May 21, 2013
by Jonathan
0 comments
This week your challenge is make a study of hands, as suggested by Tomm.
They’re like faces, they tell so many things about the person. Plus, they’re easy to find, they’re usually at the end of one’s arms. And in many other places.
Please hand in your entries in by noon on Tuesday 28th May. Have fun!
May 21, 2013 by Jonathan | 6 Comments
Well done to everyone who entered this week. Please welcome Mateo Hernández Toledo as our newest member!
May 14, 2013
by Jonathan
12 Comments
Thanks to Ally for suggesting this week’s challenge, machinery.
Take a picture of a machine signifying the purpose of machinery in a modern age.
I’ll leave it up to you to decide what counts as a “machine”. Have fun with this one – please send your entries in by noon on Tuesday 21st May.
May 14, 2013 by Jonathan | 9 Comments
Wow – with 21 entries, I think this is our busiest ever week! Please give a warm welcome to our newest members, Georgia, Jo, Alan, Joe and Venser. I see some of you have already introduced yourselves on our say hello page, but if anyone else would like to say hi, you’re more than welcome. If you give the name of your town, I’ll put a marker on the map! If you could also have a glance at the usual rules that’d be great.
There’s a huge variety of interpretations of the simple theme this week. For those who aren’t familiar with how this works, people usually comment on other people’s work, say why they like it, and give a bit of feedback. This is one of the most important parts of the Photo Challenge.
May 7, 2013
by Jonathan
19 Comments
It’s been ages since we’ve had a colour theme, so we’ll go with Tomm‘s suggestion.
White. I like colour challenges, and white is probably one of the most present and ‘varied’ ‘colours’ we have around anyway. Which means we have many variations of white.
Please send your white-themed entries in by noon on Tuesday 14th May. Have fun! 
May 7, 2013 by Jonathan | 13 Comments
Thanks to everyone who entered this week. We’ve got nineteen fantastic entries, including two from Xandra and Ayla who have joined us for the first time this week. Welcome! 
For a bit of interest, I think it would be good if everyone can write a quick note in the comments to say what is “retro” about their picture – whether it is the subject matter or the photographic technique. And if you used an interesting technique – say a few words about how you did it.
April 30, 2013
by Jonathan
17 Comments
Thanks to Ollie for suggesting this week’s Challenge.
Take a photo that looks like it was taken years ago. I’ve tried this before and it was quite fun, but I did end up using quite a bit of post-processing.
According to our usual rules, you are allowed to edit your pictures after shooting, and this week is no exception! There will be a healthy dose of bonus points to anyone who shoots their entry on film
Please send your entries in by noon on Tuesday 7th May. Have fun with this one!
April 30, 2013 by Jonathan | 11 Comments
Thanks and well done to everyone who took part this week. How did you all find the technique of looking before snapping?
April 23, 2013
by Paul
15 Comments
We’ve had a few weeks worth of themes, so it’s about time we had another exercise designed to stretch your photography skills a little. Don’t worry, it’s not difficult and all you’ll need is a camera and 15 minutes of your time (so I suppose you’ll probably need a watch as well!)
Stage 1 – Find a location
You can do this exercise anywhere, in your garden, up a mountain, or if the weather isn’t so nice, in your living room or kitchen! Once you’ve found your location, sit down.
Stage 2 – Observation
Don’t get your camera out yet, you’ve got some preparation to do first!
I want you to spend a full 10 minutes looking at your surroundings. Really look closely. How does the light interact with objects nearby? What textures can you find? How does the setting feel? What details would you have missed if you’d just walked past? Does anything produce a natural “frame”?
Spend these 10 minutes to pick a subject and plan the shot you’re going to take. If you need to move around to find the best angle, do so! This stage is all about planning though, so don’t pick up your camera until the 10 minutes are up!
Stage 3 – Implementation
Now you can get your camera out!
Spend the next 5 minutes taking your photo. Move around the subject to get the best angle, frame it carefully. If you need to adjust anything in the scene (eg move a twig out of the shot, cast a shadow over part of the image) then now is the time to do so. Take as many shots as you need to get the shot you spent all that time planning. If you can get it in one shot, great! If it takes you 20 attempts, well that’s cool too. Just don’t get carried away and overrun your 5 minutes!
As with all challenges like this, if you don’t like the results you got from the first time you tried it feel free to repeat the exercise later in the week, but please don’t be tempted to cheat by skipping any stages, you won’t learn anything that way!
As usual, please send your entries in by noon on Tuesday 30th April. Good luck!
April 23, 2013 by Jonathan | 7 Comments
Sorry for the slightly late results this week. “Work” happened!
This week we have a fantastic 17 entries, including three from new people! Please welcome Kitzzy, Conor and Kevin. If you haven’t done so already, please have a quick look at the usual rules (don’t worry, nothing scary) and feel free to introduce yourselves on our say hello page.
Click on the photos to see them larger, and also to read the comments that people wrote about their own entries. We don’t usually publish text with photos but on this occasion it made a lot of sense.
