Project52 2018 Week 52: A Self Portrait - For your final challenge, we end where we started, with a photo of ourselves. Take one last photograph, a self-portrait, and be amazed at how far you've come in a year.
Project52 2018 Week 51: Parenthood - What is family? For some, family is defined by genetics. For others, it is simply those with whom you share a bond of love. This week, share a photo showing off your interpretation of parenthood. The interpretations of parents are as varied as families themselves. If you shy away from posting photos of yourself or loved ones online, then show us any kind of family — a gaggle of ducklings, a copse of trees, a row of identical buildings. This should make for an interesting challenge topic
Project52 2018 Week 50: Path - For this photo challenge, show us what path means to you. Consider the journey you've taken this year (or where you hope to go in 2019) and share a snapshot of this personal path, whether figurative or literal. A path can look like the one in the photo above, but it can also be a glimpse into your interests and passions or personal and professional goals.
Project52 2018 Week 49: Hindsight is 20/20 - What if we could do it all over again? What if we could jump into a time machine, and go back to stop the coach screaming at a child on the field? What if we could tell our in-law what he can do with his offer of cooking lessons, as he eats the Thanksgiving meal we toiled over? Have you ever heard a mean joke you wish you'd nipped in the bud? The end of the year is a great time to clean our slates in creative ways and get those feeling off of our chests.
Project52 2018 Week 48: Serene - This week, share a photo that represents your take on “serene.” From landscapes to portraits (sleepy cats, anyone?) to a pleasantly abstract wallpaper pattern, any and all interpretations are welcome. Take a breath and just…be calm. What does that look like for you? Find an activity that calls out your inner calm, and share this beauty with the world
Project52 2018 Week 47 Celebration - This week, we're throwing on our glad rags and heading out to photograph a celebration. The whole world loves a good party and, while there are enormous differences in how people do it, there are some things I've noticed that remain constant. Dance, laughter, games, and good food; these shared threads bind us together, reminding us we are all the same. Your goal for this week is to get away from basic party snapshots, instead of working on creating images that show off the party in a unique way.
Project52 2018 Week 46: Fear - Image which show emotions or evoke them are powerful. Your challenge this week is to take a photo that pulls at our emotions and makes us all afraid. It might be a person and their expression, or an inanimate object. Lighting, lens selection, and camera angle can all affect mood in an image, so choose carefully and purposefully to create emotional images
Project52 2018 Week 45: Soft - Texture gives us a beautiful contrast in the midst of a mundane world. Photography is a primarily visual medium, but we can experience it with more than one sense. This week, focus on the smoother tactile element of the objects you shoot. Your artistic inspiration this week is soft. Just like hard earlier in the challenge, soft is both an adjective and an adverb. Interpret this how you will.
Project52 2018 Week44: Hard - Detail and texture are two things that tend to draw the viewer’s eye into an image. Your artistic inspiration this week is hard. Hard is both an adjective and an adverb. This week, share the texture of hard found in an unexpected place. Interpret this however you wish.
Project52 2018 Week 43: Orange - Your inspiration this week is orange. Either the color orange or an actual orange. Or both. What’s not to love about orange? It’s vibrant. It’s cheerful. It makes a statement. It’s the perfect punctuation for a punchy photo.
Project52 2018 Week 42: Elemental - For this week’s challenge, explore the classical elements of earth, air, water, and fire. How do you capture something invisible like air or the movement of water? Or, more personally, is there a place you go to feel connected to the earth? Take a moment to explore these elements, in or out of balance, together or individually, as you pick up your camera this week.
Project52 2018 Week 41: Night Owl - There are so many things you can photograph at night including city lights, light painting, star trails, etc. A tripod is probably going to be handy this week... time to go out and shoot after the sun goes down. Look for some light for the scene! Car lights, city lights, or maybe just moonlight.
Project52 2018 Week 40: Temporary - For this week’s challenge, share a photo that says “temporary” to you. As always, you can take the theme in any direction you see fit, from the natural world to the human, and from the concrete to the abstract. I look forward to browsing your photos!
