Sparking your Creativity | by Frances Terlich
Hi, I’m Frances from @francesterlich365 on Instagram and I document my family on our property in rural Australia. I shoot with a Canon R6 and have a Canon 24-70mm 2.8, Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art, Canon 100mm macro 2.8 and a lensbaby sol45. I also use my old original kit lens on my canon 700D as the zoom on it is amazing.
In 2024 I have been completing my third P52. I absolutely love the weekly challenges and it sure keeps me motivated, as this year has been my hardest so far for inspiration. In this piece I will be writing about what to do when inspiration dries up, AKA you hit a slump.
I ended 2023 feeling motivated and my creativity was at an all-time high and I had inspiration. Sometime into January that all disappeared and I didn’t know what to document or even take photos of. I promptly asked some of my close photography friends online “what to do when you hit a slump”. I was given some sound advice and it did keep me going for a few months, but then I hit another slump followed by another. All of a sudden, I was questioning why I even picked up my camera???
One day I saw Abi (@abicoop28) and Becky (@walkofthewilde) post an image for “same spot monthly project”. This is where you take a photo in the same location every month. I thought to myself ‘I have already been doing that’!!! How exciting. So, I started to trawl through my images and I found about ten that I had already taken in the first few months of the year and put them in a collage. I was so enthusiastic that I put it in my Instagram stories and it sparked some conversations. It got me thinking; how can I maintain motivation to enjoy life and keep my creativity alive.
Here are SEVEN ways to help you spark that creativity again if you lack inspiration:
1. One spot wonder:
Taking photos in the same location may appear boring but it’s definitely a way to push your art. Here are some hints to help you… Keep going back to the same location at different times of the day, and in different weather. It will need to be a spot that is easy for you to access eg your home or somewhere you visit multiple times throughout the year.
Think about what type of light you want to use, back light, side light, flash, full sun, soft light and how it will help you tell your story. The spot I chose is the backyard of our house and it is actually pretty boring and bland to look at. But, once I incorporated varying types of light, all of a sudden it became quite interesting and the perfect place for me to document our daily lives. Here are three images from the one location as an example of what you can achieve.
2. Mix it up:
Use a variety of lenses, lensbaby, nifty 50, 100mm macro, zoom. All of us have a favourite lens. Mine is my 24-70mm f2.8 because I love it for documenting my fast-moving kids. It is great for landscapes/night photography and also good for portraits etc. But sometimes I put my sigma 50mm 1.4 art on and set it at 1.4 just to see what I can create. I did it the other day when the boys had the bubbles out and I was so pleased when I captured this image, which I immediately converted to a B&W.
3. Involve yourself in an Instagram loop:
I love my weekly B&W photo loop. If I am ever stuck for ideas, I have three loops I am involved in weekly and this certainly gives me the push I need to pick up my camera.
4. Join a creative challenge group:
Joining the Project 52 has been a game changer. There is an encouraging community on both Facebook and Instagram. I would never have done an in camera double exposure except that my project 52 pushed me to do it.
5. Noticing:
Noticing life as it passes before your eyes, like using your eyes instead of your camera to absorb information about what looks good and how elements stand out and why. Sometimes I get up and I see it is frosty or foggy outside and I take my time to look at what the light is doing and how I might be able to capture that to reveal how it felt to be in the moment.
I also find using the tool of ‘noticing’ as very important when you have older kids. I find if I keep asking them to always be in the photos they can become uninterested, but I find if I spend my time noticing the light and then formulate a plan, I can ask them less times and they seem to be more cooperative.
In this image of my son, I had noticed that the kids were setting up to wash the baby dolls with real water and I wanted to capture it as it happened. So, I snuck in with my flash/diffuser and placed it where I wanted it and then set the little bath up so he was in the best light possible and then I let him go for it.
6. Reminisce:
Look through your images or other artists images. This is actually really tedious sometimes because if you are like me, an action girl, you want to be out there taking photos all the time. BUT trust me, SLOWING down and taking time to analyse why an image made you ‘look twice’ is really important. If it made you stop scrolling on Instagram. Have a good look at it again. Was it the composition? Was it the light? What is it about the image that you love? This is how I fell in love with layering. I saw many artists adding layers in their images and was something that resonated with me as an artist. So many times, I had tried to capture my kids without including environmental details which are actually incredibly important in storytelling. Once I realised this, I tried to include more of the scene and I figured I could always crop out parts later if I wanted to.
7. Finding beauty in the Mundane:
I give you permission to find beauty in the everyday and the mundane. There you will find satisfaction. It is ok to have a messy yard or a chaotic house. If you can find beauty in it, there will be peace in the chaos. I took this image last year as I felt so overwhelmed by the mess of my three children that I decided to paint with light to tell a story. It was very therapeutic. It was a one-minute exposure and I painted the word and the floor with my phone light.
