Photography Inspiration: Not In Your Favorite Photo Environment? Embrace What’s In Front of You
Originally Published on Medium.com, 15-Jul-2025.
Edited for website posting. All images © Jeff Goetz.
Summer vacation photo. People walking in Paris. © Jeff Goetz. Do not use without permission.
Not in Your Photographer Happy Place?
Are you a photographer who leans towards a certain type of photography (landscape, sports, flowers, portraits, cityscapes, macro, cars, etc.) and find that you feel a little Jackson Browne* where you’re not getting enough time for your photography craft?
(* You know? His song, “The Load Out” where he says “the only time that seems too short is the time that we get to play”.)
Man, I feel that way so often. I love night photography, and I live in Houston, Texas. Light pollution is not my friend.
I’d rather be out in full Lionel Richie mode (‘all night long’) with my night photography in the middle of a Bortle 1 sky.
For me, that’s not going to happen without some planning and effort.
I’m sure there’s a t-shirt somewhere that says, “I’d rather be shooting star trails and Milky Way”. I may buy it if I find it.
My Story and Our Summer Vacation
When I open Instagram and see folks’ photos who are out there regularly getting the night shots I’d love to have, it’s easy to feel anxious and desperate to get out to dark skies.
Knowing it’s not practical to get those shots can be frustrating.
Our summer family vacation and annual pilgrimage back to the UK to visit family & friends didn’t help. The sun never set lower than 18 degrees below the horizon, so it was never dark.
My brain was in ‘family vacation’ mode. I wasn’t thinking about getting out to shoot some local places for photography’s sake.
It probably doesn’t help that I lived in Scotland on three different occasions, totaling about six years, so I’ve seen my share of Scotland already.
From visits and living there, I have plenty of Scotland photos from the last thirty years — many of them of the same locations. But I had tunnel vision and a lack of inspiration as we were on a family vacation.
Then my mother-in-law shared some photos with me from her local photography group’s outing to Tarlair — there’s a cool rock arch next to the open-air swimming pool. It was something new; I hadn’t heard of it before.
I was inspired!
After that, I did some web searches for local sites of interest. Over the next three days, I did short driving tours around the northeast of Scotland.
In all, I returned home with over 55GB of photos between my phone and Nikon Z8.
I’m looking forward to post-processing and sharing more photos on Instagram for folks to enjoy. Here’s my photo looking through the arch. It’s called the Needle’s Eye.
Needle’s Eye Arch, Tarlair, Scotland. © Jeff Goetz. Do not use without permission.
I know it may sound silly or selfish to say I wasn’t inspired to take photos when on vacation in Scotland. My mindset was in the wrong headspace.
Here are my suggestions if you feel uninspired about your photography or unable to focus on your photography interests.
Embrace What is in Front of You
As you might sense from my recent experience, I’m writing this article for me as much as for you.
We can all use reminders and encouragement.
Find local inspiration — whether that’s in your home, neighborhood, city, or state.
What would a tourist to your area visit that you haven’t visited yet for yourself? Find it.
See how other photographers are framing their photos. Take those photos and then figure out your perspective and composition.
Try some new topics. Full Frame has its annual photo project.
There may be a local photography group that can also give ideas and inspiration with their own projects and photowalks.
Get out there and take some photos!
It doesn’t matter if it’s with your mobile phone camera or your full setup. It’s probably better to try both cameras. I may take an initial photo on my phone to help with composition and confirm I want to take a photo on my Z8.
Try some techniques and subjects outside your wheelhouse; you may discover new skills, interests, or ideas to apply to other areas.
I get it. Finding the time can be a challenge. Life is busy.
I know I have a renewed enthusiasm and plan to shoot cityscapes and other local sites. Who knows, perhaps this will become another niche for me since it’s at my back door?
Above all else, get out there and keep pressing that shutter button!
Enjoy Life and Thanks for Reading,
-Jeff
If you are interested in following my photography journey, please follow me on Instagram. Click here to view my Instagram account.
Lastly, thank you to Rodrigo S-C for his feedback on my last article and guidance to check my drafts through Grammarly or similar. With my head lowered in a bit of shame, he told me he found my last article ‘lit up like a Christmas tree’ when he checked it. Hey, I’m a retired engineer; I know grammar isn’t my forte and I aspire to improve. I used Grammarly this time, but I didn’t accept all their recommendations as I think some of my voice would be lost. I did accept the highlighted grammar corrections. Hopefully, I found the right balance with this article.
Copyright © 2025 Jeff Goetz. All Rights Reserved.
Originally Published on Medium in the Full Frame publication. To read more of my writing on medium, click here.
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