So how about you stop doing nothing? It’s time to start admiring yourself, because you can be just as creative and successful as anyone else!

1) Go (to) Places

Matthew Jordan Smith, one of the best known Beauty, Fashion and Celebrity photographers in the USA, once said you should never, ever stop yourself from going somewhere. It doesn’t really matter if it’s an exhibition you don’t want to visit, or a free concert that you would rather avoid even if the band paid you to come. The reason is simple – we get ideas by experiencing. As long as you keep an open mind, you never know just what can throw some crazy, amazing idea at you – it could be the hairstyle of the lead singer, or a piece of art you don’t understand in the exhibition. Maybe, on your way out, you will bump into a ballet dancer and hurt her ankle, which will obviously make her very angry, as she had a rehearsal planned in an hour, which will push you into photographing angry performers. Or flying dogs. Maybe she will swear at you so violently, you will make a series of photographs about two-faced people. You never know just what will make that awesome idea pop up in your head. It could be something completely irrelevant, but if you’re not out there, one thing is sure – nothing will happen.

2) Go Through Your Old Work

You may think that everything you’ve done up until today is completely useless and your best days are ahead of you. Most of the time, you will be right. But it’s so worth it to be, even if very rarely, wrong. You may find that a particular photograph has, over the years, matured like a bottle of good wine – maybe because people dress differently, or because people themselves are different than the ones in your photograph. Some work gets worse with time, some gets much, much better. We call it context. And it can mean a world of difference.

There’s another reason, too. Just like with other photographer’s works, or even artists overall, your old photographs are likely to give you ideas, and while not all of them are guaranteed to be good, a start is all you need to get back on your creative feet. Try it. Don’t throw something away just because it doesn’t look that good on the back LCD screen of your camera. You may be surprised by what you’ve done before, and even more so by what is still ahead.

3) Look Through Other Photographer’s Work

It is often that I hear photographers don’t want to copy something that has already been done, and I believe it is something to respect for. However, ideas are viral. They spread like viruses, ever changing, ever adapting. Whatever the idea you saw someone bring to life, you would do it differently, and it would be a different idea. It works much like going to places, really – all you need is to see, to experience something strong. Do you really think you are so much like the author who’s work you are looking through that you will come up with the exact same feelings and thoughts when you analyze his work? Our analysis are based on our experience, and our experience is never the same, nor are our conclusions. You are different, and with these differences new ideas are born.

4) Try Out Something New in Life

Ideas come with inspiration, inspiration comes with new experience, and new experience comes with… well, something new. Just as you must go to places and meet people, you should also treat yourself with new activities, whether it’s jogging or taking up yoga classes. Not only will that bring more happiness, activity and people into your life, it will also fill you up with even more ideas of what you can do. It works much like a roller coaster – every time you try out something new in life, even read a book or go to theater instead of cinema, you’ll find yourself picking up speed as you fly over ground, but in order not to stop and stall again, you need to keep yourself busy! So how about those yoga classes and jogging?

5) Stay Busy

Activity brings more activity, but as soon as you stop, it is again quite hard for many of us to get busy once more. Having your day planned helps a lot – you know what you must do, and then you know when you have time for everything that’s a pleasure, like photography or (I must write this, I’m sure all of you will understand!) spending time with your wife and kids! Think of it as an investment, though. You cook dinner today, you get a trip to mountains tomorrow. Put all of that together and you get more ideas than you initially thought you were capable of coming up with, and I bet something will come up in your head while you cook that meal (because it’s just that boring and you don’t need your camera to do it)!

6) Experiment

Have you noticed your style change with time? Your taste, your preference towards one or another look of your photographs. With time, you search for different things than before, and you notice different things. It is a natural progress, influenced by what we see and what we experience. However, this process is often quite slow, so why not try to change deliberately? Try out what you haven’t before!

Experiment before, during and after taking your photograph, go to different places and meet different people. Maybe you’ll find a passion for minimalism, or maybe street photography? Experimenting leads to new experience, which in turn leads to new ideas, so keep an open mind and see what you are capable off! Even if your experiments turn out to be a complete waste of time, in truth it’s not. Professionals make mistakes and amateurish photographs, too, and lots of them (we just try not to show such photographs)! Not everything turns out the way you want initially, but the point is to keep on trying and not letting yourself feel bad if you think you failed. Failure, often, teaches us more than success.

7) Don’t Read About Gear Too Much!

We’ve talked about this, of course. And then we talked more, and more, and here we are talking about it again. Why? Well, it’s rather simple, really – you still love reading about gear, don’t you? I thought so. It’s nothing to be ashamed of – we all read reviews before buying something. Heck, we all read reviews even if we are never going to afford that piece of gear! And that is OK. After all, we are photographers, we are supposed to know these things.

