If you need a push to take you photo hobby a step further, if you are seeking new inspiration or you just want a fun project you can carry out together with your friends or family; here are some ideas for a few fun, challenging and rewarding photo projects. In the following four main topics for photo challenges are presented.
The resulting photos from either of the projects can be collected in an online print-on-demand book, they can be published in a blog dedicated to the project or you can make a slide show to present to those involved in the project or organise a big happening to show off the photos for you whole community. Photographers display better things whether you call Family Photographer in Sandton or not. There are plenty of possibilities and the imagination is the only limit. The main objective should however be to have fun and to be creative together with good friends or your family.
A Photo Every Day Photo Challenge
All involved take one photo every day, in e.g. 100 days. It is not an easy task to remember shooting a photo every day and it is not an easy task to be creative every day, but for those dedicated enough to succeed it is an inspiring experience.
You can view two books from two Norwegian projects where four and five, respectively, photographers took a photo ach each day during summer 2009 and winter 2009/2010 on Blurb.com.
Take a Photo for Every Letter in the Alphabet
Shoot one photo for every letter in the alphabet! What does A stand for for you? An apple? Your aunt? Or maybe architecture? And what about B, C and all the other letters? Some letters are easy and some are more challenging. Give all the participants limited time to complete the task. Use one week or one day for each letter or a month or two for the whole alphabet.
A blog is a nice place to collect these photos and the photos can be posted sequential during the project period. Give all the participants writer access to the blog so they may post their own images, or use link tools such as MrLinky for the participants to post the photos on their own blog and link to a common blog dedicated for the project. For an example of the last method, visit ABCWednesday’s blog. They are in their 6th round of the whole alphabet!
Photos in Different Colors
Pick 10 colors (e.g. red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, turquoise, pink, white and black) and give the participants a limited time frame to shoot one picture for each color. Make photo colleges of the photos for each color, print them, frame them and make an exhibition to display them. Books and blogs are surely good ways to present the work as well.
Photo Challenge with Given Topics
There is a multitude of thematic challenges worth trying out. Either you want to challenge your and your friend’s creativity, your technical skills or you just want to compare your favourite (or worst) places and objects, this is a good way to do it.
A more open project where the only regulation is that a given number of photos should fit into a few broader categories such as portrait or landscape photographs will give the photographers more freedom, but this is also less challenging.
Some ideas for topics are given here
- Challenging your creativity: Hope, sadness, happiness, freedom, chains, beauty, envy etc.
- Your favourites (favourite could be replaced with worst to get a totally different challenge): Favourite place, favourite activity, favourite color, best food, best friend etc.
- Open challenge with categories: Portrait, landscape, macro etc.
- Technical challenges: Manipulated, large and small aperture, long and short shutter speed, night photo, indoor light, etc.
Don’t Wait
Don’t wait. Invite your friends and family to join a photo project and have fun!
