Looks Like Good Photography

I think the word 'Inspiration' is a little over-used.

For me, something is Inspirational if it moves you to act, or at least seriously consider acting. I often search through various platforms and media for Inspiration, I think it's an important part of being involved in photography. but I must make it clear, that Im not talking about just looking through scores of pretty pictures, or images that are just visually or technically interesting. I look at a great deal of 'interesting' images on an almost daily basis, but they're rarely 'Inspirational'.

Having said that, there are a few websites that I do find truly Inspirational. One of them is www.LooksLikeGoodDesign.com, which hosts a vast array of particularly high quality articles covering many different, yet related, areas of artistry, including Illustration, Graphic Design, Architecture, Typography, and even Package Design. Fortunately for us, they also have a Photography category too.

Now, yes, there are a lot of straight-forward 'pretty' or 'interesting' images on here, but occasionally (quite often actually), you'll come across something particularly interesting, or particularly pretty that makes you stop, and think, and maybe even makes you act upon those thoughts within your own photography. You Sir, have just come across something Inspirational. There are images on there from photographers that I've never even heard of that make me think differently about what I do, the way I do it, and the way I will do it in the future. I think it's fair to say that's pretty Inspirational.

It probably sounds like I'm exagerrating, but I see things on there that I had never even imagined possible (how about some moody, almost grungy wildlife photography shot in a fashion-photography-style anyone?), and then I realise that they are techniques that I can use myself to push my own photography. I'm not saying it hasn't ever been done before, but I haven't seen it, and it's a fantastic resource to have so many interesting artists' work in one place.

On a side-note - I absolutely LOVE the way that each article links to other similar/related articles - but beware, you may lose a couple of hours gawping in awe...

So, go enjoy www.LooksLikeGoodDesign.com, and I'll see you back here soon!

Cheers,
Matt

A quick update

I recently became a fully-fledged member of the rat-race - I got a 9-5 job.

I used to work nights, which I thought was great as it left me with all day free to do whatever I wanted, and it made me really flexible for shoots. However, it didn't pay well and the job itself was fairly shit, so a few months ago, in November, I got myself a 'proper' job, working 9-5 in an office.

With regards to my photography, the new job has been a bit of a double-edged sword in the sense that it's given me more money to do things (new 50mm prime, several shoots / tuition days), but at the same time, it has drastically reduced the amount of time I can physically spare to shoot, hence no blog posts for a few months!

If I'm honest, even this post isn't really a full entry, just a quick update (as the title suggests) and a link to some good photography. Hopefully, that'll keep you interested enough until I write a new post. I've actually done a few shoots, and have plenty of things to write about and images to post, but alas, at the moment, time is against me.

So, I will be back soon, but until then, please enjoy Karin and Raoul