I’ve been getting lots of calls from photographers looking to work with me lately. Unfortunately, I can’t work with anyone during my first academic year in law school so I’m having to let down all these folks, but the increase in calls recently got me to thinking…is this a reflection of the difficult times? Maybe…hard to tell for sure, though. The holiday season is often a slow time normally for many photographers so it could just be that. Whenever it gets slow, for whatever reason, people tend to get antsy and look for something to do.
So, with that in mind, here is a list of 10 things you can do right now or anytime you have a day when you have “nothing” to do.
- Go to an art museum. Looking at other creative work is usually inspiring for artists and doing this can get your grey cells working on new and fantastic ideas for your own work.
- Watch a great visual movie. This can be done as an alternative to #1 if you don’t live near a good art museum, or it can be done for its own merits. A film with fantastic direction and/or cinematography can inspire. Maybe you’ll see something that you could try to re-create in your own way, as an homage and a personal project.
- Draw something. Even if you think you can’t draw, trying to is great for your creative brain. Do something abstract, or play with color–just make something visual.
- Get a buddy (or a couple) and play Add-A-Line. To do this, you draw something, then you hand it to the next person who adds to it (their “doodle” must connect with yours somehow), then it goes to the next person (or back to you), etc., and you keep at it until the page is filled. This can be done digitally as well, but the files tend to get big–only do it digitally if you can’t be in the same room with the other “players.”
- Try to re-create some image someone else has made. THIS IS NOT FOR YOUR BOOK or any other public medium but rather just an artistic exercise. It is not copyright infringement (it’s never going to be seen by anyone) but rather will force you to think outside of your own head. This can result in new thinking about your own work.
- Go through your marketing list and develop a “hot list” of 10-25 targets you are going to go after via their own mini-campaign(s). If you have time, start brainstorming how you could go after that mini-list (individual promos? lunch meetings? chair massage gifts?…)
- Organize a group show. Get colleagues to all contribute work centered on one theme (maybe a One-Item theme where every work has to incorporate the same item somehow) and plan a party/opening to show the work. This is a great thing to do with clients too who have their own creativity to show.
- Do something scary. Jump out of a plane (with a parachute, of course) or learn to rock-climb or face whatever thing scares the bejesus out of you (but that can be done in a controlled environment). When you do something that scares you, you learn that you can do more than you know.
- Shoot something with some limitation–like if you use multiple lights usually, only permit yourself to use ONE light.
- Volunteer somewhere. Creative or not, this is a great way to remind yourself how lucky you are.