How To Find Inspiration 2: Photo Theme Ideas

Finding focus is a great way to motivate yourself to take pictures. Sometimes we just have no clue what to shoot next and our mind is a complete blank. Times like these, you might want to limit yourself to a particular subject or theme so that there is some sort of guideline you can concentrate on and follow.

There are several photo ideas you can make use of to jumpstart your passion. Here are six photo themes which might inspire you to pick up the camera again:

1.Letters of the Alphabet - Have you ever observed your surroundings and noticed certain objects seem to form a letter of the alphabet? Our mind is constantly trying to form patterns, to find some organization in randomness. Your neighbor's rooftop looks just like an A and that curled up worm you saw while gardening looks just like the letter O. Try going around your house or neighborhood and see if you can take a picture of each letter in the alphabet.

2.One Object - Choose an object and find different ways to present it in your photographs. For example, think of what you can do with one sheet of white bond paper. Take a photo of it crumpled in a tight ball, or while it is burning, or half submerged in water. You can roll it, crease it, fold it, and so on. The possibilities are staggering.

3.Kitchen Abstract - The kitchen is usually full of items just waiting to have its picture taken. Add a little extra challenge by making each photo an abstract. The plastic handle of a potato grater can be a great graphic abstract. Composition is vital in this exercise since the idea is to not make your subject instantly recognizable.

4.Black and White in Color - The world around us is full of color but for this theme, the focus is on black and white subjects. Converting to monochrome in post-processing is not allowed so the fun is in the hunting for subjects that are naturally black or white.

5.Macro - We're so used to being at a distance from what we are looking at that the tiny details are naturally overlooked. Why don't you go up close to your subject, as close as your camera possibly can without the image becoming all blurred. Try to capture the texture, the shapes, and the part of the object that you never noticed before but which now seems so interesting.

There are hundreds of photo themes you can use so next time you do not know what to shoot, follow a theme for a week or two and feel your creative juices flow again.