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Beating Creative Burnout: Where We Actually Find Inspiration · Luxe & Legacy Podcast

Welcome to the Lux and Legacy Podcast.
I'm Marie from Marie Elizabeth Photography.
And I am Amber from Light Live in Photography.
We created this show for photographers who are ready to run a luxury business with clarity, intention, and elevated artistry.
Each week we uncover the strategies behind high level brands from shooting and styling to client communication, to marketing, to designing heirloom products that increase your value.
If you want to attract aligned clients, produce, work with a recognizable aesthetic and build a business that supports the life you want, this podcast will guide you there.
Let's dive in.
Welcome back.
Today we're getting into something a little bit more soulful than pricing or workflows.
We're gonna talk about inspiration, where we find it, how we chase it down, and how we let it find us I love this topic because I think every photographer hits that point where your work starts to feel very similar every time, and you don't really feel that same creative spark.
Even though you're delivering good, safe galleries, you know what you're doing technically is right, but you need some way to feel that creative energy again.
And I think there's a difference between knowing how to consistently create beautiful work and actually feeling creatively excited by what you're making Yes, absolutely.
So today we're talking about where we actually find inspiration, some obvious places, maybe some not so obvious ones, and then how we make space for creativity in the first place.
So that's what we're gonna dive into first, making space for inspiration.
You need that margin.
You need that margin of time.
You need that margin of mental space.
And so we have to create room for it.
The opposite of inspiration is burnout, and that's so prominent in the photography industry when you're undercharging for your services.
If you're photographing too many sessions because you need that volume to make enough money, eventually you start showing up tired or disgruntled or bitter.
Even if you have a great workflow and you're delivering solid galleries, like Amber said, when every session starts feeling the same, it's hard to show up excited to create, and that's not serving our clients the best way we can, right? So I think it's important to structure a business in a way that actually leaves room for inspiration.
It's why boredom is so important for kids.
When there's empty space, creativity has somewhere to grow, and I think the same is true in our businesses.
We need space to dream and get excited about what we're creating for our clients 100%.
And I think we can get into this mentality we're not actively working, we're doing, we're not actively doing something productive for our businesses.
We do have to have a, we have to keep our business afloat, but we need to build in time that's freedom, space to create.
So going on trips, traveling, going to a museum, gardens, or just sitting outside on the patio flipping through a fashion m- magazine, or looking through one of those coffee table books that has different floral art and things like that.
Whatever inspires you, it could be just an incredible location that while you're driving by, you notice, and you take note of how the leaves are reflecting the light through them, or how the, tall grass is moving in the wind.
Those things are feeding the artist in you So someti- so with Marie and I, sometimes the vision comes first, but sometimes it finds you.
It can be either way.
Something I realized when we were thinking about this episode is that inspiration happens for me in two different ways.
Sometimes I have an overall vision and concept first.
ha- I have a feeling or a concept in my head, and then I start searching for the pieces to bring that vision to life.
What's the location? What is the subject wearing? Do I want to add in florals? What colors belong in this world? Other times, one little piece finds me first, and then suddenly an entire shoot starts forming around that.
I might come across an incredible location, like I said, and think immediately, "I need to create something here," and look at the color palettes, and then think about how I can put that together.
Or I see a dress online, and suddenly I can picture the entire shoot.
I saw this incredible pale blue couture dress with amazing movement all this beautiful flowing fabric.
It almost had this mermaid-type quality to it, I love things that feel very soft and otherworldly, like they belong in kind of a fairy tale, but a more couture fairy tale vibe.
And immediately I pictured that at the beach.
So the dress gave me the idea, and then I build from there.
Sometimes I'm looking for the pieces to fit my vision, and other times the piece creates the vision Yeah, absolutely.
It's like you...
And that's what a lot of designers will do.
They'll start with one thing.
An interior designer might find a pillow they fall in love with and build a space around that, or it's a wallpaper.
