Wow, time flies.  It was June 2011 that I first introduced the 60 Minute Photo Challenge on this blog.  And unfortunately, that was the last time I took the time to do one of the challenges.  I won’t make promises I can’t keep such as I will do one a week form now on.  But I will promise myself to make an effort.

To refresh, the 60 Minute Photo Challenge is simply a way to challenge yourself and expand your photography.  My approach (your approach can be different) is to pick a location and a theme then spend 1 hour in that location concentrating on photographing that theme.  I try to keep the location limited given the 60 minute time constraints and that makes it a bit more challenging.  For example a three block area downtown, a park, a 1 mile stretch of street.  For the theme I pick one of a list I have developed and add to whenever I think of ideas I’d like to try.  There are no rules on the theme, they can be as simple or complicated as you wish.  My list goes something like this:

  • Red
  • Blue
  • Numbers
  • Texture
  • Repeating lines
  • Signs
  • Shadows
  • Soft
  • Letters

My first goal with this is to stretch the standard definition of the theme I pick to make myself really see things differently.  A theme like circles could be very easy; photos of tires, manhole covers, railroad crossing signs.  All round things and composed well they could be great photos.  And I’m not going to say I won’t photograph those things.  But I want to try to go beyond the conventional and see things in a way I might not have before.  Second, it is very tempting to stray from the theme when a non-theme related photo op presents itself.  I won’t pass up the once in a lifetime opportunities, but I really want to confine this project to the theme so as to keep myself challenged.  It is easy to just photograph what you see and like and a bit harder to keep your eye and mind focused on only seeing the theme.  Those are the goals anyway.

So we’ll see how this goes.  I got my 60 minute photo challenges back on track with the theme of “red” and the location is the Roosevelt arts district in downtown Phoenix.  So please check back soon for the Red theme and then, crossing my fingers, weekly or so for a new theme.

 

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