Photo Challenge 2014

A while ago, I started a 30 day photo challenge. It didn't go very well. Between being very busy adding to it the difficulty of the daily assignments, I stopped taking photos at about day 21. There were some good assignments, but they were not one day challenges for me. Several of them required looking up how to do it and then a lot of experimentation.

From this, I realized that rather than put myself under such pressure and feeling frustrated because I was not succeeding, that I should make some changes to the way I complete a photo challenge.

I have decided that this year, I will work on 12 photo challenges; one challenge per month. My themes are just that, themes, This will allow me to try different techniques and compositional styles every month. I can working on panning, HDR, slow sync flash, panorama, dynamic tension, and on, and on, and on.

My goal it to really focus on each monthly assignment and see how many ways that I can photograph the topic.

I am putting this here as a promise to myself to complete these monthly challenges.

My themes will be:

January: Fibonacci and other shapes (Phi, the Fibonacci number is 1.618. The golden mean.) The are so many shapes in nature. Focus on shapes as you look at the world to see what you see.

February:  Peace and Love: a little more esoteric, but how do you see it in the world? What better month to look for peace and love than in February?

March: Water, water everywhere: this one is pretty obvious,  it's about water, close up, far away, colored or black and white. Water drops or bodies of water, frozen or liquid, h2o or a mixture.

Landscape and graffiti: there is so much to see in the world where ever you are. Take time to stop and see the big picture. Capture the writing on the wall.

Forced Perspective: make something look big or make something big look small. Maybe it looks like a person is holding a cloud or Bokeh lights are filling a glass. Maybe a shell looks huge or Lego people are now giants. Maybe the full moon looks really big in the sky.

Light and Shadows: Ansel Adams was a master at seeing light and shadow. Monet was fascinated with light and would paint the same seen over and over again throughout the day to see the way light and shadow and color changed.  Shadows can be intriguing on their own making cool designs on the ground. Look at the way day and night light play with the world.

Time and Space: how do you see these things? The skies the limit. Maybe you times photograph the sunset. Night shots of the sky. clocks? The growth of a new plant. As with time and space, the possibilities are endless.

Up Close and Personal: get your macro on. Look at the details.

Portraits and People: This one scares me half to death. I include animals in my idea of portraits. This is also an opportunity to get to know other people. Maybe start a stranger portrait series. Really stepping outside of my comfort zone.

Windows and Doorways: not sure I need to say much on this. It could be used as a compositional style. Frame within a frame. Or it can be literal or metaphoric.

Pencils, Paper, and Everyday Things: How can you make a unique photograph from everyday objects. The goal is to see it and experiment with it until you have a photograph of the object that is unlike any other.

December: Look How Far You Have Come (Take an old photograph that you like, retake it. How have you change? What did you do differently?)

I have picked my assignments for January, February, March and December. The rest, I think, I will choose as I go along.

You are welcome to join me on this journey. Happy Photography in 2014.