The point is, however, to stop when it’s enough. Don’t make it a daily habit to read each and every review you can find, each and every one you’ve read many, many times before – it is a waste of time. Instead, go through other photographer’s work, or your own, or just go out and spend time with your friends shooting or fishing, which, you guessed right, will give you more ideas, or help you relax a little and fall in love with photography again, passionately.

8) You Don’t Always Need an Idea

Some think everything you do should have a very deep, hidden meaning. Some important idea. While it’s true very often, there are days when the last thing we need is more problems and deep meanings, more things to think about. We get tired – work, routine, everyday problems wear us out again and again. Then, feelings come in. Simple aesthetics, beauty therapy, photographs that make you feel better just because you’re looking at them – they trigger your emotions and personal associations, memories, instead of thoughts and need to analyze. They are like fresh air, a trip to a forest or a marvelous sunset on a beach.

Some will say such photographs are worthless and shallow, empty almost. But maybe, before filling up with ideas and thoughts, you need emptiness, some air to breathe easily, some happiness? Just go out and shoot. Don’t think, don’t worry about your camera settings and lens choice. Admire what’s around you and, every now and then, take a picture. Keeping your mind clean is a good thing, you don’t want to burn out.

9) Photograph!

Nothing changes unless you make it change. None of this will matter if you stall again. The only reason to have ideas is to be creative, and being creative, in our case, means photography. Got your brand new D700 or D800? The menus have not changed. The autofocus still focuses, and pixels are still pixels, even if there’s more of them than before. Ideas are fueled by ideas and one often leads to another – remember why you need your camera and get to work! It’s that easy. You’ll be full of ideas in no time.

Am I upset? Absolutely not. I have no issue with Greta “jumping line” at B&H to get my camera. “Why not?”, you ask? The injustice of it all! Someone must pay for having my D800 rerouted to Greta! Surely someone must be “guilty” of… well… uh… something! Or so the popular thinking goes…

Greta Having My D800 Is Good For All Of Us

In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I am a Greta fan. As such, she is entitled to get away with some things that I might not otherwise so easily dismiss. Admittedly, seeing my D800 in her hands stretches the boundaries a bit. Greta’s endorsement of the D800, however, is a far better advertisement for the camera and the Nikon brand than you or I could ever muster. We may secretly believe we are the second coming of Ansel Adams, and our cats may not be able to get enough of our photos showcasing their cute antics, but star endorsements and their marketing appeal are far more significant than whatever accolades the rest of us could shower upon Nikon’s products. Sorry folks, but it’s true.

And if analytical technical experts were what sold products, we would see Nikon television commercials with some nerdy, monotone engineers reciting numbers from colorless spreadsheets containing highly complex, unintelligible (and boring!) facts depicting why the new D800 is superior to every other camera ever made. But unless you totally misunderstand the concept of advertising, you probably realize that much of it appeals to our emotions – not our rational side. Advertising often revolves around popular celebrities (or attractive models), most of whom have absolutely nothing to do with the product being advertised. Greta’s D800 use will help generate Nikon sales, market share, revenue, and profits. And a financially strong Nikon is better positioned to invest in new technologies that will eventually make their way into future product offerings. That is good for all of us.

Greta Will Take Photos of Real Stuff

I can’t admit to knowing much about Greta’s photography expertise, but based on watching her show and reading her blog, I am well aware that she travels to some fascinating places and interviews interesting people. As such, we can reasonably expect her to put the D800 to good use taking photos of something besides brick walls, test charts, cats lounging on the living room couch, and family snapshots with the popup flash. There is little doubt that there will be more than enough people to produce petabytes of D800 test patterns, 600X crops, and other “insightful” information that will put us to sleep for years to come. When Greta carries her D800 and takes some photos of her guests and nearby scenery, however, we will at least get a sense of what the camera can do in the real world. And who can argue with that?

Greta Getting the D800 Irks Some People

This is reason alone to be pleased that B&H shipped my D800 to Greta – it has everyone in a tizzy. The web is abuzz with all manner of whiny, snarky comments regarding Greta getting a D800, some of them downright nasty. Why people feel compelled to complain about this situations is beyond my reasoning capabilities. I don’t know what the Fox News Network spends on camera and video gear per year, but I suspect it makes the price of a D800 seem like a rounding error. Why shouldn’t B&H (or any client-oriented company) give its best clients some preferential treatment when it comes to ensuring they get top priority when new gear arrives?

