Who inspires you?

[CommanderJameson]

Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the gear and technique stuff.

I've been looking at Ansel Adams' pictures just lately. It's dead famous, and rightly so, but I'm awed by this:



I'm rubbish at photographing people (well, I'm rubbish at photographing most things, but it's even worse with the fleshlings), because I get all self-conscious and stupid. So when I see things like this, by Henri Cartier Bresson:



I'm well impressed, innit.

Ken Rockwell also inspires me. Yeah, he's strident and opinionated, but I like that. I especially like his "stop blaming your gear" angle.

Oh, and he's mental for wide angles and mega colour, which also appeals.



Who gets your photographicalological juices flowing?

[...Mole...]

Joe Cornish


Dave Ward



Shinzo Maeda



and Colin Prior



Brilliant stuff from all of them, I regularly look through their work when I'm feeling low on motivation for photography.

[toasty]

Lloyd, Steve, Rob, Dean, George, Neil, Dibby, Paul, Mark, Baz to name some but by no means all.

[Nick Grant]

Loads of people


Inspiration by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr

Dennis Hopper:



David Bailey:



Richard Heeps:



Tim Sutton:



Gregory Crewdson



Gary Winogrand



Leroy Grannis



Eve Arnold



William Klein



It's not until I start looking back through there work that I realise how much it has influenced mine.

[GetCarter]

Other togs annoy me as they are usually much better than me. It's the same with composers. That Bach bloke was a nightmare.

I've only ever owned one book of photography, and that was from Mr Adams. Like Bach, he kinda' did it first.

I like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson too.

ETA; not true... I also own this (which is utterly brilliant): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Days-My-Father-Phillip-Tol...

[toasty]

Nick Grant said:

Gregory Crewdson

Good call, I really like this guy's shots. Apparently they cost a fortune to set up.

[K12beano]

Another Ansel Adams fan here. Moonrise over Hernandez was the shot that got me many years ago when I first saw it.....

[Elderly]

Cartier-Bresson.
Elliott Erwitt (anybody who likes dogs should see his book 'Son of B itch').
Ansel Adams.

[dibbly dobbler]

In all honesty I know virtually nothing about the big names up above - it's the guys on here that have been my inspirations: Steve, Paul, Rob, Neil, Andrew, Lloyd, Mark etc. Gentlemen I salute you all

(and by the way you owe me around £5k for all the money you made me spend over the last couple of years!)

[LongQ]

dibbly dobbler said:

In all honesty I know virtually nothing about the big names up above - it's the guys on here that have been my inspirations: Steve, Paul, Rob, Neil, Andrew, Lloyd, Mark etc. Gentlemen I salute you all

(and by the way you owe me around £5k for all the money you made me spend over the last couple of years!)

Invest, DD, Invest. Not spend.

Lets face it if you want a safe haven for you cash where do you go? Do you pay the best rated economies in the EZ a fee for looking after your money for a while? Or do you buy a suitably expensive lens, enjoy using it, and then hawk it on eBay later for a minimal loss? (hopefully, if bougth well to start with.)

Cartier Bresson, Bill Brandt, Adams for his processing analysis and application as much as his photogrpahic vision. A few others too. And my old man for sticking with all the diy darkroom stuff and some rather dodgy 'studio' shoots and homebrew portraits of colleagues and acquaintances and amongst the mostly very average stuff turning out a few really rather good results.

Also this guy

http://www.godalmingphoto.org/portfolios03.html

I have half a dozen of his B&W prints 2 of which are in the portfolio and a third is very nearly identical to another one one the portfolio. I wish I had the same visionary ability to conceive the image.

[RobDickinson]

toasty said:

Lloyd, Steve, Rob, Dean, George, Neil, Dibby, Paul, Mark, Baz to name some but by no means all.

+1 to those on here. I take lessons and inspiration from some of the greats (AA for sure) but not many.

Apart from those on here theres a bunch of Australian and Kiwi togs that really push me. Rina Thompson, Andris apse, Tim Poulton , Aaron Pryor, Simon East, Todd Sisson, Mark Emirali.

Then theres Johan Eickmeyer, Scott Kroeker, aFeinberg, Marc Adamus etc.

Absolutely tons and there all better than me, for now...

Edit missed out Petr Hlavacek

Edited by RobDickinson on Wednesday 18th July 22:16

[paul911]

I have to say, I only started taking pics 4 years ago when the original random photo thread started. And as above was inspired by PH togs ^^^.

One chap I really do like though is Marc Adamus. He makes some really fantastic images. Clicky

[...Mole...]

paul911 said:

I have to say, I only started taking pics 4 years ago when the original random photo thread started. And as above was inspired by PH togs ^^^.

One chap I really do like though is Marc Adamus. He makes some really fantastic images. Clicky

I have to add to my original post as well that the Random Photography thread was the one that inspired me to push my photography a lot further, always some good inspiration there.

And another +1 on Marc Admamus, some amazing photos of amazing locations.