And same is true for us, right? You can find a location or outfit, which by the way, light blue dresses are my favorite.
Blue's my favorite color to photograph, so it's so easy for me to fall in love with blue dresses.
So it really, it's it can really start with something so simple.
Now, when I first started out, and truthfully for years, I found a lot of inspiration from other photographers, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
Especially in the beginning, you're trying to figure out what you like, what you don't like, and what your style is, and usually that's how you fall in love with your craft, is you find other photographers who are doing it and doing it at a high level.
And so it's natural to seek inspiration from them.
Now, the important thing is taking an idea and figuring out how to put your own spin on it Yes, I'm still inspired by other photographers every day.
I think the distinction is inspiration versus imitation.
of seeing someone's photograph and thinking, "I wanna make that exact photograph," and stopping and figuring out w- how to do that, instead stop yourself and about what it is about that image that you're actually responding to, and try to think about a common thread between several different images that inspire you, and then that becomes kind of the essence of your core brand, rather than trying to recreate something exactly.
Is it the movement, the light, the location, the color palette, the emotion, the composition? there's one tiny element that you really are obsessed with.
Take that element and let it become the beginning of something completely different Yeah.
Now this may seem like an obvious answer for a source of inspiration, but art museums are huge for me.
Spending a morning in an art museum can give you so many ideas just about posing, composition, light, color, and visual art was obviously around long before photography.
Pho- photography is just another medium of art, right? So dedicate a morning to going to a museum, and what's nice is you don't need to necessarily have to actively look for things you want to recreate.
You can just walk and kinda see what draws you in, see what is going to naturally inspire you Yes, art is huge for me too.
However, I'm not really a museum person myself, I don't really enjoy or feel creative by s- going around most museums.
However, I don't live on the East Coast, where I'm sure there's some really cool museums by you.
I have to go all the way to San Francisco to find them, and I'm just not a city person.
But I do really like smaller boutique art galleries and just taking a peek in there, seeing what local artists are doing.
My mom is also an artist, so I've always grown up in that world.
my favorite place to find art, because you can specifically find what exactly inspires you rather than just oh, I walked into this art gallery, and they have a bunch of horses and farms.
That isn't really my vibe maybe.
But on Pinterest, I'm able to find a lot of art inspiration that I absolutely love.
So that's where I look for art.
I have a whole Pinterest board called Art and Jewelry, and I put all kinds of things in there.
It's a hidden board, but it's something that I come back to for inspiration time and time again.
And I just throw in different art pieces that I love.
It could be...
A lot of the time it's kinda older images of a woman and a child, or a woman by flowers, or a garden or sometimes it could be abstract art too because I really love the mixture of the co- the color palettes and things like that.
Sometimes it's fairies in a forest because I absolutely love fairies and forests and that whole feeling behind it, even though I'm not literally gonna create a fairy photo shoot.
I'm not that type of photographer.
But it still gives me that creative spark and something that I'm drawn to.
So it could be jewelry, too, or seashells.
That whole board it seems like random things, but they all have really common threads, like ethereal, a lot of women inspiration with headpieces and florals, and a lot of artwork where nature becomes part of the person or part of their wardrobe.
So image of a woman wearing almost a butterfly dress, or it's kind of fantasy, but those things do inspire me, and then I translate it in my own way in my work in a more, more real world way that's a little less fantasy.
However, these are the type of images that really have a common thread for me.
Beautiful, ethereal, romantic, otherworldly, soft, feminine.
These are all things that have a common thread for my brand and are a really great place to come back to time and again for inspiration Yeah.
Now, another place that I love seeking inspiration from are magazines or ads, and I love getting posing inspiration, especially posing women.
Wedding photographers tend to be really good at taking an editorial approach to posing especially with brides, and I'll, l- I just love to notice how a woman stands or rests an arm, in a fashion ad.
It's often a way I wouldn't naturally think of, or, and often a way that you wouldn't even think of standing or posing for a photograph.
But the way it translates in the photo, it looks so effortless and nonchalant.