It is hard to objectively argue with B&H‘s decision to reroute my D800 to a popular television host, such as Greta Van Susteren. So while I am a bit disappointed that I won’t see a D800 for a while, I can at least be comforted that my camera has found a good home. I have no doubt that Greta will take my D800 on some fascinating journeys, showcase some stunning photos, and be a great spokesperson for the Nikon brand. And that is nothing to complain about. Well… not for some of us!

This is a short film by three student, who, as they say, did not care about nature, and then decided to do something about it. And they did. While the attention this project received is quite amazing – their website has been visited by over 900 thousand people already – it’s not even the idea that I found most inspiring. This film was made by three students, and while I am quite certain they did not have a million dollar budget, they sure found a way to unleash their creativity, something we all have an unlimited amount of. Do you still think there is something you cannot do?

Get out there. Take your camera and shoot. Make a film. Stop drifting, stop wasting your time. Stop thinking you can’t. Not tomorrow, not in a year – now, whatever it is, whatever you dream about.

There is no better way of doing what you love than simply doing what you love.

Click here for official “WE MISS YOU” project website.

You can read more about Bob, Tom and Romanas in our “About Us” page. Here are some of the articles that these folks have posted so far on our blog:

Bob Vishneski:

• Nikon D800 – D700 Replacement… or Not?
• Introduction to Infrared Photography
• Diseases that Plague Photographers
• How to Effectively Sell Your Photo Gear on eBay
• The National Cherry Blossom Festival
• A Conversation with my Nikon D800

Tom Redd:

• Nikon GP-1 Review
• Kata 3 in 1 Sling Backpack Review

Romanas Naryškin:

• Defining Photography
• Don’t Get Stuck with your Gear – Pursue Your Passion
• Photographing what you Love
• Have Fun while Working
• What is the Future of DSLR Video?
• How to Convert Portraits to B&W with Lightroom 4
• Mastering Lightroom: How to Use the Basic Panel

I am super excited about our new team at The Mansurovs! Please say hello to these awesome guys!

Then I imagined there must be plenty of people who have been through other stages of that chart, and yet still shoot flowers and cats today. How would those guys feel after seeing the chart? Discouraged, offended maybe?

As a photographer, you can get good at photographing anything, including flowers and cats. Want to be inspired by some beautiful images of cats? Check out this page on 500px.com. Who says only newbies photograph cats and flowers? Try searching for “flowers” on 500px and you will be amazed by some stunning imagery.

The photographs in this article were captured by my girlfriend, Bee, who loves shooting flowers! (check out some more of her work here). She has a great artistic “eye” and she is much more creative than I am – it becomes even more apparent when we photograph weddings together.

Nothing else matters but your own choice of what to photograph as long as you enjoy it. Landscapes, portraits, street or even HDR – if it’s your thing, do it and don’t listen to what others say. Let your artistic vision develop and create, and someday, it will help you become a better photographer. Who knows, maybe one day you will have a collection of art that sells for millions. You never know where your creativity could take you.

Just do what you love. Stay inspired and create.

UPDATE: We have received an overwhelming number of applications for this position and we are no longer accepting new submissions.

We are looking for creative writers to contribute content to our blog and help expand our reach. If you like what we do and you would like to be a part of our growing website, please contact us as soon as possible. The opportunity is for 100% remote work, so you can do everything from home at your own pace and schedule. No need to send your resume/CV, as long as you meet the below requirements:

1. Must be Permanent Resident or Citizen of the USA
2. Must be at least 18 years old
3. Must be fluent in English and have solid writing skills
4. Must have good general knowledge of photography and be current with the latest trends in the industry
5. Part-time professional photographers and advanced amateurs preferred
6. Colorado Residents preferred

If you are interested in this unique opportunity, please use the form in the “contact us” page with the subject line “Mansurovs Job Opening”. Please include a short bio of yourself, a link to your online portfolio (if you have it) and whatever else you feel like sharing with us :)

Update: We have had some issues with our contact form. If you were not able to contact us, please try again. If you still have issues, then please send us an email to info[ at ]mansurovs.com (replace [ at ] with the @ sign).

Merry Christmas and a Happy New upcoming 2012 Year!

It has been a tough year for Nikon and besides a couple of good deals on some cheap lenses like Nikon 55-200mm / Nikon 55-300mm and on the new Nikon 1 system, we did not really see any significant discounts on Nikon gear this week, while Canon has just launched another lens and speedlite instant rebate program. This is very unfortunate for Nikon, because their sales have been severely impacted simply by short supply and unavailability of DSLRs, lenses and accessories. Popular cameras like Nikon D7000, D700 and D3s are nowhere to be found, while some lenses like Nikon 85mm f/1.4G have been hard to find for a while now…

If you have any gear-related questions, please feel free to post them here in the comments section below. I will do my best to respond to your question as soon as I can!

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