It’s September so that must mean it’s back to school time.  This is similar to other times of the year that trigger emotions, such as New Years for self-reflection and personal goals, Thanksgiving for what we have and the people around us or even April’s beginning of baseball season signaling summer fun with outside activities.

Regardless of whether you are in school or not you’re always learning something.  However, this is the time of year to take stock of your intellectual achievements and plan a course of action towards exploring new areas or taking a deeper dive into a particular area of interest.  With regards to photography a common question to ask, that will help you achieve an intellectual goal is, “what inspires me to take pictures?”  A few sources of inspiration that I’ve found useful are a newsletter or a blog post from another photographer, an article published in the photographic media, creating photographic self-challenges, discussion with other photographers, creating images with a group of photographers, or attending a photography class.

Another, often overlooked, source of inspiration can come from within ourselves directed towards others.  In other words, how you effect and inspire others will have a direct impact on your own intellectual development.  Teaching, guiding, mentoring, coaching, and interacting with others is incredibly rewarding.  I know this from personal experience.  Just this summer, since the last SSCC meeting before our summer break, I have taught five classes at Capital Photography Center, three classes at Montgomery College, and hosted four Meetup sessions.  All told I’ve likely had contact and made an impression on well over 100 photographers this summer.  The rewards have been great from the inspiration I’ve received, and my photography has gotten better from seeing so much other work.   The other work from students and discussions with Meetup attendees has inspired me to look at the world a little differently and think of different ways of taking and presenting images.

So, back to school is also back to another season of Silver Spring Camera Club meetings.  Use this time to set aside your Thursday evenings to devote time towards intellectual growth.  Each meeting will offer something to learn but the best part is the face to face interaction with other photographers and what you can share and learn at the same time.

There are certainly more places to find inspiration; I’d like to see your ideas in a future Cable Release article or as a comment posted to the SSCC Google Group.