Using Visual Diaries To Find Inspiration for your Photography

A common problem that many digital photographers face after a while is that they look at the results of their work and find that most of the photos that they've been taking look much the same as each other.

I have a folder in my Pictures directory called 'reference favourites', where I drag copies of my favourite photos - both mine, and other people's.

Firstly, it's great for inspiration - I can look at photos I've found that I think are absolutely brilliant, and go out to try and take something with the same feel. Secondly, by putting my own in there, I can compare my favourite photos of my own to my favourites that were taken by others, see how I match up against the best I've found. It's a good way for me to gauge my own progress.

I'm in the process of building an LCD picture frame from an old laptop, and will have that up in my office, rotating through these photos, so they're always visible to me.

Other ideas include (as Darren mentions) an ideas scrapbook, or an ideas wall. I'm also a fan of an ideas 'line', basically a small piece of wire/cord strung somewhere visible, with a number of photos pegged to it. Allows for lots of change, lots of movement, and looks kinda cool as well. I've also got a 'favourite photogs' bookmarks folder in my main browser. I'll often browse through there for half an hour before going out shooting, just to see what I can find to push me along a bit more.