All posts by John Doranski

It’s time to get creative, people! This is one of those challenges that demand creativity and storytelling. The intent is not to simply document a vehicle and submit.

What modes of transportation inspire you? What are some of the non-obvious modes of transportation? What creative angle could you capture your story? How can you think outside of the box?

You could take your shot from inside a vehicle. Under a vehicle. It doesn’t even have to be a vehicle, it could be a horse! Try light-painting an abandoned car at night. Try panning a fast moving vehicle (like the photo above). Take a photo about transportation, without showing any mode of transportation! How about a first-person view of a bobsled driver? Don’t just take a photo of a bus or car and submit, craft your story, flex your unique voice,  and create something special.

Shooting fast-moving action? Remember to use a fast shutter speed (like 1/1000 or faster). Getting the detail of a cracked leather seat? Perhaps slap on a macro lens, or use the flower setting on your phone. If you are going after the “extra challenge” this week of panning, I advise a 1/20 shutter speed to start, tuck in your elbows tight to your body, and pivot 180 degrees from your waist up. Then spray and pray.

Wingardium Leviosa! With a flick and a swish (and a little Harry Potter), you might be able to convince us things are floating this week!

First of all, Levitation photography is NOT as difficult as it may seem! This fun technique opens up endless possibilities and storytelling opportunities. (We love telling stories without words!) Imagine a book floating above a reader’s hands, a dancer suspended in mid-jump, or everyday objects defying gravity. This challenge allows you to blend reality with fantasy, creating mesmerizing and surreal images. And you don’t need fancy editing software to achieve some wonderful photos!

To achieve the levitation effect, you can use various techniques:

• Jump Shots: Capture your subject in mid-jump to create the illusion of levitation. (recommended shutter speed: 1/1000th or faster)
• Props and Supports: Use invisible strings, clear supports, or edit out props in post-processing.
• Composite Photography: Combine multiple images using layer masks in your photo-editing software to achieve a seamless levitation effect.

Planning and creativity are key to a successful levitation shot. Think about your concept and how to make the levitation look realistic and magical. Pay attention to lighting, shadows, and perspective to enhance the illusion.

For an Extra Challenge (EC), we encourage you to utilize Layer Masks in your post-processing. Layer Masks are a powerful tool that can help you create more precise and realistic levitation effects by allowing you to blend different images seamlessly. If you’ve been wanting to learn to use your software program, this is a great time to (extra) challenge yourself!

Just the Facts:  Photograph (yourself) a beautiful view during the seven days of the challenge and submit before the deadline. 

“Just look at that view, it’s so beautiful!” If those are words you’ve uttered before, you have a headstart on this week’s  challenge theme. Always, we’re encouraging you to find that Creative Framer within and let them loose with your camera. 

Maybe it’s the garden with the harvest coming in, a field of flowers, or a snowy mountain. Whatever your beautiful view, we’re excited to have you share the story with us!

For the Extra Challenge, we’re asking you to engage us with the foreground of that Beautiful View. This could be a person, an object, or a natural feature like a flower, rock formation, or tree. The addition of a foreground element adds depth and context, transforming a simple view into a compelling story.

A mating pair of Cardinals decided to build a nest in my grape vines outside my front door – giving me a great opportunity to capture both pairs and the new one (it is rather ugly!).

These photos were taken at Stillhouse Hollow Lake in Harker Heights, Texas

Just the Facts:  You have 7 days to think creatively and shoot a scene that appears distorted somehow. Shoot the photo yourself during the week of the challenge, and don’t use AI to create your masterpiece, of course.

Distortion can transform an ordinary scene into an abstract piece of art. This week we want you to tell your story in an unconventional way.

A slow shutter speed can help create a dreamier focus, while overexposing can offer a high-key more abstract product. Speaking of abstract, this is a great time to use ICM (intentional camera movement) to get streaks and swirls in your scene. Use a mirror, use a prism, shoot OUT of focus,  get weird here! 

Experiment! Don’t be afraid to try a technique you haven’t tried before. Distortion is all about pushing boundaries, and there are lots of ways to challenge yourself here. Check our Extra Challenge “Vaseline” for something really fun and different! Apply vaseline to your lens for a hazy look, but PLEASE use a filter or saran wrap (glad wrap / cling film) to keep your lens safe!

Think about your subject. Some subjects (architecture, nature, portraits) just lend themselves more naturally to distortion to change the perception.

Tell a story. Don’t forget about the story or the emotion you want your image to convey to the viewer. Do you want to create Chaos? Confusion? Serenity? Amazement? A picture really can be worth a thousand words when done well.

Just the Facts:  You have 7 nights to take a “night” photo and what that looks like for you. The viewer should know it is night by the scene you set.

This week, we’re going to ask you to worry less about the sunrise and sunset and more about that time when the world is so much stiller than any other – Night! Night Photography is a time to capture the stillness in a serene landscape, the activity of life after dark in the city, and so many other moments only nocturnal.

The key here is often a slower shutter speed, so you can set your camera on a TRIPOD, or any FLAT SURFACE, and turn your dial to Tv, S, or M and lower that shutter speed. Think “seconds” as opposed to “fractions of a second”. Your settings should allow enough light in to expose properly without having to raise your ISO.

