2023 Monthly Themes
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Theme assignments are designed to move you out of your comfort zone to try something new. Some themes are selected to be relatively easy while others are more challenging and may require special equipment (e.g. neutral density filters) or familiarity with editing software. Ideally, members should bring showcase quality theme photos to club meetings, but quality is less important than demonstrating you have learned from the challenges. Theme images should be recent, taken within the past year, as they are meant to reflect our growth in the art and craft of photography.
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Jan "Buried treasures" Feb "Feet"
Mar "Mirrors" Apr "Soft Focus" May "Dots, Dashes & Jun "Motion" Diagonals" Jul "One Color" Aug "Long Exposures" Sep "Nature" Oct "Creative Flash" Nov "Conceptual Photography" Dec "Slide show" |
Please note: To share theme and other photos, please read How to Submit Images
January: Buried Treasures
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You won’t need a treasure map nor be required to take new pictures for January’s theme. This treasure hunt entails searching for hidden gems among the image files already stored on your computer.
Photographers often overlook really good images when hurrying to go through processing a lot of images from a photoshoot or trip. At other times an image is under-appreciated because it fails to live up to the photographer’s expectations at the time it was created, or his aesthetic values have changed. Finally, an image may have had some exposure or compositional issues that can now be overcome by newer software or by acquiring better image editing skills. In any case, you probably have lots of older images that would benefit from a fresh view to yield a bounty of hidden gems. Immense satisfaction lies in finding good pictures that you never developed or only partially worked on and abandoned for whatever reason; make these images your first priority. Then look for images that immediately strike you as poorly processed and have the potential to jump off the screen when processed with a new eye. |
February: Feet
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Feet, paws, hooves, talons, flippers, or trotters, are the primary mode of locomotion for animals on land. Get motivated and put your best foot forward to capture interesting photographs of feet.
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March: Mirrors
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Mirrors reflect what is in front of them. However, that reflection will change if the mirror is tilted, partially obscured, fractured into pieces, or if pieces lost.
A mirrored image may suggest what is behind it, or not actually there. A tree line mirrored in the surface of a lake may be distorted by wind or a splash of a fish. The mirroring of a street scene in an oiled slick may reflect colors. The image of a sunset may be mirrored in windows. Tall building windows may reflect the outline of another building distorted by the angle of the windows themselves. |
April: Soft Focus
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Using soft focus techniques can add an ethereal quality to your photographs. There are several ways to achieve this softer effect. Here are some of these techniques: 1) reduce the clarity of your photo by moving that slider in Lightroom: 2) Add a radial blur filter: 3) increase the vibrance: 4) increase the exposure around your light source with a radial gradient: 5) Add an Orton effect: 5) attach a UV filter to the lens then apply Vaseline to the outer edge of the filter or to the entire filter.
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May: Dots, Dashes &
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For this month’s theme you are asked to consider dots, dashes and/or diagonals as subjects of your compositions. Diagonals refer to any slanted lines that appear in a photo and are pretty easy to find as many scenes include a strong diagonal or two. Plus, any straight line can be turned into a diagonal simply by tilting your camera. However, when composing diagonals try to avoid placing them in the corners of the frame.
Images featuring dots and/or dashes may require a stretch of imagination. Raindrops on glass or metal surfaces; rivets, bolts or rust spots on metal structures; small birds on a telephone line; imperfections on fruits or vegetables; or architectural embellishments on buildings may be envisioned as dots or dashes. Go shooting with dots, dashes and diagonals in the front of your mind and you will be surprised to find suitable theme subjects at almost every turn. |
June: Motion
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Movement in photography simply refers to elements of a photo that are moving or appear to be moving to help tell a story. You might portray movement by capturing an image of a skateboarder in the air, a car driving on the street, or a person running on the sidewalk. You can capture a sense of motion by 1) panning on the moving object; 2) using in-camera motion, called motion blur, when the camera or zoom feature of the lens are intentionally moved while on a still object; 3) imply motion by using multiple exposures, either in-camera or using post processing software or: 4) by using a fast shutter speed to freeze the motion of a rapidly moving subject.
