If you’re like me, sometimes you just lose the motivation to take pictures. Maybe it’s after winter months when you’ve been stuck indoors taking low-light photos (and we know how well those *don’t* turn out); maybe you’re just feeling especially uncreative; maybe your equipment isn’t as good as you’d like it to be; maybe the pictures that you do take just aren’t cutting it. For whatever the reason, I think we all probably get frustrated with photography occasionally.

I’ve put together a few suggestions to help us all (myself included) get out of a rut from a photography standpoint.

1. Try something new: shoot from a different angle, try to embrace sun haze, set your camera to its widest aperture. If you usually shoot candid pictures, then maybe bribe your kids into letting you take more official portraits. If you only shoot people, try photographing food or scenery.

2. Take a class (or if you’ve taken lots of classes, go back and rewatch the videos and redo the challenges).

3. The Digi Show recently aired an entire episode on photography with lots of good suggestions on ways to be inspired. You can listen here.

4. Go on a photo walk. The official Scott Kelby photowalk is this week (September 23), but you could absolutely do something similar on your own or with a group of like-minded friends.

5. Find a new location. After living out in the country with beautiful views and scenery, we moved to a subdivision last year, and it has been hard to find motivation to snap pictures of my kids outside playing when the background involves streets, mailboxes, sidewalks, etc. Sometimes you have to get creative and stop along the side of a road to take advantage of an old barn or a great field.

6. Challenge yourself with a photo-a-day. If Project 365 is too overwhelming, try a month at a time. You can visit the Lilypad forum here and here to see a list of prompts each month.

7. Have your camera and lenses cleaned. I actually had this done at a local specialty camera shop just this week, and I cannot believe how much better everything is working. Here is an article on what parts of your camera you can clean yourself and what should be sent off to a professional.

8. This final tip is my favorite one although it’s probably the least practical: buy a new lens. :) There’s just something about a new piece of equipment that makes us work a little harder and you just can’t deny that quality glass can make all the difference in your photos. I personally own a 50mm 1.4, a 35mm 2.0, and a Tamron 28-75mm lens, but I would love to own a 70-200mm or a wide angle 16-35mm lens. A girl can dream, right?