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Assignments
Assignment shooting (sometimes called "themes" or "monthly photography") is a time-proven method for improving your
composition skills. Approximately once a month a new "assignment" is posted.
The assignment may take the form of a theme-statement
or a concept, or a photographic technique. Whatever the assignment, our members attempt to create images that interpret
the assignment's statement. It's a chance to try things that maybe you wouldn't normally try, to practice your creative
eye, and to gain inspiration from your peers as you see what they produce as their interpretations.
Most people will submit digital images, but we always welcome prints as well. (and in some cases the assignment may be specifically for a particular medium).
We're a brand new club, so watch for this section to grow in the years to come! If you're new to photography and need a challenge, try some of these assignments for yourself.
Previous Assignments
This month's assignment is trees. We are blessed, in this area, with an almost infinite variety of types and shapes and sizes. Some are tall while others are short (Bonsai anyone?). Big trees, small trees; bare trees or leafy; some show their roots to the world while others bury them deep underground, and on and on. What do you think of when you think of trees? The challenge is to create images that capture what trees mean to you.
For Inspiration:
This month's assignment is transportation. The challenge is to create images that capture / communicate the good and/or bad, the fun and/or frustration, the glamour and/or ugliness of the various means of moving folks around. Urban transport, or rural; motorized or human powered; sleek and modern or historic.
For Inspiration:
This month's assignment is to create images that communicate something of the heritage of BC. You may have an interest in local community heritage; architecture may speak of times past; a natural region may tell the story of the development of the province... Whatever you feel tells the story of something or someone that came before; that was a part of the history of BC, is fair game. While post-production effects that suggest old photos are fun, and can be very effective, consider challenging yourself to create an original image that communicates the heritage theme, even without the special effects.
For Inspiration:
This month's assignment is motion. Still photography is a static medium. Conveying a sense of motion within that static medium is often essential to capturing a scene and/or emotion. The challenge is to convey motion in your images. Blur it, stop it, suggest it. How you convey motion in each image is up to you. For inspiration, visit the digital photography school's article on How to Capture Motion Blur
Prepare images that could be used for a card or decoration celebrating one of the many winter holidays; Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, winter solstice, tec. This might be an opportunity to explore table top / still life photography.
For this challenge, show us your original shot (no post-processing, cropping, etc.), and then show us how it looks after you’ve worked your magic in the digital darkroom. Be prepared to share the major editing steps / techniques you used to create the final shot.
Submit black and white digital images, sized for projection.
Thinking back to those dark and moody films from the 40’s and 50’s. Film noir was characterized by a bleak urban setting, low-key lighting scheme producing stark light/dark contrast and dramatic shadow patterning to create tension – that “something is around the corner” feeling. Think of the shadows of venetian blinds cast upon an actor, a wall or an entire scene; silhouettes of people seen through or an entire scene; silhouettes of people seen through or against a lit fog; faces obscured by shadow.
This is an opportunity for you to experiment shooting for mood; make it dark or eerie, maybe even spooky - after all, Halloween is coming. This is a chance to shoot in black and white, or to practice your black and white conversion in your digital darkroom.
This summer, your challenge is to document the impermanence of human creations; to look for art in places where nature is encroaching on things people have made. Explore your surroundings looking for rusting machines, plants growing in roads or cracks, rotting stairs … You’ll know it when you see it. For this assignment, don’t stage your image. Find your art in place.
We all know what nostalgia means, or what we think it is. How do you interpret it? The assignment is to create up to 3 images to interpret the theme "nostalgia".
n.
- a bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past
- the condition of being homesick; homesickness
The American Heritage® Dictionary
- a longing to go back to one's home, home town, or homeland; homesickness
- a longing for something far away or long ago or for former happy circumstances
MirriamWebster's Dictionary
And some synonyms from the Oxford thesaurus:
longing/yearning/pining for the past, regret, regretfulness, reminiscence, remembrance, recollection, wistfulness,
homesickness.
The assignment is to use the technique of shooting reflections. The reflection can be the whole of your image, or a significant component. Think about the different places you see reflections - windows, mirrors, water, someone's eyes... and go out there and make an image. The following quote about photographing reflections may provide some inspiration:
The challenge of this assignment is to create an image that tells how you see / understand the abstract concept, "ECONOMY". For inspiration look up the definition of "economy". You'll be surprised at the range. If you still need inspiration, search Google's images, or search some stock photo sites. But, don't let yourself be limited by what you find. Let's all share our personal vision of "economy".
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