I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for creative ideas for my next shoot. It's not always easy, and sometimes you just need to get to your location to find what you're looking for.
When it comes to personal and long-term projects, it's important to brainstorm, plan, and write down your ideas and thought process of what you want to shoot. Like Kyle talks about in this video, and he calls it the Development Stage. Of course, after making plans comes the reality, and things change and morph into something different and most of the time better than what you could have planned
I have talked about this in another article I wrote about how you need to make plans, go to the location, and then leave yourself open to adventure, wonder, and finding new things. Especially if you have never been to the location, you don't know exactly what's there and what else there is to discover. Don't close yourself off by only sticking to the preplanned shoot; have a guideline and then explore.
Do research so you have a guide of what you want to photograph, what may have historical significance or a famous landmark. It's important to know why you're going to a location and why you want to photograph it, but stay open while there.
Kyle mentions planning days and getting to know the town and the people to find subjects. This can be a hard one for a lot of us photographers, as some of us can be very introverted. But it is important to meet and talk to the locals; they will introduce you to their town, and you will discover things you never would have discovered on your own. Or the person you meet will be an interesting subject for you to photograph; you never know.
Plan your project, find your location, and most importantly, leave room to find new things and connect with people.
