| Self Assignment
What are Self
Assignments and Why Do Them?
We all tend to get in creative ruts sometimes.
We start assuming too much about what we can and can't photograph, and
about the limits of our equipment, our film, and ourselves. These
assignments (hopefully) take you out of your comfort zone and get you
photographing things you might not normally shoot.
The only way to really learn is to do, and the
more film you put through your camera the better you'll get. Plus
you get the chance to win a bunch of film. This months winner
will get 20 rolls of the Professional film of their choice courtesy of
FujiFilm Professional.
| This Month - Statues Whether
gargoyles, modern art, or a tribute to great heroes of the past
statues can make interesting photo subjects. Created by artists with
an effort to capture the imagination statues are often dramatic. If
not we can often make them so with our lens. But statues are most
often located in city and town centers. Surrounding buildings can
create visual clutter that detracts from the final
image.
Therein lies the challenge in getting dramatic images of
statues. You can't simply frame up the composition you think will
work best and you can't say "just stand over there." Well
actually you can but statues are notoriously hard of hearing. You'll need to play with angles and focal lengths to control
your background. Fill the frame with the same statue from the same
angle at both 20mm and 200mm and you'll get two drastically
different images. So once again we're going to get you out there
challenging your assumptions and playing with compositions (tricky
devils aren't we).
And don't forget to try different perspectives. If you just can't
find an angle to get rid of those buildings try getting down low and
using the sky for your background. Or maybe, as in the image of
Atlas below, the buildings and background become an important part
of the image itself. Those of you who are in or near
urban settings will have more options with this contest. There are
literally thousands of statues in center city Philadelphia for
example. But
those of you who live in small towns may be shocked at how many
statues you start to see now that you're looking. They're
everywhere!
Film Types
Negative, slide, or digital are all
OK. Images can be color or black and white.
Lens Types (35mm format used as a reference)
Any lens.
|
Rules
Each month we pick several photos from the previous month's contest that
we think are worthy of publication. Photos should be submitted by email
in JPEG format, and should be no larger than 1400x1400 pixels, 24 bit
color (1.4MB). Overly large images will not be reviewed. Panoramic
images may exceed 700 pixels in one direction but should not exceed
1.4MB in total file size. Photos should be submitted no later than
the end of the month.
Submission of a photo will be considered a defacto release for
publication.
Please include the following in
your email:
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Vivid Light
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