And so when I see something like that in an ad or magazine, I might take that little idea and translate it into how I photograph a mother Yeah.
Fashion magazines are a lost thing, though.
I grew up loving fashion magazines.
Now you're making me wanna go to Barnes Noble and go get some.
Because that is something that really for a long time did inspire me, and the thing I love is how out of the box a lot of the shoots are how they have the most amazing couture dresses with textures, ruffles, beautiful light, beautiful colors, and how the color palette on each page would be really cohesive.
The posing, it, I take a lot of inspiration from editorial posing.
I love that kind of thing where women look really powerful, like they feel that powerful goddess energy, and you can see it behind their eyes.
It's not just like they're looking at the camera as though it's a camera.
There's something there behind their eyes.
So I love fashion magazines as well, and I'm just rem- remembering that was a huge source of inspiration for me, and I wanna go pick some up today now.
Same.
I used to, especially, when I was younger, like the teen fashion magazines I would be so into, and obviously that's a very different kind of posing.
But there's really so much space for inspiration, just flipping through those.
So next, Amber, do you wanna talk to us about goddess imagery? That's a really neat source of inspiration I think that I'd love to hear about another element to my work that's really inspiring for me is not really an aesthetic, but more of a feeling.
I am a more spiritual woo-woo type person.
I'm very drawn to goddess type imagery because of that divine feminine element and that feeling of women feeling beautiful, feeling powerful.
Sometimes other photographers do it in a very dark and moody way, and that has nothing to do with my photography.
But there may be an element of fire, like candles or water, movement in nature, I said before, with big flower crowns, where there's vines and things growing around them, a mythology feeling.
But it's really the feeling of a woman being deeply connected to herself, to nature, and her divine feminine power.
So I'm not looking at those things, thinking, "I want to recreate this exact vibe or this this exact image," or in a fantasy type of way, like I said before.
I'm just responding to how they make me feel and how I can influence that feeling with my subject.
And I think that's another form of inspiration that we don't talk about as much I can be inspired by strength or freedom of femininity and how I can bring that feeling into my work, and it's ultimately my work very light and airy.
Another kind of obvious source of inspiration is just nature, and it is wild just how perfectly some things in nature are created because there's so many if, things like if you've heard of the golden ratio that a way a leaf or seashell is made, it's made in this perfect dimensions that will draw your eye in.
And so just observing when you're outside can just truly transform you.
I know the other day we had a storm rolling in, and these particular storm clouds looked so painterly and so incredibly beautiful.
Looked scary, too, but so beautiful.
And something like that, it just, the act of observing, and it lights this little spark in you.
Now, I'm not gonna necessarily go and photograph my clients with storm clouds, but it's that feeling that it creates when you notice something like that can really make you feel energized going into your work Yeah, and I think there's something to even just taking time being quiet in nature and not having your phone on, and just letting yourself open up to just having a silence in your thoughts, maybe walking through the woods, or just taking a walk around the block, or a walk on the beach, and just being really quiet for a while.
And then maybe at the end of the walk, having a journal that you just kinda brain dump everything that comes to your mind.
Because I really think that opening that channel will give you more creativity and ultimately inspiration And in general, nature is probably one of my biggest sources of inspiration for me.
Flowers, gardens, the ocean, even though I don't really photograph at the beach much here.
I would if I was in a place with a warmer beach.
But seashells, trees, the way the light moves through the trees.
Sometimes it's a color combination that exists naturally.
Like a shoot I just did, the combinations were, to me, what is summer? And that's gold really soft pale greens, and whites, and just a really simple goldish color scheme.
And the nature can inspire a wardrobe, too.
Like I talked about earlier on in the episode, this blue couture dress reminded me of a m- mermaid, so doing the, the shoot at a beach with some cliffs and things like that where the wind can give movement to the dress will be something that I'm gonna plan here soon.
Or maybe a soft layered dress can remind me of dahlias.
