2025 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 "Still Life" Feb "Nostalgia"
Mar "Picception" Apr "Urban Photography" May "Architectural Detail" Jun "Minimalism" July "Long Exposures" Aug "Pattern & Textures" Sept "Unique perspective" Oct "Nature" Nov "Whimsical / Humorous" Dec "Slide show" |
Please note: To share theme and other photos, please read How to Submit Images
January: Still Life
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Still life photography is the depiction of inanimate subjects artistically arranged or as found in the field. Consider having at least one of each type. Arranged still-life images can be compelling when they convey meaning that allows the viewer to connect the image in some way. Found still-life can be in natural or urban settings, in and around homes or businesses, industrial parks, and so forth. Consider having at least one of each type.
Although perfectly acceptable, do not feel trapped into producing the typical wine bottle, moldy cheese, and fruit image; the family bible; or granddad’s pipe and pocket watch. Consider mugs, cups, and steins for still life subjects. Use your favorites at home or find interesting subjects at a store or flea market that sells drinking vessels. |
February: Nostalgia
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Nostalgia a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period, place, or object with happy or sometimes bittersweet personal associations. One of the best ways to capture a sense of nostalgia in your photos is to shoot in places that evoke memories like old buildings, vintage cafes, or childhood haunts. Also consider including vintage items like old cameras, retro furniture, classic cars, old toys or clothing in your photos.
Achieve a more nostalgic look to your photos in post processing. Adjust the saturation of your images. Warm, muted tones such as sepia, faded greens, and subtle pastels create an instant nostalgic vibe reminiscent of old photographs. Introduce film grain and subtle textures to mimic the organic feel of film photography. Embrace soft, diffused lighting and gentle shadows to create a romantic feel. Finally, opt for a black-and-white approach to enhance a nostalgic atmosphere. One final word: please do not include old family photographs for this theme. |
March: Picception
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Picception images incorporate another camera or photo within your photograph. It can be a picture-in-a-picture style or something more subtle, like a photograph of someone taking a photograph. You might consider utilizing double exposure techniques. Or the use of actual physical frames as well as your phone’s camera might be an interesting way to approach this challenge.
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April: Urban Photography
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Urban photography depicts the essence of city life through the diverse range of interesting subjects found on bustling city streets, as well as quiet alleyways and hidden corners. It combines aspects of architecture, street, portrait, landscape, fine art, and documentary photography.
In street photography a person or multiple people are depicted in candid, unstaged photos as they interact in their environment. In contrast, urban photography doesn’t need to include people as long as elements of city life are depicted. Thus, every street photography image is almost always also considered urban photography whereas not all urban pictures are necessarily street photography. Get creative with your angles and perspectives. Playing around with unique perspectives (see September’s theme) is an excellent step in the right direction if you want your photos to stand out and capture viewers’ attention. By exploring a city with a curious and open mind you’ll develop a keen eye for the little things that make each location special. Things to look for as you wonder about a city are storefronts, reflections in windows, signs, shadows, trash, landmarks, and, of course, people. |
May: Architectural Detail
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Architectural detail photography focuses on the small parts of buildings that often go unnoticed and you can find and Isolate shapes, colors, and repetitive and unique features in almost any building such as the texture of a wall, the detailed work around windows or on a pillar, or the color of details of a door. Small details add a lot of personality and beauty to a building and are often characteristic of a specific architectural style or period.
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June: Minimalism
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Minimalism is a 20th century art style employing a minimal number of compositional elements such as color, shape, line and texture. Minimalist photography is about selecting a subject and reducing the composition to only what’s needed to communicate its meaning; clean and uncluttered, offering a sense of peacefulness and order.
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July: 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. 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). 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 you are 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. 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 and are available as phone Apps. For night sky images it is often necessary to take two exposures, one for the sky and another illuminating the foreground |
August: Patterns & Textures
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This month’s theme invites you to take pictures that leave the viewer scratching their head. Photographing an everyday object from an unusual angle can disguise what a subject is. By unusual angle we mean from a perspective that we don’t normally view the object. Looking vertically down or vertically upwards can often mislead the viewer. Another technique to confuse is the absence of something to give the viewer a sense of scale. Close-ups and Macro shots allow the photographer to reveal details that may not normally be perceived; close cropping can further obscure what it is.
When revealed, the viewer will hopefully say – Oh, now I see it! |
September: Unique Perspectives
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Patterns provide structure and form to objects, while textures add depth and dimension. Together, they can make an image feel alive, whether you're capturing the rough texture of a cobblestone street or the smooth, repetitive lines of modern architecture.
Patterns are very predictable, and can become boring. Therefore, something which disrupts the rhythm and harmony of a pattern will draw attention and become the subject of the image. This can be a different colored tile in a uniformly tiled floor or a single wilting flower in a bed of blooming ones. Texture is strongly influenced by light. Strong directional light defining contrast between shadow and highlight makes an object’s texture standout. Examples of subjects exhibiting strong textural elements are brick or stone walls, rusting vehicles, tree bark and knots, peeling painted surfaces, thickly layered oil paintings, beach sand, rope formations, tree stumps, leafy plants, grain and hay fields, abstract backgrounds or reflections, shells and stones, fungi, canyon walls, waterfalls, and fabric. |
October: 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. |
November: Whimsical - Humorous
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Everyone from time to time captures a whimsical or humorous photograph. These could be of people, pets or wild animals caught in the act of doing something silly, or that we interpreted as looking silly. Humorous images can also depict funny events or by the juxtaposition of contradictory or opposing objects.
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