Monthly beAphotographer challenges are my new favorite thing because they have helped me become a better photographer I have always loved teaching – but doing workshops has been rather difficult for me. The hardest part is location, I am constantly everywhere and my life is quite unpredictable. But I have found a way to make it all work and I am happy that others are joining in.
Photo challenges played a big role in contributing to my initial interest and learning in photography. I used to submit to the site dpchallenge.com weekly when I was in high school. They give you a category, you photograph it during a certain week, upload it, and then vote/comment on the other entries. At the end of the week, the top voted entries were given awards for fun and you could see how you placed.
I found the challenges valuable for a few reasons. First, it was important for me to improve as a photographer – and the only way to do this was to keep shooting. I didn’t have much to shoot and wasn’t good at self assigning goals, so these challenges helped guide my learning. Here are some of my early photography attempts.
Most importantly the main goal was to become a better photographer. I found that with the help and input of other amateur and pro photographers I could grow a lot quicker than if I were to just shoot on self-critique. Here are a few of my self-portraits (from 10 years ago, please cut me some slack) and the comments people left on them.
Criticism
Learning how to take other people’s opinions and not be hurt by them is a very important skill. It goes hand in hand with the idea that you are not your work. When someone says something negative or positive about your work – it does not make you a better or worse person.
A compliment does not justify being a know-it-all and criticism should not lead to self-hate. You should read them all the same – as information that will help you to become a better photographer.
And that is just what DP Challenge slowly did for me. In some cases, I would email or reach out to the commenter in a separate dialogue and ask for some more in-depth help. I still haven’t forgotten the people’s names that gave me 10 minutes of their time 10 years ago, it really does make a difference. Here are some of my later entries after submitting for a few months and learning as much as I could.
Challenges
Every step of the way is a challenge. At the start, it was the technical aspect. Shutter speed, depth of field, aperture. Then it became correcting white balance, straight horizons, and framing. Every time you figure out one solution, you become aware of ten more things you have to learn – and it never slows down. So get used to learning, become comfortable with not knowing, and welcome the feeling of not being the best – because it should never fade away. That is what makes photography so fun.
So I decided to do my own version of the challenge. I did my first kind of… test challenges a week ago. Basically I came up with ten categories and then every day, for ten days, anyone who wants to takes a photo to match the category uploads it to their Instagram. Then using a hashtag others can search the submitted images and leave feedback. The most important part this first time around was just getting people to upload, but I am hoping in the future we can people leave feedback on other images as well. I am hoping that if any of my photographer friends are reading this you can help out. I know it’s hard to shoot the 10 images, but hopefully, you can help me by leaving some feedback.
This is what the first 10 days looked like. We had about 1,000 entries a day- so over 10,000 total. I am very happy with how this is going so far. I was expecting a couple hundred entries at most but very overwhelmed with everyones response. So seriously thank you. Photography is my passion and career but I also hold teaching very close to my heart and this has all just been so awesome. If you are interested in viewing the entries, here are the links:
The next group of challenges start on July 13th. I have new prizes, better challenges, videos with tips, and about 500 people who have committed to helping me with commenting on your submissions! If you want to participate next time, you can, it’s free and open to everyone. And if you want to participate but don’t feel like taking photos, that is okay – just help by leaving some feedback on other people’s images.
That is all for my update right now. Thanks again to everyone who has taken part. I am looking for input, both from those who have contributed and those who haven’t – so everyone! Please leave a comment below.
best
ae