Favorite Photographers?

[Sara Adams]

Who are your favorite photographers that inspire you and why?

I'm curious to see who everyone looks up to and is inspired by. Feel free to post links so everyone can see their work.

Personally for me I don't have one in particular that I love, as I find it kind of hard to find someone who meets my personal style and taste. I really love photographers who break the overall rules of photography, their images are usually very colorful and have a painting like feel to them, the surrealism and abstract aspect is something that inspires me. I tend to like the unusual and different pieces of photography; the pieces that are more so art than anything else.

I typically find pieces that inspire me on sites like DeviantART, however each artist is different; so it is hard for me to just pick a few top photographers and claim them as my favorite.

Here are some examples of photographs that inspire me:

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Now your turn.

[Thomas McKown]

Ha, I am much different. This one will be easy! I will try to keep this fairly short because I like a lot of them.

1. Marc Adamus
You must respect this guy if you shoot landscapes. He has mastered proven techniques and also utilizes new methods of achieving whatever look he wants.

2. Rarindra Prakarsa
Rarindra is an incredibly artistic photographer from Indonesia. His earlier work was done with a Rebel XT and fairly cheap lenses. I am happy to see that in his later he has upgraded to a 5D and better glass. His English is horrible, but he has inspired so many people across the world that he can't even read the hundreds and hundreds of compliments he receives on large sites like photo.net because of the bulk of them but also because most of them are not even in his own language.

3. Xavier Jamonet
Another cool landscape photographer. He has some beautiful work.

4. Ok, this one is a little weird, but Still Motion
Although they do photography, they mainly feature wedding videography. The crazy part is that the videos inspire me more than anything else they do. Everything from the way they capture things, to the way they package and present the final product. They have mastered what they do in every aspect and are giants in their field.

5. Beautifoto
Cheesy name, but surprisingly enough, pretty cool pictures. They are a Canadian wedding photography company. While I do think that some of the things they do are a bit cheesy looking, I mostly like their work. They are very creative with lighting.

6. Ansel Adams
While his pictures are nice, what really inspires me about him is his quotes. I love his mentality and outlook on photography. He said some very clever things regarding photography.

[everlastingimages]

In the beginning....

I was a big fan of David Jay, at the time he was one of the top 10 wedding photographers in the country, and I think I built my style heavily on the work that he did. He shot a lot of wide dramatic images that incorporated landscapes and architecture.

Now...

I don't really have anyone who really inspires me, mostly because I have developed a style of my own. There are a lot of photographers out there that I respect, but whose work I could never even begin to emulate because my creative eye just doesn't see on the same level as theirs.

Primarily: theimageisfound.com/

and this guy:

www.ferjuaristi.com/

These are the guys I look at and then get depressed about my own work and think to myself, "I really suck at my job."

That's why when I discovered one light I was extremely happy, because now I can be really creative and I don't necessarily need inspiration.

[smphoto74]

My Dad...cause without his interest in photography and his creative knowledge to build a dark room under the house I most probably never would have gotten into photography myself if it wasn't for him.

The only other person I can think of is Nigel off of Top Model...that dude rocks with a camera in his hand.