What Inspires You?

By Kathleen Messmer

I love Monet’s work. Not only was he a great master, he was very closely aligned with nature. One of my favorite quotes from him is, “I have no other wish than to mingle more closely with nature.”  That’s probably why I photograph more nature than anything else.

Monet is one of my many inspirations, along with Cunningham, Blossfeldt, and O’Keeffe, all of whom inform my work to an enormous degree.  Even the abstracts I create are full of color and, more often than not, are variations of flowers, trees, or plants that no longer look like any of those things once I'm done with them.  Such is art.

So, what inspires you?  Are you a spray and pray kind of photographer who doesn’t care what you shoot as long as you get something, or are you more of a planner, a shot list kind of guy or gal who plans everything to the inth degree?

When I shot film, I was more of a planner, but now, with digital, I plan less but still don’t spray and pray.  I always consider what I’m after and let nature handle the rest. Even if I never get a shot of what I thought I was going after that day, I always get something. And that’s ok with me because it’s always a delightful surprise. Surprises are good.

Is it raining? Cool. Is it foggy? Even better. Are you going to the beach? Do you want to get there at the crack of dawn or golden hour for a sunrise/sunset? Do you want to do some long-exposure photography? What about surfers? Sealife? Sailboats? Piers? People? Food when you go to breakfast after an early morning shoot? What is your passion?

Photography is so much more about inspiration than just pointing a lens at a subject and hoping for the best. It’s about what YOU love. It doesn’t matter what everyone else does. Do you. Make your passion, your inspiration, your own. Oh, and have fun. Fun is good, too.