Inspiration

I find inspiration has rarely shown up when you’re waiting for it.

Where does inspiration come from? We’re constantly consuming visual content, endless reels, campaigns, edits, trends, and perfectly curated work showing up every minute of the day. It quickly gets overwhelming, especially as a creative where it is easy to compare yourself.

I find inspiration has rarely shown up when you’re waiting for it. It comes from a variety of things, something as simple as seeing the rain falling, how the light shines through the forest or reflects off something, or how the wind is blowing off the ridge. Or even just from a random idea that becomes something bigger once it’s developed.

I’d also be lying to say I don’t get inspiration from Instagram. Seeing someone’s work, figuring out what makes it engaging and how they lit it and then coming up with a way to make it your own, or adapt it to something in the outdoor world. I look at a lot of imagery from the action/adventure world, but also a lot from things that have nothing to do with the outdoors, the fashion world, documentaries, other sports I'm not involved with at all. Even though I might not shoot something like these at all I still find a lot that I can bring to my work.

This set of images started from the simple act of walking by these yellow every time I parked to go snowboarding. I knew I wanted to shoot something around them. It took years before I finally did something, but upon seeing the colour of this kit I knew it was perfect. I started with a single shot around the yellow, and built out a series of images from there.

How do you find inspiration?