Project52 2018 Week 39: Old Friends - Let’s start our week off with a little friendship. It’s good for the heart and soul. Friendship comes in many forms and can be as varied as the friends themselves. Your job for this weekly photography challenge is to create a photo of long-term friends and show what that means to you. Friendships can cross borders and boundaries and are formed in the heart, not logically. How can you represent true old friends in a photo?
Project52 2018 Week 38: Empty Orchestra - The common word karaoke translated from Japanese literally means "Empty Orchestra". There is something magical about the use of a metaphor from other cultures to help us better understand our world. Show us what this adopted metaphor means to you. What is the empty orchestra in your world?
Project52 2018 Week 37: Big Kids - Kids find joy and purity in the simplest things in life. As adults, we tend to get wrapped up in our own heads and lose the ability to just have fun and play. For this week's challenge, show us some adults recapturing that childlike enthusiasm
Project52 2018 Week 36: Hands - This week we've chosen a theme that should be quite accessible - hands. They are something that some photographers (and artists) struggle to capture in a natural way; perhaps it is a good theme to practice. Remember the hands can convey a lot of emotion (clench fists could be portraying anxiety or anger for example) and even a story (two hands holding one another for example).
Project52 2018 Week 35: Magic - Children have the ability to believe without bias, to find wonder even in the most mundane of places and objects. As adults, we become dulled to the magic inherent to life, and perhaps we stop seeking it altogether. However, as photographers, we have an opportunity to reclaim it. Magic and beauty can be conjured in the simplest of photographs, which may then inspire wonder in the viewer. For this week’s challenge, find some magic, and charm us with it.
Project52 2018 Week 34: A Good Match - This week, share a photo of a satisfying pairing from your own life. Coffee and donuts, beaches and beer, a good book and a hammock. You can mix and match places, people, objects, and activities that represent your idea of a harmonious, pleasing combination.
Project52 2018 Week 33: Bodyscape - The human form has been the study of art since art was first inspired. Your inspiration this week is the human body and all of its curves and angles. Show us what the Vitruvian form can do.
Project52 2018 Week: 32: Heatwave - Let’s get our cameras out and discover how you “beat the summer heat” for all those moments when the thermostat tips past your comfort zone. Who knows, maybe we'll discover some new tricks to staying cool through those hot days. Share your photos that show us how you stay cool on summer's hottest days. How do you beat the heat?
Project52 2018 Week 31:Back Alleys - This theme is right up your alley! Too often we take photos of the same beautiful landscapes that everyone else is and end up with the same generic postcards. For this week you should focus on branching out and following the road less traveled. Whether your passageway is a narrow concrete street or lined by trees, show us where the hidden path leads you
Project52 2018 Week 30: Get Outside - This week it’s time to get off the couch and get out into nature or out onto the field. Now is the perfect time to get out and conquer the world with your favorite summer sports. Find a trail to hike, a river to paddle, a ball to toss, or a race to win. You don't have to scale mountains or go somewhere exotic or far away, just look for something fun to do at a local park. You could even try your hand and the fast-moving subjects of sports photography. Go out there and show us your outdoor fun.
Project52 2018 Week 29: Lazy Days - What kind of scene helps you relax? Maybe it’s an easy chair and blanket, a serene glimpse of nature, or a steaming cup of tea. Whatever it may be, please share yours and help your fellow photographers relax.
Project52 2018 Week 28: Fashion - Avant-garde to commercial to traditional, and everything in between. The focus of your image this week should be the clothes. Show us a model on the runway, a classic studio magazine pose, or anything else that really highlights the outfit.
Project52 2018 Week 27: Danger - This week, share a photo that says Danger! to you. A view down the steep hill you're about to bike, the last piece of cake that’s in danger of being eaten, signage in your town warning you about gigantic sword-toting shrubbery, there are lots of places you can take this, not all of them scary. I'm girding my loins!
Project52 2018 Week 26: Half - We are now halfway through this 52 image project. In the spirit of this mathematical importance, this week's theme is Half. This week, share an image that has two clear halves, literally or figuratively.