Dahlias have so much color and vibrancy and so many layers, and they're so perfect.
I love dahlias.
So finding something with layers that kinda echoes that.
So with posing, you can kinda echo it in the clothing, like layers of ruffles and things like that.
Or say it's a tree branch that's arched in a really cool way.
You can echo that with your posing and having people put their arm around their head with their hand shaped kinda like the tree branch, and that can be really interesting.
So starting to notice relationships between nature and art and fashion, that's when more ideas start forming.
Okay.
Next up is floral design.
You guys know I'm a flower girl.
I love florists.
Other florists really inspire me, and I wish that I had that talent I just drool over really amazing that, that flor- some florists do.
Like, when they can do really delicate pieces that have an actual to them, that really inspires me.
So I actually have a lot of books from flor- different floral designers that I love looking through and it, being inspired by.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
You can collaborate with florists by saying, "Here's what I'm imagining.
This is the subject or model that I'm gonna be using.
This is the dress, this is the location, and then this is the floral inspiration, but you're free to take it from there and be creative with whatever you wanna do with it."
Because florists love that.
When you give them guidance on maybe color palette some inspiration for sure, but they love when you still give them some creative freedom for shoots like this because then they can put something more unique in their portfolio.
You can do a collaboration with florists in your area, and that can really help you to push your work in new directions Yeah, and I was scrolling Instagram the other day, and I saw, it was just a wedding photography image, but it was a detail of flowers, and I believe it was dahlias.
It was like a crimson burgundy dahlia bouquet, and it was so beautiful.
And I thought, "Oh my gosh, that would look so pretty on this one dress that I just got actually for the Kindred Paths Gather workshop in a few days."
And I don't think I can find that color dahlia in time for this particular workshop.
But this dress, it has it's, I'm trying to describe the color, but it's not quite a burnt orange.
It's a little bit of yellow, golden hues.
But I just thought that crimson burgundy dahlia would just really be stunning on there.
And so sometimes you see, you're not looking for...
I wasn't particularly looking for inspiration, and I saw these flowers, and it just seemed like, an idea started to flow, so Now I'm curious.
Is, so was it a bouquet or just individual flowers? So I can't remember truthfully, and I'm pretty sure it was like a picture of a bride holding...
I, it must have been a bouquet now that I think about it.
But the thing is y- it was not focused on the bride, it was definitely a f- the image was focused on the florals.
And so you could just see...
I'll try to send it to you.
I think I might have saved it.
But you could see the flowers against the dress, and I just think with this particular dress that we're gonna use for the workshop, it would just be a total vibe.
So I'll try to send it to you if I can find it Okay, yeah, just a quick tip, Lowe's and Home Depot right now, it's actually dahlia season, Only have pots of big dahlias Oh gosh, Amber.
Okay, I might stop there.
I might stop there on my way to the workshop one.
That would be cool That would be really cool.
Okay, thank you so much did a I put it was at a dahlia garden, and I put You know those hair clips that are the metal kind that just, there's- they're really simple, like a barrette Just metal.
Yeah And I shoved that through a bunch of dahlias, smaller dahlias, and clipped them throughout her hair just randomly.
I've done that a few times, Okay, Amber but it makes the image so editorial.
Okay.
Thank you for sharing that because I might be making a Home Depot stop, okay, another place where I get inspiration from is s- movies and cinematography.
I didn't really pay attention to cinematography until a few years ago, and now it completely changes my experience of watching a movie.
There are movies where the cinematography enhances the story so beautifully, or it gives you a perspective you wouldn't normally think of.
Usually, when cinematography inspires me, I'm looking at the composition.
I'll notice an interesting angle or perspective, and I think, "I wanna try something like that."
So I will literally take my phone and take a picture of that scene.
I might pause it and take a picture.
You could literally make yourself a list of movies to watch just for their cinematography and treat it like your own self-paced course.
When something draws you in, take a picture of the screen, so you'll remember it.
Make a little album on your phone.
