Photo Friday! Finding Inspiration.

Hi hi. It’s Photo Friday around here! And it’s all about inspiration today!

If you haven’t already noticed, photographing life, love, and anything in between is pretty much everything to me. And documenting our experiences on this sailing journey is truly something I L-O-V-E doing.

My goal along the way has always been and continues to be to try and capture the feeling of the moment, and the beauty and essence around us, wherever that may be. And although I like to think of myself as a creative person, that creativity has to get fed from somewhere, doesn’t it?

Like most folks, I find inspiration all around me. But at the end of the day I have a few go-to favorites. Here are the top 5 ways I tend to dig up that much-needed inspiration…

1. I adore Pinterest. I’ve mentioned it before, but my obvious go-to finding inspiration place is on Pinterest! I have lots of different boards (some strictly dedicated to random inspiration) where I pin all kinds of crap that I love. It’s really a great resource. I find oodles upon oodles of inspo over there. For everything. Not just photos, although I do have a crap-ton of “boards” dedicated to photography related inspiration.

I never want to literally copy anything that I pin (except maybe a recipe), but I do find that just referring back to my boards really gives me that extra boost of creativity when I need it most. Aside from all my photography related boards, I have boards for lots of other, regular, everyday stuff…from fashion, to food, home decorating, design, you name it! I even have a sailing + cruising board!

2. I follow other cool blogs. This is a no-brainer for me. And oftentimes, those blogs are totally unrelated to anything I have going on in my life. My very very very favorite blogs are NOT even remotely sailing or photography related. They’re foodies, or fashion bloggers, or just cool hip mamas, like this blogging mom with an everyday life that appears so extraordinary.

However, it’s so freaking easy to get caught up in the comparison trap with other blogs. I have learned to let go of this over the years but I am nowhere near immune to it. I just try to look at is as an opportunity to grow rather than feel like crap about myself. I am not going to list all of my fav and most-inspiring blogs here because I don’t want to skew anyone out of finding their own. But you’ll know you’ve got a winner when you are anxiously awaiting their next blog post!

3. I take photos for ME. Not anyone else. Doesn’t exactly sound like inspiration I suppose, but to me, it IS because I’m only taking photos of people, places, or things that I love. In other words, I’m not trying to please anyone with my work here on the blog. It’s only anything and everything I want to photograph.

Although we have this fun blog where we publicize our lives for anyone to take a peek, in reality, all of the photos and content we post are here because we love what we are doing. And want to document it for ourselves. I cannot tell you how many times I think about what it’ll be like to look back through this digital scrapbook twenty years from now and have such a special part of our lives documented. With TONS of photos that tell the whole story! It’s not always easy to take photos…you know, like when you’ve been sailing for 60 hours straight, haven’t had a shower, are super tired, and just waiting to get to land…but it is oh SO worth it in the end. And if you are going to do it, do it for yourself, not anyone else.

4. I try to find beauty where others may not see it. This is a big one for me. I get a great deal of pleasure from photographing people, places, or things that others may tend to walk right by at first glance. And there in lies the inspiration. Hello, remember the streets of Luperon? Those probably won’t be winning any beauty contests anytime soon, but if you look a little closer, you might find some gorgeous light filtering in over a mountainside or through a coconut tree, or see the sparkle in the eyes of children playing barefoot on a street. There really is beauty everywhere you look. I honestly still love looking back at our photos from the Dominican Republic, where there really was SO much beauty, energy, and inspiration all around us.

5. I follow some pretty awesome photogs. With any profession or hobby, there will always be someone better (or worse) than you. And hell, I truly believe you can always learn a thing or two from them and definitely find inspiration through their work! And if you get real lucky, they may even divulge a few of their special secrets!

Although I love quite a few talented photogs out there these days, here are three of my all-time favorites that always serve as a great source of photo inspiration for me…Wildflowers Photography, Pink Sky Photography, and Concept Photography. <<They are all freaking awesome photographers and I highly recommend checking them out!

Okay, ^^those^^ are just some of my favorite sources of inspo. Where do you find your inspiration???

Happy Friday!

*I’ve started a regular “PHOTO FRIDAY” series on the blog. You can find all of my photography series posts here.

>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.