Last month, our ten year old participated in a summer school program which required her to have a digital camera. It had been a few years since we had purchased her $25 "Mickey Mouse" camera (it actually had ears) for our trip to Disneyland. It was time for a real camera, so we picked up a Canon SD1200IS on sale.
After the workshop ended (and she took some great pictures), I asked everyone if we could have an extended theme-based photo project. I have been listening to a lot of photography podcasts this summer, and one of the main ideas I have heard repeatedly is themed-based shooting. If you shoot random pictures, you never get better at taking pictures. Any photo excursion should have a goal: door knobs, head lights, flowers. The constraint of a theme will force you to frame a good picture when it may be difficult. That will make you a better photographer.
We wanted to do this over the course of a month and started making a list of topics. After the third item, good themes started to get difficult. I offered a more flexible idea. What if the first day we take pictures of things starting with the letter “A”? The second day would be “B” and so on. That would give us 26 days of pictures. We were off and running.
We did come up with some general rules.
1 – Whoever takes a picture of something first “gets” that object. No duplicates.
2 – One point is scored for each picture taken on a given day. If the item has multiple instances of the letter (canned chunk chicken), the points are doubled.
3 – The first two rules were repealed on the third day of the contest when the dad had ten times more points than any one else. We decided a contest was not the best way to learn to shoot good pictures. The best picture of an apple was more valuable than the first picture of an apple.
4 – Nouns and proper nouns are OK. Verbs can only be used with approval of the group. Adjectives are usually not permitted. A dog can be photographed on “D” day, “C” day if she is a Corgi and “T” day if she is named Taffy. She cannot be fluffy on “F” day. On that day, a picture of her fur can be taken.
5 – A picture must be taken of the item on the day its letter is up. On “Q” day we realized no one took a picture of the piano on “P” day. Too late. I was surprised at the number of things we missed every day. We could do this whole thing again taking only pictures of things we missed the first time.
Some letters are much more difficult than others. Today is “U” and there is not a lot of low hanging fruit. We expect “V”, “X”, “Y” and “Z” to be similar.
We are still organizing the pictures so they can be uploaded to Flickr. We will get that done eventually. We have learned that everyone in the house has his/her own archival process and everything is not being reliably backed up. I am setting up a “community” picture deposit area on the server. Everyone will have their own folder and the whole thing will be archived nightly as part of the normal backup routine.
We did use the letters to direct some of our non-picture taking activities. On “M” day we had manicotti. On “P” day we were in Columbus and I (quite easily) talked everyone into eating at P.F.Chang. We used lots of potsticker sauce, drank tea from a pot, and saw the horses on the pedestals outside the restaurant. Later we stopped by Potterybarn and saw some pillows and photo frames. You get the idea.
Next Monday is “Z” day and also a holiday. We are planning a trip to the zoo to photograph a zebra. We’re not sure what will happen on Tuesday. My guess is that we will not stop taking pictures.
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