If you have a newer, or higher-end camera, you could rely on higher-ISO settings, coupled perhaps with a lens that shoots with a wide aperture, like f/1.4, which can you get you sharp night scenes without the tripod.

Here are a few ideas to get those creative juices going:

Cityscapes and Urban Nightlife: The vibrant lights of the city, bustling streets, and architectural wonders illuminated by streetlights.

Natural Landscapes: Moonlit mountains, starry skies over serene lakes, or the silhouette of trees against a glowing horizon.

Light Trails: Experiment with long exposures to capture the dynamic movement of car lights, stars, or other sources of motion.

Reflections: Utilize the reflections in water, glass, or any reflective surfaces to add depth and interest to your photos.

Night Portraits: Create dramatic portraits with unique lighting techniques, such as using a single light source or incorporating creative shadows.

Our Extra Challenge this week is Astrophotography, and even if *Perseid isn’t in your skies, the Milky Way or star trails will make for spectacular photos for those who must sleep at night. Imagine what bats and opossums see every single night! Find a dark location away from the lights of the city for your best astrophotography options.

*While we originally chose this challenge to give you a chance to look for Perseid, we still hope you’ll do that. After consulting with photographers who know their astro stuff, it was decided that the new moon this week at the beginning of Perseid was a better choice. Next week will be brighter, could have cloudy skies, and we’d all be disappointed. 

Just the Facts:  You have 7 days to take a photo of a door. 

All I have to do is take a picture of a door? Sweet, I won’t let it hit me on the way out!

Door seems like too easy of a challenge, doesn’t it? But it’s not as easy as you might think at first. Our goal is for you to capture an image in your camera that showcases the beauty, the character, or the story of a door. Maybe it’s a weathered door having opened and closed on many stories, or maybe it’s a door that takes us into the next generation. It’s more than just a piece of wood that opens and closes in a space.

Or perhaps there’s a story to this door. Perhaps it is the story of the person who just left. Or the person who is just coming in. Think of a scene in a movie where the camera is slowly zooming in on a closed door. There’s a lot more going on in the viewer’s brain besides the simple details of this apparatus.

Look for unique doors, to start with, those with great textures and designs, or those with historical significance. 

Perhaps you make your own door. Perhaps it’s small in scale, and you can incorporate your own lighting into this small scene.

The time of day you shoot will be worth considering. Maybe visit the location at different times of the day to see the different moods created with the light, and watch for the shadows that can elevate the moodiness in a blink of an eye. 

Also think about your angle. Shooting the door straight on might seem sensible, but watch what happens when you change your angle – get low, get wide, or get close to show a portion of the door that is most interesting.

Maybe you can involve someone with the door, entering or exiting, or standing there to show us the scale of one to the other. It all adds up to a great story, after all. 

This theme is open for you to have fun and let your creativity flow. Open your mind.

Just the Facts:  You have 7 days to create a photograph with your camera that prominently features an odd number of main subjects.

This week’s challenge is all about math! Thank Cardano (16th century) for teaching us about odds leading to a more balanced and harmonious outcome, and the same can be said for employing odds in our photography.

The Rule of Odds says that a composition should have an odd number of objects (people, animals, things), instead of an even number, and it suggests that images are more visually appealing when composed with an odd number of subjects. Maybe they mean that it feels right in our brain.

• Think in Threes: Start with three subjects as a simple and effective way to practice this rule.
• Arrange with Purpose: Place your subjects in a way that guides the viewer’s eye through the image.
• Balance and Harmony: Use the odd number to create a sense of balance while maintaining visual interest.

Whether you choose three flowers, five people, or seven stones, make sure your composition leverages the power of odd numbers to draw the viewer’s eye and create interest. You as the director have a lot of power to control where the viewer is looking.

If you decide to go for the Extra Challenge, look for interactions with an odd number of people chatting in the coffee shop, children or dogs playing in the park, or maybe you’ll see an odd number of musicians playing music. Street scenes are full of life and stories and oddities!

Get creative, have fun, and embrace the odd!

Just the Facts:  We each have 7 days to photograph our subject/scene using the Rule of Thirds principle. We should think about placing our main elements on the grid (think tic-tac-toe board). Midnight in NY (eastern) is the deadline, so plan for it!

The Rule of Thirds is a fundamental principle of composition that suggests dividing your image into nine equal parts using two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines. By placing important elements along these lines or at their intersections, you can create more balanced and visually appealing photos.

You want to take a photo that prominently uses the Rule of Thirds. Align your subjects with the grid lines or at the intersections to create a dynamic and compelling composition.

Tips for Success:

• Horizons: Position the horizon on either the upper or lower third line to add depth and interest to your landscapes.
• Subjects: Place key elements, like people or objects, along the vertical or horizontal lines, or where the lines intersect.
• Balance: Use the Rule of Thirds to distribute elements evenly across the frame, avoiding the monotony of centered compositions.

Examples:

• Landscapes: Align the horizon with the top or bottom third line, and place focal points like trees or buildings at the intersections.
• Portraits: Position the subject’s eyes along the top third line and their body along a vertical line.
• Street Photography: Capture scenes where main elements, like people or architectural features, align with the grid.

“To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart. It’s a way of life.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson

Embrace the Rule of Thirds to align your vision and create impactful compositions!