Project52 2018 Week 25: Bokeh - A shallow depth of field is often used to isolate the subject. Show us an artistic interpretation using shallow depth of field. You can take Bokeh shots in portraits, macro work, still life, nature… really any type of photography you like, there is something for everyone!
Project52 2018 Week 24: Experimental - This theme is as wide open as the prairie sky. How will you portray “Experimental”? Will it be the fresh lemon-cranberry scones you whipped up, tired of the usual blueberry muffins? Will it be a close-up of the piano where you just composed an original in a key new to you? Will it be capturing a subject using varying compositions or photographic techniques? Regardless of how you choose to show us “Experimental,” I'm looking forward to seeing the results.
Project52 2018 Week 23: Wanderlust - This week, share a photo that represents travel to you. Whether you're crossing borders or visiting a nearby neighborhood for the first time, we would love to see how you capture these new environments and interactions!
Project52 2018 Week 22: Up Close and Personal - For those of you itching to show off your street photography chops here is your chance. For this week's theme, you could get right up into the face of the subject with a small mm lens or stand back and use your high mm lens to watch the events unfolding. It is time to get outside your comfort zone and do something you don't normally do, stretch your limits, that’s where the real growth will occur.
Project52 2018 Week 21: Ooh, Shiny - Like a dog that sees a squirrel and jerks the leash out of its owner’s hand to chase it, I just can't help but get excited, and sidetracked, by butterflies delicately flapping in the breeze or a spraying fountain in the park. I photograph them at every opportunity. What about you: what is guaranteed to distract you? What is your “Ooh, shiny!”?
Project52 2018 Week 20: Get Low - Time to look at the world from a different angle. Shoot a landscape from a low point of view or get down on the level of a child to put things in perspective.
Project52 2018 Week 19: Transmogrify - It's relatively easy to take photos of things which are beautiful and inherently interesting like sunsets, puppies, children, flowers, etc. But to photograph everyday, ordinary, boring things and make them look interesting and aesthetically pleasing to the viewer, is a bit harder. This week, your theme is transmogrifying. Transform. Morph. Change. Show us something already transformed, on the cusp of transformation, or that you wish you could transform. Make the ordinary look extraordinary
Proejct52 2018 Week 18: Backyard - Tell the story of your immediate surroundings. Give us a glimpse into your daily life. You don't just have to take a picture of your yard, focus in on something (or someone) in it. I'm expecting to see macro work, wildlife, pets, portraits and much much more!
Project52 2018 Week 17: Unbalanced - This week's challenge is all about design and composition. For this challenge, share an image without any symmetry. Don't limit yourself to architecture, you can bend this theme in any way you'd like. You should work to show off an unusual way of looking at the world, maybe an off-center composition creating a sense of movement without actually capturing motion itself. I look forward to seeing your experimenting with unexpected points of views.
Project52 2018 Week 16 Weird Stock Photo - if you've ever spent time looking through stock photo databases you will have noticed more than a few that stuck out among all the smiling models playing tennis and eating salad. How many businesses really need a "future women loving corn", or "happy mourner at casket", or "woman snorting baking ingredients"? Show us the weirdly funny side of photos designed to be licensed for cheap from mass download sites. What product or service will you try to advertise with your image?
Project52 2018 Week 15: Rare - For this week’s challenge, share a photo of something rare: a family heirloom, a cloudy day in a normally sunny desert, a sad frown on a cheerful kid’s face, or anything else you think of as scarce and singular. I can't wait to see what “rare” means to you!
Project52 2018 Week 14: Behind the Scenes - Following up on the last two weeks, your challenge this week is to go behind the curtain and show us how it all is done. What does the hidden world that makes it all work look like? Show us the ropes, helping hands, and lots of duct tape of the less glamorous side of show-business
Project52 2018 Week 13: Outtakes/Bloopers - Following up on last week, your challenge this week is to go behind the curtain and show us the mistakes, the pratfalls, the silly faces that come with not quite hitting the right mark. You should push yourself and your equipment to the limit and try to see the world from a new angle and capture the laughs, tripping, etc. from when the mask breaks and the perfectly choreographed dance is forgotten.
