30 Day Photography Challenge

I came across this great 30 day photography challenge on Pinterest; if you haven't yet checked out Pinterest get on it, it's amazing! I changed the original 30 day challenge slightly, I removed a few of the subjects and added some of my own. The plan is to start the challenge on July 1, my hope is that some of you will also complete the challenge with me.

Think of this as less of a challenge and more of how you are inspired by the days subject, I find it so interesting to see how others interpret the same subject through their lens. You can take your daily photo and then upload it to your blog, Flickr page, or Facebook album and then leave a link back to your photo in the comments of that day's blog post.

This is a great way to inspire each other to continue shooting over the summer months and to see what friends, family and fellow classmates are doing.

30 Day Photography Challenge

Day1               The Color Red

Day 2              Movement

Day 3              Clouds

Day 4              Favorite Food

Day 5              Books

Day 6              Smile

Day 7              Flowers

Day 8              High Angle

Day 9              Low Angle

Day 10            Fruit

Day 11            Hands

Day 12            Sunflare

Day 13            Faceless Self Portrait

Day 14            Animal

Day 15            Close-up

Day 16            From a distance

Day 17            Black and White

Day 18            Where you Sleep

Day 19            Bokeh

Day 20            Feet

Day 21            Long Exposure

Day 22            Eyes

Day 23            Silhouette

Day 24            Someone you Love

Day 25            Technology

Day 26            Sunset

Day 27            Water

Day 28            Something Green

Day 29            Drink

Day 30            Self Portrait

Tonal Harmony - Muted Color

When thinking of muted colors what comes to mind? For me it was a whole lot of pastel. In doing this assignment I discovered I do not have a whole lot of pastel in my house so I looked to my six year old daughter for inspiration, I mean what little girl doesn't know how to pull off a head to toe pastel look! For example, light blue skinny jeans shot on a purple background with lilac painted toes, that's a whole lot of pastel right there!

My favourite shot has to be the one of the china teacup with the matching place setting in the background, this happens to be my Grandmother's china and when she and my Grandfather passed away I was honoured to receive one of her china place settings, I never saw my Grandmother use her good china, but as a child I would admire it in her kitchen china cabinet where it sat for my entire childhood and adult life.

For me this simple image of a china place setting stirs up so many wonderful memories of spending time with my grandparents in their home; that is what photography should be all about, capturing a moment or a memory through the lens that lasts a lifetime!

Tonal Harmony - Color is the Subject

Color is the subject was a great assignment; for those of you who really know me you'll be amazed to hear that I even got a bit crafty for this assignment. The image of the heart with the red background required me to carefully removed petals from red roses one at a time and arrange them in the shape of a heart and the blue liquid isn't some fancy cocktail created in my kitchen it's actually just blue food colouring mixed with water and the backgrounds seen in each of these images are good old bristle board, I have to give big props to my fellow photography classmates for all the great tips on how to easily and inexpensively create a great color is the subject shot!

Tonal Harmony - Cool Tone

If Warm Tones are are supposed to give you a feeling of warmth, what feeling do you think you should feel when viewing Cool Tones (this is a tough one)!

During this lesson I discovered that I need to study my colour wheel more closely, apparently green is a cool tone, I could have sworn it was a warm tone, but the colour wheel says otherwise. Below are my Tonal Harmony - Cool Tone Images.

Tonal Harmony - Warm Tones

Imagine a cold, blustery, Saskatchewan winter day and you happen to be looking at a picture of a sunset with really amazing colours or a picture of candles burning; does looking at that image on that cold day give you a feeling of warmth? If it does then you are looking at an image with warm tones and that is exactly what a warm image should do for the viewer.

For this assignment we had to shoot images using only warm tones, oranges, yellow, browns, etc. Normally you can mix some cool tones into an overall warm tone image, but for this assignment we had to once again stay true to Tonal Harmony and shoot only warm tones. For example, the shot below of the barn at sunset is a warm photo, the wood on the barn is warm, the sky is warm, but the little bit of green grass surrounding the barn is a cool tone so it was a warm tone photograph, but did not have tonal harmony (because I had warm and cool tones mixed in there). The shot of my Scentsy warmer and it's reflection on my countertop is a great example of a warm tone.

Tonal Harmony - Low Key

I like to compare low key lighting to an episode of Mad Men, it's should convey a mood of mystery surrounded by low lighting, can you picture it? This proved to be a bit of a challenge, I like some of my low key images, but don't really love any of them so I'll have continue to work away at creating the perfect low key shot.

For this assignment I was lucky enough to have an assistant to help me out, thanks to my oldest son for the help and for suggesting I photograph a pair of his black sneakers which ended up being one of my favourite shots!

Tonal Harmony - High Key

High Key photography is light and bright, for this exercise we had to shoot high key in it's truest form, think white on white. I typically like dark colours, my wardrobe consists of mostly darks and the walls in my house aren't painted white, off white or any shade of cream (they're grey if you're wondering) so to enjoy high key as much as I did took me by surprise. Below are my high key examples.

Elements of Design

I enjoyed shooting some elements of design more than others, I loved finding lines, colour, texture and cropping; but had a hard time with pattern and repetition (I still have a difficult time differentiating between the two).

While shooting these rules we ended up heading to Kelowna, BC for a family trip, I was happy to take some shots outside of Regina. I think it's difficult to come up with new and exciting images from your own hometown, I think every student in my class has at least one image of the legislative building, but what's interesting is to see the same building we all see through someone else's lens.

Can you tell which images are taken in Saskatchewan and which are taken in BC?

Creative Composition

Creative Composition lays the foundation for forming interesting images. I'm embarrassed to admit that before this particular photography assignment I had only applied one of the basic creative composition rules to my prior images (the rule of thirds), but that's why I'm taking classes to continue learning the art of photography. By getting out and shooting the rules of creative composition I no longer have to think how to make my photograph unique, the rules come so easily now and my images are stronger for it!