My all-time favorite movie to watch for cinematography, and one of my favorite movies in general, is the 2005 Pride and Prejudice.
The light, the angles, the posing, it just feels so magical and aligned with my romantic style.
Atonement is another visually beautiful one.
It's also another Keira Knightley movie, but the cinematography...
It might be Focus Features as well, maybe that's why, but it just, it's so beautiful.
It just, you wanna watch it just for the, the vibe, and from, on a very different style, Wes Anderson's films are so creative.
They're great if you like something quirky or wanna push yourself to see composition differently Did you know that when you go see a movie, it's tax deductible if you get inspiration from it? Oh, I did not know that, but it makes sense.
My accountant me, she was going through some of my expenses, and she's like, "Did you see any inspiration from the camera angles and the colors and all this the lighting and all that?" And I was like, "I never thought about it before, but from now on, I'm going to think about You know what? I should seriously ask my accountant, 'cause I don't go and see like adult movies in theaters much anymore.
It's more like me watching with the streaming.
So maybe I can write off my Netflix subscription a good question.
Yeah Oh, wow.
That is so interesting And I can see how incorporated more cinematography with your drone.
For sure has that.
I know that you worked really hard to get that drone license, and it was not easy.
It's on my list of things that I would love to do, you're up so far away and still able to focus on your subject and get really cool compositions.
So yeah, you get some really unique stuff when you use that.
Yeah, that's true.
It really does open up, the options, so it's fun.
I can only use it at a very small handful of places just because DC airspace is insanely strict, and you...
sense.
You It's like a here probably more though Yeah, I know.
I...
you cannot use it within a 50-mile radius of this city but when I can use it, it's a lot of fun.
Okay, architecture.
It- that's another primary source of inspiration for me during sessions because I love watching the way lines and arches lead your eye to your subject.
Archways feel ultra-feminine to me, so I'm always drawn to photographing them, especially with mothers.
I also just love the texture and layers architecture can add to an image That's so beautiful.
Yeah, here again, we don't really have a lot of that cool architecture s- type of but I love being inspired by your work that shows a lot of that out on the East Coast.
for me, it's more big fields of beautiful flowers and things like that.
It might be the light, the texture, a really interesting shaped tree, or the color palette of the area in the season.
My immediate thought is, can I create here that really fits and is cohesive with the scene rather than competing with the scene?" So Marie, what is something that makes you stop when you see a location? What, is it something, like what would you maybe notice about the location when you're just driving by or out with the family or something like that? That's a really good question.
And obviously it depends, right? Every location has unique aspects to it, at least around here, 'cause we have so many different types of locations.
So I would say usually the colors or the architecture, because we have so many locations with really cool architecture or with really pretty blooms, and I love photographing in gardens and places with pretty architecture.
So I would say the colors and architecture are the first things I notice.
How about you? I think textures and light for sure See, I don't typically will see the light when I first notice a loc- well, if I'm driving by per se, 'cause I probably wouldn't be there at the time of day that I would photograph at.
So the light is something that I will, I always get to my sessions early to see what the light's doing that day, and it's, different from season to season, which is fun.
So it's usually not one of the first things I photograph, but usually one of my favorite things about the location Okay.
And next is travel and simply getting outside your normal everyday routine.
Travel inspires me so much.
I think it was one of the first activities or things I realized was a source of inspiration for me.
And I don't go into travel looking for a specific composition or a color or a viewpoint.
For me, it's more about getting out of my ordinary routine, getting around different cultures or subcultures.
It resets my brain, and it makes me more aware of the art around me.
It kinda creates margin, it lights a spark and gets me excited to create again.
Just doing something different does something to my brain Yeah, and it's actually helpful for raising your vibration, too.
Travel for me and taking that break is really good for raising my vibration if I start to get stressed or thinking about the world too much.
Someti- like things going on in the world.
Sometimes I need that reset, and it doesn't mean going to necessarily Hawaii or an amazing, incredible place.
