Not sure where the OP lives, but try the local What's on guide for events etc. Even if you are not interested in the main subject matter, you can get some great people shots on such occassions.
Build up a mental database of locations, and guess when the light is going to be best, and go back then.
Look through your favourite flickr group for inspiration. Even the best photographers steal an idea or two - but try and make it their own.
Table-top can become an absolute obsession, and has limitless potential. Go to your $2 Shop and look for packets of colour. Tip the contents onto your table-top, and play with the lighting. Use glass with a diffuser underneath, and light from below. Put your main light behind, and reflect some of it back - this works well with transluciant subjects like flowers.
Set your tripod up at the end of your street after dark, and get some light trials. If you can find a high vantage point above an intersection, you can get some great shots. Try setting up before dark, and getting a twilight exposure, then get the light trails after dark, and combine in photoshop using the Lighten blending mode.
Make yourself a DIY light tent. I used end of roll newsprint from the local newspaer office - just a few dollars for a huge amount of paper. You can hardly go wrong with a light tent, and can take some amazing shots of shiny subjects, like wine bottles etc.
Check out the Light Science & Magic book and/or flickr group. The things you can do with some of those techniques are awsome, and VERY easy when you know how.
I think I could go on like this for hours.
Last edited by Trevor.Dennis; 12-03-2008 at 07:02 AM.
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