The idea behind a Project 52 is a really simple one. You take one photo each week, to a pre-determined idea or theme, that has been designed to help develop your creativity, push your technical boundaries and help you beautifully document your life. (Wow!) Hopefully by the end of the year, you will feel more confident in your photography skills and have a visual memento for every week of the year. If you like the idea of taking a weekly photo but don't feel like following the themes that's OK too, you can simply take a photo each week that represents the week you have had, or follow your own ideas.
Rather than join another Project 52 Group, I've decided to create the themes by myself and hopefully have one or two of you come along with me. I've made up my themes and I'll share these on the blog each week- anyone who wants to take part with me can.
Here's how it works......
- Each week I'll post two themes for us to choose from. These will usually just be one or two words that you can interpret how you wish, such as "Play", or it may be something more specific like "Bokeh" The idea is to take a photo that represents one of those two themes - it can be as literal or as abstract as you like. I suspect a lot of us will be taking pictures of our children, so I've tried to make sure the themes encourage you to document a different aspect of them, or of family life, rather than just pictures of them smiling at the camera. (Please bear in mind the photos don't need to be of your children though - it can be anything you like) I've also tried to include themes that will challenge you to learn something different too and I'll post tutorials and tips for these on the blog as we go along.
- The first theme will be posted on the 31st of December and will follow weekly every Monday after that.
-You can do either of the themes, or both, or you can go off and do something different - it's entirely up to you. It's your project.
- I would love, love, love if you could share the photos you take - it's so interesting to see how other people interpret the same word! I've set up a Flickr group one where we can share our Project 52 photos with one another (if you are not familiar with Flickr, it's an online photo sharing site) If you don't already have a Flickr account you'll need to create one, just register with Flickr on http://www.flickr.com (it's free and easy to join, and you can sign in with Facebook if you like) and then once you have an account, join the group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/livesnaplove52/.
- Each week, upload the photos you have taken to the Flickr Group Pool. Sharing our photos will encourage us to stick to the Project 52, and perhaps push yourself just that little bit harder. However, if you don't don't want to share your photos at all, or just want to share one or two, then that's OK too.
- You can start at any time. It's not a contest, or anything you need to sign up to, the only commitment you make is to yourself. However, I would suggest trying to do them all - if you only do one or two, you won't find it as challenging. Plus, it will be great to have a entire years worth of photos - you'll be upset if you miss one!
- You don't need a DSLR to take part - this is about stretching your creativity as much as it is about the technical side of photography, so a point and shoot is fine. Nor do you need to post-process your photos unless you want to.
- Live Snap Love is a very small blog, so there definitely won't be many members in the Flickr group. If, like me, you can get intimidated by large groups with lots of professional photographers, don't worry, this won't be like that! (I think you are likely to find just me there on my own!) Feel free to spread the word though, it's so much more fun to do a Project 52 with a few people and it helps keep you motivated.
So, that's it. Pretty simple eh? Just one little photo a week - I'm sure you all can do that! Basically, it's a fun project designed to help you document your life, and move further along in your photography journey while you do so. Hopefully you'll find Live Snap Love a nice, non-threatening place to do it in.
If you are interested in doing this with me, please come back on the 31st for the themes for the first week (or make sure you sign up for updates to be alerted when new blog posts go up so you don't need to keep checking back) Meanwhile, if you want to share your photos (and I hope you do) get yourself sorted with a Flickr account and join the group so you are ready to start for Week One!
I'm so excited about this - I can't wait to get started!! Is anyone with me??
13 comments:
Im fairly new to your blog ( 2 months or so) I am so excited about this. The Husband bought me my first DSLR camera( props to him!!) in September, and at first was so overwhelmed. So I'm taking baby steps and have realized that I can read the manual and books, but actually snapping and viewing my photos is the way to go. I think this is a great idea and I'm looking forward to it!! Thanks for all the tips you've given me .
Hi Audrey,
I would love to join you in a project 52. I need to challenge myself, and I do feel intimidated right now by joining in challenges on other sites. This is a perfect place for me! I look forward to it!
I am also getting the mark III for Christmas, so I look forward to chatting about that as well!
Hi Kristen! Photography can be overwhelming at first - there is a lot to take in! I promise one day it will just "click". Yep, taking photographs is the best way to learn - whenever to read about something new, grab your camera and practice! so I'm excited to have you on board for the project 52!!!
Hi Kristen D! Are you as excited as I am about the 5d mkiii? I'm feeling a bit intimidated by it already but can't wait to get my hands on it. We'll enjoy taking it through it's paces over the 52 weeks!
i love this idea and want to join in the fun! question about the privacy settings on the flickr group...will it be totally open for anyone to view the photographs or will it be closed to members that you allow in? you know me, i'm weird about my girls' pictures being on the internet so this is a concern for me. i'd really love the critique of other 52 project readers on your blog though! we would learn so much from each other.
Hi jan, the group pool photos are only able to be viewed by members - I checked this just now by uploading a photo and logging out - I couldn't see it when I was logged out so definitely only able to be viewed by members. You can always just post the ones you are happy sharing with group and leave any ones you would prefer to keep yo yourself out. It's entirely up to you and what you are happy with. Hope this helps!
wonderful! as long as it's not available for everyone to see, i'm more than happy to share with fellow mom photographers! this will be very helpful for all of us.
I'm in! This sounds great! I just got a Nikon d700 & still learning so this will help me with that. Thanks for setting this up!
No problem Marla - thanks for joining in too!
I just discovered your blog a few weeks ago-- and love all of your tips and suggestions. I have a digital camera since they came out. But never did much with it. Just got a new one as an early christmas present and am going to be taking a class starting in January. I would love to join this!
Great Erika, the more the merrier!
Audrey,
I must miss the page you state the theme is. can you tell me what is it this week? I hope I will get it in this week. I think it is good project you are doing, I think it will be very nice to see the process week by week.
Hi there, if you look under categories in the right hand side of this blog you will see a category for project 52, all the posts with themes etc you can see there. Themes are precious or Bokeh.
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