What Inspires You? Pt. 1

This is my first post in what hopes to be a long and perhaps never ending segment on inspiration.  Sometimes we lose track of what inspires us to create.  I know that I’m guilty of this quite often.  We are too busy trying to pay the bills, get to work on time, driving the kids to soccer practice that we forget to nourish our creativity.  What inspires our creativity?  Everything around us can inspire creativity.  Films have long been the source of inspiration for me.  Being a very visual person I’ve always been able to retain an image from a memorable movie that I’ve seen.  The scenes seem to get filed away somewhere and when inspiration for my images is needed they come out.  A lot of my photography is influenced by the movies I’ve seen recently or films that strike a chord in my heart.

The Photographer Godfather Image Jeff Cruz Calgary Photographer

Image courtesy of www.moviepostershop.com

I wanted to make it seem like I was walking in a dark alley somewhere ready at any time with my camera in hand to take that next great photo.  After looking at it longer I realized it reminded me of the dramatic lighting used in a lot of the Godfather movie posters.

I don’t know exactly what one thing I love about this movie.  Perhaps it was the great acting, the interesting characters or the great family bond portrayed in the movie.  It could’ve also been I was fifteen and any movie with bad guys and guns appealed to me.  Maybe it was about the whole package.  Whatever it was something in this movie inspired me to create a mysterious dramatic image of myself.  Would I have made this image if I had never seen The Godfather?  Perhaps.  However, it might not have turned out the way it did.

Check out some clips from the movie.  The soundtrack gives me goosebumps everytime I hear it.

What inspires you?  What gives you goosebumps?  I want to hear your stories.  Post a comment and let me know what fuels your creativity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfnUvYn6HoM

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3 Responses to “What Inspires You? Pt. 1”

  1. michelle says:

    by far the best photo of you.

    great work jeff. good to see you doing what you adore.
    Alot of people cant do that. Consider yourself one of the luckiest guys in the world.

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