Photography Project Ideas and Inspiration

Story Book
For this project you will need to take a series of photos that tell a story. It can be a story that was already written by someone else, you may write a story yourself, or you might just think of a story in your head then use the photos to tell it. At the end of this project you can add text or leave the photos blank and have it bound in an actual book. Some companies that you can publish your photo book through include Kodak, Shutterfly, and Snapfish. These can make for some really great gifts for your friends and family as well.

Facial Expressions
Whether the model is yourself or someone else, take a series of photos of one person with a variety of expressions. Make a list of the expressions and the order that they were in for your own reference, you may wish to repeat this with various models to expand the project. You can find an excellent list of possible expressions from Paul Bryson Photography here to help give you a starting point on ideas you might want to use for this project.

100 Steps
Start taking some photos. Take 100 steps in any direction, take some more photos. When you run out of things to photograph there, take another 100 steps. Keep going until you start to get tired, but keep in mind you have to walk back all that way to get back to your starting point whether it was your house or your vehicle.

Project 365
There are a couple of variations of Project 365. The one consistent thing is that you will be taking a photograph every day for a year. It's a popular New Years resolution, but there's no point in waiting months and months to start this project if it inspires you and you want to give it a try. Also if every day for a year sounds like too much of a commitment for you, you can make it a week, month, 100 days, or whatever suits you. The first variation of this project is to take a photo every day of anything you want to as long as you are taking a picture every day (flickr group for open subject matter option). The second variation of this project is a self portrait every day which I have found can be more frustrating and boring and get old much faster than leaving your subject options open (flickr group for self portrait option). This is a good project to help you become a better photographer in general, you will be amazed by how much your photo quality and style has improved from the beginning to the end of this project. If you start to feel uninspired you might want to give yourself a theme to work with each week.

Copycat
Mimic the style of your favorite photographer or a specific photograph that inspires you - some of my favorite photographers include David LaChapelle, Guy Aroche, and Ellen von Unwerth. Remember, there's a fine line between being inspired by someone else's work and copyright infringement.

Word of the Day
Get inspired by the "Word of the Day", if you get really stuck there are a few different sites that you could choose your "Word of the Day" from such as Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster, Urbandictionary.com, or Wordsmith.org. You could also use this to help you out if you choose Project 365. Keep track of what the word was so you can look back on it later.

Toy Cameras
When I hear "toy camera" I usually think Lomography because they have so many different types of toy cameras ("toy camera" basically is just any plastic camera or one use camera that uses film). I have the 35mm Holga (I loved the look of Holga photos, but would rather use standard 35mm film instead of having to buy a special kind) and the 35mm Fisheye. Bonus points for using expired film. You never know what you are going to get with these and it's always fun to get film developed when you are used to shooting digital photos. One thing I really love about my Holga is the ability to do multiple exposures with extreme ease.

Photo Walk per Week/Month
Once (or more if you want) per week or month, make it a point to go a walk with the purpose taking photographs. Find out where good trails are in your area, bodies of water, gardens, anywhere where you can get some exercise and take some photos.

A-Z
Take a picture of signs or anything you may find that takes the shape of a letter. Build up a collection from A-Z, I have found that this can make for a great poster to hang up in your house (this also works with numbers - I suggest going with 1-9 for formatting purposes). Another option is to find something that starts with each letter.

Focus on one Color
You don't have to take all these pictures at once, but pick a color and every time you are out taking photos, keep an eye out for something that is that color and make sure you take a photo of it.

Pick a Theme
Pick a theme to focus on. You don't need to take all of these photos at once, but collect them as you go along such as when you are on vacation and doing a lot of sightseeing. I have made a list of possible themes here. For more themes check out JPG Magazine's current themes and their closed themes for something that appeals to you such as doors, umbrellas, fairy tales, eggs, infrared, underwater portraits, lighthouses, the body, local landmarks, or graffiti. Once you've got a good collection going you can create a poster or a calendar displaying your hard work.

Start a Photography Blog
Nothing will help motivate you to keep on taking photos regularly like starting a photography blog, especially once you get some regular readers/followers. Possible websites for hosting are Blogger and my personal favorite, Tumblr. Both sites are free, but I prefer Tumblr because there is basically unlimited storage space, photos are automatically resized to fit the template of your blog, there is a directory of photographers that you can follow for inspiration and eventually be featured on, and it is easier to get wide exposure from gaining followers to users "reblogging" your photographs for their own followers to see.