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 - Tools of the Trade

Take a unique perspective on where you work. Look at all those mundane items that you pass by everyday and think about unique ways of capturing them on film (or digitally). 

This contest isn't just limited to office workers. No matter where you work there are things that are part of everyday life. They are the tools of our trade. For some it's a telephone, for others a hammer and chisel and for some it's a camera. 

So over the next month take a hard look around. Then think about ways you could take a different slant on things. Wide angle lenses really lend themselves to this kind of assignment since you can use them to distort perspective. 

Telephotos offer some unique possibilities as well due to their ability to isolate subjects. And if you have a macro lens you really open up some possibilities (I never looked at a paper clip that way!). 

There are no restrictions on lens, camera, color or black and white. 

You'll never look at the Xerox machine the same way again!

Deadline
November 24th

Film Types
Color or black and white, film or digital.

Lens Types (35mm format used as a reference)
All

Rules
Each month we pick several photos from the previous month's contest that we think are worthy of publication. Feel free to enter more than one photo. 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. 

By entering the contest you are giving us permission to publish the your photo in the magazine, our back issues section, and any reprints of back issues.

Please include the following in your email:

• Name
  email address
  Brand & model of camera
  Brand & focal length of lens
  Brand & speed of film used (or specify digital)
  Scanner and/or scanning method
  How/if the image was manipulated digitally
  The story behind the image
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