WPS Spring Challenge 2020
Challenges
There are two separate challenges for members:
- “Jill’s 12 week Challenge” – As posted and maintained by Jill North on Facebook, but also kept up to date here as she adds weekly topics. See below.
- “Online Weekly Challenge“, with a title changing regularly with members uploading their images for all to enjoy.
Online Challenge
Visit the Online Spring Challenges page to see the image galleries and upload images yourself.
We’ll add a new title every few weeks. You can add images to the earlier rounds at any time.
Subject One – Challenge title – SPRING
Subject Two – Challenge title – MONO
Jill’s 12 Week Challenge
Jill North says: The challenge will last 12 weeks and there will be a total of 36 topics. I will add topics each week and you can take your images on these subjects at any time during this 12 week period. I suggest you save them somewhere on your computer ready for sharing at the end of the period. You won’t have to have images for all 36, but please try as many as you can!
We’ve rearranged this page to help you get a quick overview of each week. Click on the “+” signs to get more details.
The final week! Time to make the last three images of the twelve-week challenge.
I hope that these challenge topics have been a useful distraction for you during the last few weeks? Something to do when you felt like picking up your camera or looking through your photos. Maybe you’ve even had some new ideas about photography?
It will now be good to see your photos.
I will today set up a folder: 12 week Challenge 2020 on the Facebook page.
For the time being, post a maximum of 4 images in the folder:
One of these should be a ‘contact sheet’ showing all 36 photos (or as many as you have made or want to show us)
The other images: choose just 3 of your favourite photos for now, for us all to have a closer look at.
Then I suggest that we all have a look through and ‘like’ images that appeal to us.
Finally, there might be a prize for images that receive the most positive responses. Though a warning – the prize might just be a virtual medal or virtual slice of cake – don’t raise your hopes too much!
32. Something that has changed since the first challenge
33. Something that has stayed the same
It’s almost the end of the 12 week challenge, so time to think about the last few weeks. We have all had highs and lows during this time (possibly more lows) but we have had time to discover what is important to each of us. Photography is best when you have a personal connection with your subject. See if you can take two photos that mean something to you, that might be unique. It might be a photo of something that you have made, or something far more profound. Try to make two images that you think no one else will choose.
This week’s topics, to interpret however you like:
29. Letters or Numbers
30. Home
31. Away
Have a look at the images that you have collected so far for this challenge.
Do your photos have a particular style? I had thought that one might emerge as I put together my photos but each week I seem to be trying something different.
Is there something that is especially interesting you, that might be worth exploring in greater depth? Maybe some images that would be good for a PAGB or RPS submission? Or some ideas for future club competitions?
It won’t be long before we can all show our photos. There will be a section on our Facebook page and a place on the new website to put some of your photos. More details next week.
Make, or find three photos this week. I think it’s interesting to review the photography that we have made in the past so I think these could be photos that you have already taken. I think life under lockdown has given us a different perspective on many aspects of our life. Many of us have had time to sort through old files and look with a fresh eye at old photos. You might like your photos as they are, but it might be good to re edit them. The first topic is definitely outside my comfort zone, and the next two are topics that I think are interesting to explore.
26. Mono, but not black and white
27. Sharp
28. Soft
I wonder how many people are still taking part in this challenge, or if you are picking and choosing what you do, or doing them all? I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.
One day it will be interesting to see how we are all interpreting the topics, but we are just two thirds of the way through. So please be patient; more will be revealed in the next few weeks.
Like last week it’s time to make new photos. This week, four topics to interpret however you like:
22. Slow
23. Fast
24. Round
25. Flat
Now it’s time to make lots of new photos.
This week, five topics to interpret however you like:
17. Awake
18. Asleep
19. Lots
20. Few
21. None
Maybe because you are keeping your photos to yourself you are gaining some confidence that it doesn’t always matter what other people think?
That you are not worrying about what judges might say?
Or maybe you want or need to get feedback from other people?
For the time being however, I would still like you to keep your photos for this challenge to yourself.
Something quite different now.I don’t want you to take any new photos for this week’s challenge.
This is a chance to give yourself a pat on the back. Have a think about how your photography has progressed over time. And also look now at the images you have collected together for these weekly challenges. Have you perhaps developed a style?
15. Old – find the earliest photo you have taken that you like? Perhaps something you took as a child or a teenager that was admired by your family. The very first time you realised that you could take a good photo, or that you liked photography.*
16 New or Best – find the best photo you have taken in the last couple of years, or maybe a prizewinning photo that you’ve made recently.
Just enjoy looking at your own photos.* Of course this photo might not be digital so you might have to scan it, or take a photo of it, if you want to record it for this challenge.
Three photos of living things indoors.
Take three photos of living things, that are indoors at home, this week. No selfies.
For some that might be easy, but not so easy for others. You should make not just one, but three different photos.
You might make a portrait of your partner. Or you might have to resort to looking for a spider, or checking out if there’s any mould in the fruit bowl. But photograph things that are living. Use your imagination to make photos that are beautiful, or amusing.
I hope you are enjoying these challenge topics. Next week’s challenge is going to be something completely different, something to mark the halfway point.
Four images to make this week and an extra challenge.
8. Light
9. Dark
10. Green
11. Yellow
You might like to combine the topics. How will you interpret light and dark? It could be a couple of contrasty photos. Or taken at different times of the day. Or you could try to represent an abstract concept; something existential. It’s up to you.
Various shades of green and yellow are all around us in nature at the moment. Perhaps try to make images with a variety of different shades of green or yellow, or both?
The extra challenge is to take a close look at your camera. Is there a button or dial that you don’t touch? Spend some time this week experimenting with just one setting that you don’t usually use or don’t alter.
Don’t forget to save any photos in a folder on your own device, and make a note of the setting you chose to try out.
Three images to think about making this week.
5. Sunset (or sunrise)
- What is it about sunset photos that judges don’t like?
- Find your favourite sunset (or sunrise) photo and maybe have another look at it?
- Or take a new photo out of your window this week. Without contrails and with less pollution it might be even more difficult than usual to make a good photo.
- Maybe look on the internet at famous sunset paintings? Or read about the science of the colours? Don’t rush, take your time.
- Perhaps some club members who are judges can explain what is so problematic about sunsets?
The other two challenge topics for this week are:
6. Below
7. Above
It’s up to you – whatever comes to mind for these.
Are you ready? Just one image for this week’s challenge. The topic is Revised Plans
Can you remember what day of the week it is? It’s difficult, isn’t it, when our routines are so disrupted?
This week’s challenge is to make just one image that is, in some way, connected with something you should have been doing this week but has now been cancelled. Maybe a photo of the jacket or shoes you would have worn for a meeting? Or find a photo of someone you should have met this week?
But if you use an old photo don’t just use it as it is. Try out different ideas. Could you maybe crop it to look at a detail, or play around with it, maybe add or take away something? Make an image to make someone smile? You could combine some photos?
Like last week’s challenge don’t rush it. I don’t yet know how I’ll make my image but it might have something to do with the theatre. I had tickets for the ballet this week
- Big
- Small
- Red
Big: What is the biggest thing you can see? For some it may be obvious. A certain astrophotographer could go into their back garden and take a photo of Arcturus or Betelgeuse. For other it might be difficult. A landscape photographer might be stuck in their bedroom looking at the curtains. Spend some time looking around you and choose a less obvious subject.
Small: If you have a macro lens maybe put it to one side, that would be too easy. How else you could make an image that fits the topic? I’ve decided that I might find an image while I am spring cleaning the kitchen cupboards. Cleaning is possibly my least favourite task so please think of me.
Red: What are you going to choose? You decide.
