Do you ever get photographer’s block? Well, we are here to help kick start your creativity! Not only do we have some tops tips for getting out of a photography rut – we have also compiled a list of great themes that we have had on the site over the years that could help inspire you to try something new.

Ideas for Banishing the Dreaded Block

Use Your Imagination


Imagine yourself as someone or something else, and really think about what type of photo you could get. For example: how does a three year old see the world? Think about what might be exciting and what the line of vision might be. What about being an inanimate object? What do you look like to a shelf full of food when you open the fridge door? You can have a lot of fun with this, whether you get a good shot or not!

Think Outside the Box


Think props, think effects, be inquisitive. Lie on the floor and see what you notice, hold your camera on a tripod above your head and see what is over that wall. Stop looking through the viewfinder and find out what you capture – shoot from the hip, shoot from the top of your head. Swing your camera by the strap to capture some light trails. Photograph through a tube, a colander or coloured plastic. Outside the box, the possibilities are endless!

Push Your Boundaries


Whether it is climbing to the top of a multi-storey car park to capture the sunset, asking a stranger to pose for a shot or setting up a photo shoot with a tarantula – deciding to take pictures that you would usually be too scared to get will not only add some great shots to your albums, but it will also give you a the thrill of achievement. But pushing your boundaries isn’t just about doing something scary – if you never take abstract shots, give it a go, set yourself a challenge and expand your repertoire!

Keep notes!


If you have an idea for a photograph, or missed the perfect shot because you didn’t have your camera with you, write it down. OK, so you may not be able to re-create the moment, but you can put it on a list to try and capture it another time. Whether it is going to the fair and waiting for the moment a small child reaches up to grab some candy floss, or you sit it out in a field waiting for a flock of birds to land, you will either get what you came for, or bag some other great shots whist waiting for the moment to arrive!

By playing, experimenting and most of all by ‘letting go’ you’ll find some fantastic new and inspiring ways to take photographs!

A-Z of Extra Ideas!


If you could still do with an inspired nudge, you can use this list of 365 themes to conjure up some inspirational ideas. You could also use it to create your own project plan, or browse the tags to come up with your own take on past projects.


  • 7 Deadly Sins

  • 9 to 5

  • Abandoned

  • Abstract

  • Action

  • Architecture

  • At Night

  • Automobiles

  • Avenues & Alleyways

  • Balance

  • Beautiful Garbage

  • Black and White

  • Bling

  • Blue

  • Blur

  • Bubbles

  • Chairs

  • Christmas Tradition

  • Clouds

  • Clutter

  • Companions

  • Corners

  • Curves

  • Dance

  • Doors

  • Drive

  • Eerie

  • Eggs

  • Extraordinary

  • Eyes

  • Faces

  • Family

  • Fear

  • Feet

  • Flow

  • Food & Beverages

  • Framed

  • Fruit

  • Glass

  • Golden

  • Green

  • Halloweeeeeeen

  • Hands

  • Have A Ball

  • Heroes

  • Holiday Spirit

  • Home

  • Hope

  • Human Connection

  • Human Emotion

  • Humor

  • In The Garden

  • Ink

  • Joy

  • Jump

  • Lens Flare

  • Light Art

  • Lines

  • Liquid

  • Long Exposure

  • Look, But Don't Touch

  • Love Is...

  • Low Key

  • Machinery

  • Magnificent Creatures

  • Making Waves

  • Mid Air

  • Minimalism

  • Money

  • Monsters

  • Motion

  • Movie Scene

  • Music

  • Mustaches

  • National Pride

  • Nature Up Close

  • Numbers

  • Odd One Out

  • On the street

  • Opposites

  • Out In Public

  • Overexposed

  • Passion

  • Pastels

  • Pattern

  • Peace

  • Photobomb

  • Purple

  • Rainbows

  • Red

  • Reflections

  • Refreshing

  • Remembrance

  • Repetition

  • Rusted

  • Self Portrait

  • Serenity

  • Shadows

  • Show Your Face

  • Side by Side

  • Sign of the Times

  • Signs

  • Silhouette

  • Simplicity

  • Sound, Antiquity

  • Spooky

  • Sport

  • Stars

  • Statue

  • Still Life

  • Surrealism

  • Technology

  • Texture

  • Thankful

  • Think Green

  • Through a Pets Eyes

  • Time

  • Time Off

  • Tiny Things

  • Toys

  • Travel

  • TV Shows

  • Up Close

  • Upside Down

  • Urban Decay

  • Vintage

  • Vivid

  • Water

  • Weather

  • What in the World

  • Wheels

  • Windows

  • Workers

  • Worm's Eye Perspective

  • Yellow

  • Your Heart



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Comments
August 30th, 2012
Thank you...this is inspiring! Great ideas!
August 31st, 2012
This was awesome! :)
August 31st, 2012
Thank you for all the great ideas.
August 31st, 2012
Sue
This is wonderful, thank you!
August 31st, 2012
This comes at a very appropriate time! Thanks! :)
August 31st, 2012
Love this article. A little scared to swing my camera around for light trails though...just got my lens fixed! Ha!

Thanks for the inspiration.
September 1st, 2012
Great ideas. I'll be referring back to this often.
September 1st, 2012
Thanks for the inspiration !!!!!
September 1st, 2012
Awesome ideas! What a great post!
September 1st, 2012
Great ideas!! , I just saw someone also did the july thumbnail challenge in august ...this also gives you an idea on what you may want to shoot and really show your creative ability!!
September 2nd, 2012
These are awesome ideas. I have been shooting a same subject 365 and have floundered many times due to creative block. I can say from experience not just on this project (all though for this one it is a must), but for any image. The note book is an excellent weapon for your idea arsenal. I have one in my purse and it goes where I go. I get great ideas at the strangest times and places, but if I don't write them down pronto they get lost in the abyss of information floating around up there in the space between my ears and getting it back when I want it is much easier from the notebook than searching through the vastness.
Thanks so much for this post. I will defiantly be getting some use from this in the near future.
September 3rd, 2012
♥♥♥ love the A-Z Extra Ideas!
nice read!
September 3rd, 2012
What a great article
September 4th, 2012
a very inspiring post! thank you very much! :D
September 4th, 2012
Thank you very much for this article..its helping..
September 8th, 2012
Great list for ideas. Thanks. No "Z" How about zoo
September 13th, 2012
Thank you I will give this a go as well
January 26th, 2013
Great ides for us beginners looking forward to starting my project!
February 13th, 2019
Looking forward to another article. bullet force
February 1st, 2021
This is a great blog! Thank you!
June 2nd, 2021
Fantastic ideas! I was running dry. =)
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