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July: One Color
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If you're searching for inspiration for a set of photographs, choose a color and go out and take a series of pictures of that color- it can be similar objects or totally different subjects, but the linking color theme means that they will work together as a group.
In choosing a theme, try writing down a color and then listing as many things as possible that are of that color. As a suggestion, try some of the following:
When you take a single color as a subject, you need to ensure that the composition is strong in terms of shapes, textures and lines to counteract the lack of color range so look carefully and spend time composing your images. Also, try going abstract, perhaps using camera movement to take away "reality" and emphasize the "color". Single color photos are monochrome - so no need to include B&W, unless you want to. |
August: Long Exposures
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Long-exposure photography involves using slow shutter speeds to blur, smear, or obscure moving elements of a composition while stationary elements remain sharp. Exposure times may range from a little under a second to blur fast moving objects, such as rapidly flowing water, to many minutes or hours to capture cloud movement or star trails.
Unless shooting in low light, taking long exposures usually requires neutral density (ND) filters to reduce light striking the sensor. ND filters from 2 to 10 f-stops, or more, may be needed to achieve the desired effect, and sometimes it may even be necessary to stack ND filters. Long exposures normally require a stable camera mounted on a tripod or placed on a stable surface; an exposure calculator is useful to calculate exposure times greater than 30 seconds. For night sky images it is often necessary to take two exposures, one for the sky and another illuminating the foreground. Painterly impressionistic images can also be achieved with a long exposure by deliberately moving or shaking the camera in various ways while the shutter is open (Intentional Camera Movement). |
September: Nature
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Nature photography refers to images of a wide range of subjects taken outdoors and overlaps the fields of wildlife, landscape, and garden photography. Nature photography tends to put a stronger emphasis on the aesthetic value of the photo than other photography genres, such as photojournalism and documentary photography.
Wildlife photography is all about capturing animals in their natural habitats. Animals are often photographed in action, such as eating, fighting, or in flight. Alternatively, more static portraits may be used to show detail of the animal or to depict it in its environment. Captive or controlled animals are often photographed instead of true wild specimens, although it is arguable as to whether this constitutes true wildlife photography. Don’t forget to consider landscape photographs featuring dramatic cloud formations or abstract nature images where subject details are isolated and out of context. However, remember that in nature photography it is usually expected that subjects will be realistically depicted. However, this doesn't mean you can't use artistic approaches in nature photography such as blurring techniques, for example, to portray an animal’s motion. |
October: Creative Flash
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While adding light to a scene, flash photography can also freeze action as well create other interesting results. The light from a flash can be filtered for color. Multiple flashes, both on and off camera, can achieve a multiplicity of lighting effects such as illuminating a scene from behind to create interesting lighting. A flash can be fired at the beginning or end of the shutter interval over a long exposure depending some desired effect. Flash photography has been used to capture critical events such as a collision or or projectile hitting a target.
Using long exposure to capture ambient light, while adding flash to freeze action is a method sometimes used to create unusual motion effects and can be achieved using either on camera flash, or studio flash. Commonly used by event photographers, bouncing the flash off ceilings and walls can soften the harshness of the light making the flash seem to contribute a soft ambient light. |
November: Conceptual Photography
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Conceptual art photography begins with a concept - something the photographer wants to portray with visual imagery. There are no boundaries beyond that. But, when you dive deeply into the topic, it becomes clear that this simple foundation makes conceptual photography ideas very different from other photography forms. Fine art photography is often confused with conceptual artworks. Conceptual photography ideas are certainly one type of fine art photography. In other words, all conceptual photos are fine art photos, but not all fine artworks are conceptual. For some great examples take a look at these links:
70 Imaginative Examples Of Conceptual Photography (tutsplus.com) 41 NEW Examples of Creative Conceptual Photography (shotkit.com). |