Sometimes it's going camping at the river and letting that feeling of just disconnect me.
It almost rewires your brain and really brings up the level of your frequency.
But it also could be just a walk through a garden, taking a day off and going to have a picnic in the garden with a friend or by yourself.
With your kids is great, too, but w- with kids we tend to still be on, there's still an element of being on, of course.
You always have to have that mom mode on when they're around.
But it could be just going into a beautiful hotel.
There is actually this thing called Resort Pass around here, where you can get a day pass to a really expensive hotel, something that normally is 1,200 a night.
You can go use their pool and their amenities for the day if you just a day pass.
And that type of thing can really raise your frequency, which then opens a channel for creativity to flow again.
Or picking up an art book at the bookstore.
those little things can do it, too, if you can't do a really big trip right now.
But I have to say, going to France was a really big inspiration for me, and I really wanna go back and plan something on my own.
Because, yeah, there was, like, a whole debacle when I last time, then the one day that I had planned my own separate styled shoot, it rained on us.
So I need to plan something where there's more time and freedom to reschedule if needed.
The rain in that time of year in France was, like, unheard of, so it was like w- did not have a backup plan for that.
Of course, right? the rain.
It was literally raining on us.
Not heavy, but still, just, not my light and airy favorite.
Ah, I hate that yeah.
But the old, the feeling of the old stone buildings and the way that the nature would lead trails and winding curves through paths.
And Europe's just super inspirational, so I hope to someday be able to go back to France and plan another, another really beautiful creative shoot there.
Okay.
So we wanna give you guys the assignment today of things.
First, create a Pinterest board that has absolutely nothing to do with what you think you're supposed to, quote-unquote, photograph.
The only rule is you have to love, love, love what you save.
Don't overthink it.
Save a painting, a dress, a weird editorial design, or architecture, or jewelry.
It could be a ring or a necklace or anything.
And then think about what the thread is through that board as a whole.
So colors, textures, emotions, what kind of movement, what kind of environments.
might learn more about your artistic voice from that board than you would looking at 100 photographers on Instagram Yeah, absolutely.
And we've done this exercise at a Kindred Path workshop before, and we used real magazines.
And so attendees would just cut out little clips from magazines and make like a mini poster with it.
And so that could be a good tactile version.
So any, whatever one's going to, light you up and that you'll enjoy more is a good way to do it.
But it's a really fun exercise because you're finding things that you really like and enjoy, so it is enjoyable, and it will inspire you and that's really our takeaway from this episode.
Inspiration, it lives everywhere, but we have to create enough space in our lives and our businesses to actually take notice of it.
It's less about searching and hunting for inspiration and more about learning how to see it Give yourself permission to be inspired by things that have absolutely nothing to do with photography.
Collect it, notice it, sit in silence, and just let it wash over you.
Eventually, different pieces start connecting Yeah, give yourself permission to go to the museum, take the trip, watch the movie, write it off buy the magazine.
It's not a distraction from your work, it is the work.
And actually, my accountant, she always says I can write off all my trips because if I'm taking photos and I am sharing those photos for my business Instagram and using it as a source of inspiration, it can be written off I hope that this episode really sparked something for you and helped you not feel so overwhelmed when thinking about getting your creative spark back.
'Cause sometimes it can be really overwhelming thinking about how do I create a style shoot? How do I find my voice? I don't even know what I would do.
So hopefully this episode gave you that inspiration and where to start, and we would love, love, love to hear more from you guys.
So if you listen to an episode and you wanna share your feedback, your comments about it, or what inspired you from this episode and more, please send both Marie and I a DM.
We have our handles linked at the bottom of this episode for you, and we would love to hear from you Yeah, it would be really neat to see and to reshare where other photographers get their inspiration from, so don't hesitate to reach out.
Thank you so much for spending time with us today on the Luxe and Legacy Podcast.
We love being part of your journey as you build a luxury photography business that feels aligned and elevated.
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