significant stuff (no photos of girlfriends, or places I'd been , of major achievements even). So I bought the digitoy as a way to document stuff I was doing.

I started my website at that point, and also got involved with Indymedia and used my site to host photos that I could link to from Indy (because Indy has taken a long time to get even slightly photofriendly). So now I have more than 5 years of activism in photos, as well as other things I've done.

I've upgraded cameras a few times, and now have a decent pile of toys. The photos I'm taking are definitely bigger than before, and I like to think they're also better. Better, to me, means show what's happening, and convey some of the emotion.

[ozimax]

Don't knock your original answer Matt, that's the reason I went from an instamatic to an SLR way back in the dark ages.

Don't knock the ol' instamatic Phil ... Took some great photos of Cradle Mt many years ago in the sleet! I'll have to dig up my Box Brownie some time and take a few snaps for old times' sake.

[Finch]

For me, it was a way to record some of the wonderful experiences I was having out in nature (i.e. seeing a rare bird display, watching a stunning sunset, being near a waterfall on a cloudy day, seeing frogs calling at a nearby creek etc, etc). This happened around 10 years ago.

My passion for nature photography hasn't diminished one bit and always get a buzz out of seeing how my shots turned out at the end of a day's shooting.

Cheers