Vivid Light Photography Online

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 some cool stuff. This months winner will get 20 rolls of the Professional film courtesy of FujiFilm Professional, and a copy of Jasc's Paint Shop Pro.

Runners up will receive 10 rolls of the Professional film of their choice courtesy of FujiFilm Professional, and a copy of Jasc's Paint Shop Pro.

Christmas cards, or Holiday Cards, depending on your situation are an old tradition and photo cards have been with us for quite a while.

This month's self assignment is to create a unique Holiday greeting card. You can go the traditional route using Christmas, holiday or religious images or you can get creative and go for a little humor. Think of yourself as a professional photographer who's on assignment for Hallmark!

Getting creative with Photoshop is not only permitted, it's encouraged! We gave Gary Stanley the opportunity to play with the idea and he came up with some of the ideas shown below. We also picked out some shots from past contest winners that would make good holiday cards.

This time around the contest extends until January 7th so you can get in shots from Christmas morning. Be creative, be serious, be wacky - but most of all have fun!

Some of Gary's Ideas
(evidently all that New England snow does something to the mind)

Some Past Winners that Would Make Good Cards

Christmas Sparkle,
Vicki McLead

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.

Why Are You Asking for My Phone Number?

First let me say we don't require your number to enter the contest. The reason we're asking is that we're having a harder and harder time reaching the contest winners each month.

Sponsors (which vary from month to month) ask that we have the prize information on all winners before they send out the prizes (clothing size, film types, software choice, etc.) But every month we send out email after email to winners, many of which fall prey to spam filters, email filtering, or people doing bulk deletes of junk in their inboxes. A phone number would allow us to reach winners much more easily. We don't save or use numbers for anything other than contacting winners.

That said, we understand and respect your need for privacy. If you prefer not to share you number with us we understand and it will in no way affect your chances in the contest.

Good luck and good shooting,
Jim McGee
Publisher

Self Assignment Contest

What are Self Assignments and Why Do Them?