Day Twenty-Two: Ages of Man

Friday, February 22nd: Time Changes Everything

Earlier this month I had you use the eye-level you had as a child...well today I'd like to take that concept further and have you photograph from the changes that our mindset brings. Photograph as if you're 10 years old, then 21, then 33, then 56 and finally 87. Some of those are within your lifespan, and some will probably be older, so you'll have a chance to use both your memory and your imagination. Keep in mind that what was (or is going to be) important to you was very different at each age...so that should impact what and how you make images. 

If you've just joined us, February is a 28 day creativity challenge with a new "prompt" each day to get you thinking in new ways. The goal is to just have fun, don't try to control too much, feel free to use a cell phone or any camera that's easy for you. Don't worry about the end results. With each prompt you can take it literally or not, you can wing it, google it, ask for people's opinions...whatever you want to do is perfect. Bottom line - it's supposed to be fun, there are no right or wrongs.

Day Twenty-One: Meanings

Thursday, February 21st: Finding Meaning

Today, I'd like you to choose one of the following words and illustrate it throughout the day. Even in putting together this list I realized that words and language are fairly personal, but I tried to find words that can have multiple meanings...and that's what I'd hope you'd try and do in your illustrations of them. And hey...if you're a rebel, feel free to choose more than one of the words!

Possession

Life

Energy

Frigid

Threat

Pressure

Warm

Bitter

Open

Silence

If you've just joined us, February is a 28 day creativity challenge with a new "prompt" each day to get you thinking in new ways. The goal is to just have fun, don't try to control too much, feel free to use a cell phone or any camera that's easy for you. Don't worry about the end results. With each prompt you can take it literally or not, you can wing it, google it, ask for people's opinions...whatever you want to do is perfect. Bottom line - it's supposed to be fun, there are no right or wrongs.

Day Twenty: Shadow World

Wednesday, February 20th:  Anything But...

Today you're going to photograph objects ... people ... buildings ... whatever, but you can't show the actual object in the shot. That might mean you're using its shadow, reflection, imprint...stretch your mind to find a way to photograph things without them being in the shot - remember it can be anything generated by the subject...but it just can't be the actual subject. 

If you've just joined us, February is a 28 day creativity challenge with a new "prompt" each day to get you thinking in new ways. The goal is to just have fun, don't try to control too much, feel free to use a cell phone or any camera that's easy for you. Don't worry about the end results. With each prompt you can take it literally or not, you can wing it, google it, ask for people's opinions...whatever you want to do is perfect. Bottom line - it's supposed to be fun, there are no right or wrongs.

Day Nineteen: Typology Tuesday Communication

Tuesday, February 19th:  Alphabet Soup

Most of us communicate through visual means - and the biggest one of them (and how you're reading this) is the alphabet. It's fairly amazing that with the use of 26 letters we can create everything from ransom notes to love poems. So, this week's typology is the alphabet - find the entire alphabet during the day - feel free to create any that you can't find. Also...it doesn't have to be the english language one...you could even make one up!

A typology is a collection where everything is the same type of thing. Think of it like a collection - that collection could be shapes/objects/places/parts...you name it. The only rule is that you compose each shot the same - so the "type" fills roughly the same amount of space in each frame, and is located in the same position. 

If you've just joined us, February is a 28 day creativity challenge with a new "prompt" each day to get you thinking in new ways. The goal is to just have fun, don't try to control too much, feel free to use a cell phone or any camera that's easy for you. Don't worry about the end results. With each prompt you can take it literally or not, you can wing it, google it, ask for people's opinions...whatever you want to do is perfect. Bottom line - it's supposed to be fun, there are no right or wrongs.

Day Eighteen: I M U

Monday, February 18th: Compassion

Very often one of the first subjects beginning photography students will want to photograph is the homeless. I completely understand that they feel it's a "real" subject ... and there's certainly a lot of "grit" to the subject. But, my concern is that they want to photography the homeless because of they are different...they are the "other."  So what I (usually) tell them is that "You need to go beyond that, I want you to photograph them for our similarities...not our differences." 

Today's prompt is compassion...look at your world with compassion and see how (if) that makes a difference in the kind of imagery you are drawn to make. Look for how "I am U" is played out, how you connect and recognize yourself in the world at large. 

If you've just joined us, February is a 28 day creativity challenge with a new "prompt" each day to get you thinking in new ways. The goal is to just have fun, don't try to control too much, feel free to use a cell phone or any camera that's easy for you. Don't worry about the end results. With each prompt you can take it literally or not, you can wing it, google it, ask for people's opinions...whatever you want to do is perfect. Bottom line - it's supposed to be fun, there are no right or wrongs.

Day Seventeen: Inspiration

Sunday, February 17th: Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog

Not all creative challenges are a direct call to action...some are about input as well. Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is a painting done in 1818 by Caspar David Friedrich, a German artist. It's a beautiful and romantic image of a man standing on a rocky point overlooking what seems to be miles of similar rocks and mountain tops in the distance. His back is to the viewer and yet the artist chose to make both the man and the set of rocks he's standing on the only fully saturated part of the image...so we are drawn to him and he retains a lot of visual strength. There is a peacefulness through the use of cool tones in the mid and background areas...while the foreground tones are warm and feel more human.

What's really interesting about this painting, in a larger context, is how many times you've seen it without ever being aware of it. There's a great set of referenced images on this Wiki-link that show the influence this painting has had on popular culture. Art History can be a wonderful reference and resource for us...so today's exercise is about doing a little bit of input, thinking about various types of images and how you might draw upon them to enrich your own image-making process. I'm having you look at painting because it's close enough to photography to be readily understandable and applicable.

I've put together a series of searches to get you started. When you do your own searches, remember when you "google" something, you then click on "images."

Sublime Painting (if you don't add the painting part you get a very different search!)

Gothic Painting 

Andrew Wyeth

If you've just joined us, February is a 28 day creativity challenge with a new "prompt" each day to get you thinking in new ways. The goal is to just have fun, don't try to control too much, feel free to use a cell phone or any camera that's easy for you. Don't worry about the end results. With each prompt you can take it literally or not, you can wing it, google it, ask for people's opinions...whatever you want to do is perfect. Bottom line - it's supposed to be fun, there are no right or wrongs.

Day Sixteen: The Eye of The Beholder

Saturday, February 16th: Beauty

Our ideas of beauty are cultural, they exist in the eye of the beholder. Today find a way to make images that sing with their beauty and also make some that push you away with disgust. Then, I challenge you to switch those two - make beautiful photographs of that which makes you cringe and ugly shots of beautiful items.  Is either of those two things harder? Does it change your ideas about the subjects? 

If you've just joined us, February is a 28 day creativity challenge with a new "prompt" each day to get you thinking in new ways. The goal is to just have fun, don't try to control too much, feel free to use a cell phone or any camera that's easy for you. Don't worry about the end results. With each prompt you can take it literally or not, you can wing it, google it, ask for people's opinions...whatever you want to do is perfect. Bottom line - it's supposed to be fun, there are no right or wrongs.