Mostly for wedding/portrait shooters . . .

Where are you getting your new ideas?  Do you spend time reviewing other photographers sites?  Books?  Magazines?
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Ed Farmer
Mount Laurel, New Jersey

www.edfarmerphotography.com
www.photoartsforum.com

Good question! I hope other people answer too because I would like to know as well. I'll tell you what I do:
I do look at other photographer's work. However, my area tends to hold on to trends a long time after the rest of the country has moved on to something else. (I know, I am a wedding coordinator for a corporation here, I am really involved in the industry). So I try to check out photographer's work from other areas. If I was organized I would bookmark sites or images I love, but I don't.
Other than that I take a lot of cues from my client, I ask them to let me know if there are any poses they want to try or pictures they love. It's great when the couple has a distinct personality and their event itself gives inspiration for new and different images because of the theme and the colors and the details they have picked... unfortunately not all weddings are inspirational. The worst is when they point out images they love that were taken at expensive weddings with all the details and then they have nothing pretty to photograph. It's a little unfair to compare the photographs I take at their event with others. You know? But I digress.
Inspiration! Right, where do the rest of you get it?
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I look a lot at other photographer's work, then I add my own adjustments to it because each person is different and the poses never seem to look the same on 2 different people. Like Susie, I also ask them if they have any ideas. And at least with girls, I have them dance a little, or spin. It relaxes them and the expressions come out more natural. I also like to get ideas from the location. If there is a bridge or fence, then I will have them lean and sit on the edges. I actually had one of my friends lay in a gutter (it was clean) and took her picture there.
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I used to have an idea binder.  Any time I saw something that really stuck out; whether it was online, in a magazine, or pretty much anywhere else; I would print it or tear it out and put it in the binder.  Never used it as a direct guide though. More as inspiration when I was looking for something different. 

Still have the binder I think.  Just haven't added anything to it for a while. 

But now I do the same thing with website designs.  I've got a plugin for Firefox that lets me save the page as a png and I've got a folder full of them.
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I get a lot of ideas on deviant art. More edgy portrait type stuff. I keep some collections on different theme's I want to work on.
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-John
Sarcasm, frustrating the clueless since 3000 b.c.
"There is no Un-Suck filter" David duChemin

Check out the new blog. http://www.jklebphoto.wordpress.com

I browse mayhem, and deviant art, and watch music videos. I also have a few  photographers / body-painters that I follow.

I too have a pose book but its a folder on my iPod that I drop stuff in to give me ideas if I hit a wall during a shoot. (we look through them together and the photo coupled with her reaction always inspires me)

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Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before. -- Mae West

Chattanooga Portrait Photographer BobEdens.com


I too have a pose book but its a folder on my iPod that I drop stuff in to give me ideas if I hit a wall during a shoot. (we look through them together and the photo coupled with her reaction always inspires me)


Ipod! That's a great idea! I've been wondering how to carry my "idea book" around with me. (Its currently just a folder on my computer).
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