Do you know it when inspiration strikes?  Is it an all-at-once, in-your-face revelation or a slow and steady awakening?  Or is it both?

On a recent trip to Moab, I was looking through a rock shop, hoping to find something to bring back to my young, budding geologists.  Not too long ago, they received a rock tumbler and now they are obsessed with finding and polishing pebbles.  As I scoured the shelves looking for perfect specimens, I stumbled upon some dendrites that caught my eye.  They were beyond what I was planning to spend, but I was fascinated by the shapes that the minerals had formed.

I studied them for a long time marveling at their colors and intricate patterns.  I snapped a picture with my phone to remember their beauty and then thought to myself, “I’ll bet I can make an image that looks like that.”  In this instance, inspiration was quick, like a lightning bolt to the brain.   When that happens for me, I have to act quickly before the idea fades or the self-doubt creeps in.  So after we left the store (without the lovely dendrites) I immediately began to seek out compositions that might help me create what I had envisioned in my head.  I found some wisps of grass, a small stand of weed flowers, and the tippy tops of small trees.  After just a few shots, I realized that I needed a blank background to really make the shapes stand out, so I changed my perspective and got down low so I could use the sky as my backdrop.

I also needed an image to serve as my texture, so I kept my eyes peeled for a section of flat stone that was fairly neutral.  That part turned out to be tougher than expected and after taking several shots that I wasn’t crazy about, I found a sand bar that was slightly shaped by the wind, but otherwise relatively untouched.

With all the pieces, I was ready to get started putting them together.  This is the point where inspiration shifted from a bright flash to a slowly forming sunrise.  As I thought about the logistics of the steps I needed to take in Photoshop, the final image started to become more clear in my head.   And at the same time, on my computer…

I’ve found that working through an idea like this can be great practice for me.  The hardest part of the process for this particular self-assigned project was trying to get the images to follow the same type of color scheme.  It took a lot of fiddling and cursing at the computer to even come close and I’m still not 100% sure about the final results.  It makes me think that if I had taken the original photos at the same time of day and in the same conditions that I’d find the process would have been a bit easier.  I guess that’s just part of the learning curve.   I can’t wait to keep playing with this project to see where the inspiration leads me, however it strikes.

How does inspiration come to you?  And what do you do when it hits?   – Angie