5 B&W photos in 5 days

[davidc]

Even if it rains there's promise, look for reflections, umbrellas and people running about to get under cover

[Mike Farley]

Even if it rains there's promise, look for reflections, umbrellas and people running about to get under cover

David's up late.

[davidc]

I was

Wanted to get some work done so I'd have time to go out to a photoshoot today to kick this off. About to post the results.

[Mike Farley]

I would like to thank David for setting this challenge. Not only did it revive the positive aspects of my photo a day challenge last year by giving an incentive to get out and take pictures, it also meant that I needed to ensure that the results would work in monochrome, which involves a whole different way of seeing when form and texture take precedence. Unlike a 365, it was not that big a commitment, either, but just enough to encourage creativity. In in all, it was a very ejoyable experience.

Does anyone have ideas for other things we can do?

It also makes me think whether there is a new talk I can do about black and white photography.

[davidc]

Nice to hear you enjoyed it.

I always find projects, big or small, are a good way to keep interest going. I've got a number running here in Singapore that are enjoyable too, good for building relationships with new photographers & working towards something bigger than ourselves. Maybe not the cup of tea for this forum necessarily but there are plenty of ideas kicking about.

Examples of things that may be more suited to you guys could be entering national exhibitions/working towards UK accreditations (like the BPE awards), maybe the P52 that Paul did last year, or a project to pluck a photograph from your back catalogue and try to process it today with a fresh eye. Picking a theme is also often a good way to inspire photos - I often felt the annual masters challenge was one of the best of the year in seeing how people interpreted it (except maybe the "celebrations" theme!).

How about architecture? Ming Thein had to be good for something and for me it was his dreadful Singapore architecture shots. It inspired me to do better and I've started my own take on it. Or a photo essay - pick a subject, give yourself 5-10 photos only and then try combining words and images to tell a story.

One for Mike - focus on a subject (maybe Croham Hurst) and create your own photobook of images that have meaning for you. It doesn't need to be big/expensive, you can do very small, quirky things with Blurb, but it's an incentive to get out there and you get something you can be proud of at the end of the day.

Another one I'm personally pursuing is the more "creative" style of shot - images where a number of photographs are combined to create a final image that never existed in reality. My motivation is odd; I actually hate that kind of poorly composited photo, they look rubbish. But I turned it into a challenge whereby i wanted to create a composite that people did not know was a composite - an example being The Windmill from last year.



Not only does the photoshopping involved help regular photography, it's new/different/challenging and continually broadening my horizons.

Finally, I'd suggest that learning how to setup lighting, directing/interacting with people/models and building studio/location scenes from scratch is one of the most creative and challenging things you can do in photography. It forces you to come up with everything from initial idea to final image, and the rewards are immense. Though I appreciate this kind of challenge isn't suited to everyone, granted, the experience in understanding just the lighting has a huge impact on all forms of photography, not just strobist stuff.

Hopefully this helps and if others have suggestions for projects I'm definitely interested.

[Mike Farley]

.... a project to pluck a photograph from your back catalogue and try to process it today with a fresh eye.

I hvae been doing that recently. I have found images I did not do anything with at the time and then forgotten, others which have benefited from the post processing techniques or applications I have since learnt or acquired, or simply dismissed at the time but now like.

One for Mike - focus on a subject (maybe Croham Hurst) and create your own photobook of images that have meaning for you. It doesn't need to be big/expensive, you can do very small, quirky things with Blurb, but it's an incentive to get out there and you get something you can be proud of at the end of the day.

Actually, Croham Hurst is an ongoing project, although I do not go there so much these days. While most are fine, there is a significant minority of dog owners who think that their pet is in charge of them and not the other way around. If you challenge these people about their animal's behaviour, their response is always aggressive with threats of violence. It does not happen in other woods I have visited away from Croydon/London.