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 - Friendship

Can you capture emotions or feelings on film? 

Can you tell a story with a single image? 

The answer of course, is yes. But it can be a challenge to capture that one moment. This month's contest is to capture images of friendship. They should show the relaxed warmth and comfort that comes from time spent together and as the pictures here show there are lots of ways to capture those emotions.

You can focus on eyes and faces, you can pull back and capture a scene as with the two gentleman conversing on the bench or you can get close as one photographer did with these hands. Your only limit is your imagination.

One piece of advice though. These images rarely work when they're staged. The best images come from those unguarded moments when people's real emotions and feelings are laid bare before the camera.

Deadline
March 31st

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

Lens Types
All

Photo Credits
Man & Racoon, Donald Biresch
Two Dogs, Donna Eaton
Old Men, Eric Filion
Girls, Gary Stanley
Hands, Robyn Saur

All except for the old men and young girls are previous contest winners. 

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
  Enter Now

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