Using themes for motivation - Creativity Exercise Two

There are lots of reasons not to bring your camera with you everywhere. It is too heavy, it could be stolen, the camera stops working after you gone for a swim etc etc. But the most common reason is the feeling that you are not going to use it.

This is not the same thing as photographer's block, which we talked about curing the other week. This is the idea that your life is divided between times when you take pictures and times when you do not. This is, of course, hogwash.

How do we make sure, or at least plausible, that we are going to use our camera? I find an effective way is to have an ongoing theme for your pictures. A form of collection if you wish. You set you own theme, it could be a simple noun, like "door" or "xylophone" or it can be as complicated as you wish. It should however be simple enough that you could find a fitting motif at least once a week without trying to hard. That is, a big no-no on themes like "Flying fish dancing can-can with Zsa-Zsa Gabor in Times Square". I mean come on, when are you going to photograph that if you live in Brooklyn?

I have a couple of themes going on our team-blog ShutterCentral. Here is a link to one of them; "Men With Jobs".

Everytime I step outside without a camera I see great shots that could fit in either of my themes. This makes me more eager to bring the camera next time. Even if I do not catch a theme picture, who knows, I might make a great stand alone shot?

Are you using themes? If so, what are they? Be sure to tell in comments.