Project52 2018 Week 12: All the World's a Stage - The Bard's famous line is often paraphrased in the context of photography to remind us about storytelling in our art. For this week's challenge, you should get back to the roots of that sentiment and show us a scene ripped right from the theater. Show us what it is like to always be in the limelight.
Project52 2018 Week 11: Rust - Rust is the worst enemy of any classic car owner, but it's also evidence of nature in the industrial age—an urban rot with occasionally beautiful side effects. Show us that beauty hidden under the sorrow of the forsaken forms in our modern world.
Project52 2018 Week 10: First Thing in the Morning - This week your photography challenge is to take and share a photo that represents a morning routine. It might be a picture of the first thing you see, or of you in the mirror just after waking up. Use your imagination, use your humor, use your creativity. Bonus points to those who think beyond the usual sunrise photo.
Project52 2018 Week 9: Noir - The term film noir may instantly conjure cinematic scenarios but it is also a still photography style, largely informed by the movies of the same classification. At the heart of noir is a dramatic story, often filled with crime and sexual exploits. Show us a world that is moody, dark and dramatic. Film noirs tended to use low-key lighting schemes producing stark light/dark contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning.
Project52 2018 Week 8: Take Cover - There is no place like home. ... or at least a picnic shelter, covered bridge, etc. to keep you safe and sheltered from the elements. For this week's challenge, share a photo of a place of protection, a cave of comfort, a windbreak wall... It could be the place where you live, a place to pass through, or a more abstract representation.Can't wait to see what you do with this challenge!
Project52 2018 Week 7: Purple - Your inspiration this week is purple. Purple is the color of royalty, magic, and mystery. What about this color makes you passionate enough to take note?
Project52 2018 Week6: Repurpose - For this challenge, show us something you've put to new use. Perhaps it’s as simple as the matchbook that supports the short leg of your chair. It could be the shedding hair you comb from your dog that will warm the birds’ nests around you. All out of clever? Look to your family, friends, and neighbors — what canny bit of DIY recycling ingenuity has recently impressed you?
Project52 2018 Week 5: Mirror - This week, show us a mirror. You can take this photo challenge literally, and find reflections in mirrors, or in the stillness of a natural body of water. Some skyscrapers are beautifully reflective of the cityscape around them. Or, use this challenge to take a photo of yourself in the mirror. Self-documentation is important, especially for those of us who are usually behind the lens. Enjoy!
Project52 2018 Week 4: Waiting - A photograph often captures the moment — the exact second that two lovers kiss on a street corner, or a gymnast extends both legs in mid-air into a perfect split, or a hummingbird hovers over a flower to drink its nectar. But some of my favorite images are quiet and still; they focus on the moment before the action and capture the anticipation, or the rumination, or the calm before the storm.For this challenge, show us what waiting looks like to you. There are so many angles and interpretations — we look forward to seeing yours!
Project52 2018 Week 3: What is it? - For this week’s photo challenge, your job is to confuse and confound us. Show us an image of some common object in such an unusual way (light, framing, etc.) that we will have absolutely no idea what it is. I want you to break from the norm and show us the unusual in the everyday world around us. This theme is wide open to interpretation because only you know what is strangely unusual to you.
Project52 2018 Week 2:...Worth 1,000 Words - Your inspiration for this week is the classic idiom "A picture is worth a thousand words". Pictures that tell a story are often used in advertising but also in fine-art photography to visualize a concept and represent an idea. Your challenge is to create a photograph that tells a story – specifically, one that is worth more than a short glib blurb. It will force you to think about the message and story your image is telling, and not so much on the technical stuff.
Project52 2018 Week 1: Your Story - For this challenge show us a scene that tells us something about yourself. Where has your story has taken you so far? Where will it take you in the future? Dig deep and show us an important truth about yourself.
