I see that on July 11 of this year, To Kill a Mockingbird will be 50 years old. I'm not a huge book reader although I do love books. Some get a grip of me more than others, and To Kill a Mockingbird is one of those books which I've now read around five times now. It's an inspired piece of work.

I bring this book up not because of its content or subject matter, but purely from the point of view that everything around us is, or can be, a source of inspiration. I think all too easily as photographers, many of us think we get our inspiration from the landscape, or by looking at someone else's photographs.

In my own case, I know that I get my inspiration from lots of things. Films, Music, books, life experiences, something a friend said, a subject that becomes interesting to me. Reading the BBC news page today, I was struck by a desire to go out and visit the town where Harper Lee grew up. Perhaps making a documentary set of images of the place would be a thrill, a challenge? It's just a thought and It's unlikely I'll really do it, but I just point this out because this is typically how something should inspire us.

I'm going to Lalibela in Ethiopia this September for two weeks. I was inspired by watching this video of Lalibela by Jake Warga. It really made me want to go and now I find my life directly influenced by watching that video, it makes me realise that everything around us has impact, touches our lives in some way or other and it's up to us as individuals to extract some inspiration out of what we're given.