Up until lockdown and social distancing were prescribed for people the world over, photographers could always fall back on the famous advice of Jim Richardson: ‘If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.’ Now that it’s not possible to fight through crowds with selfie sticks at those special landscape locations or seek out the best models, photographers need to get creative about ‘interesting stuff’.
What to photograph during the lockdown
The RPS Digital Imaging Group is addressing this new reality with an online event by John Gravett with an informative and interesting presentation showcasing a creative view of everyday objects, including things we all have in our homes, as well as gardens and things you might see on your ‘necessary exercise’ outings. John will make good use of his diverse professional background and years of teaching experience to cover a variety of techniques, possibly including making full aperture macro lens pics, focus stacking and some creative ideas involving what he used to call ‘slide sandwiching’.
John is drawing on his considerable creativity, photographic skill and energy for this online event. Best known now for his Lake District photography courses and workshops, John’s prolific career in photography has seen him go from sports photography in the 1980s, on to photographing gigs, theatre, architecture, commercial subjects and landscape.
The online event takes place on 25 April, and anyone can register for it HERE.
'Corona claustrophobia' Competitions
Want to gain exposure without being exposed? Many organisations and companies are launching challenges and competitions limited to the homebound. Here are a few of the non-commercial opportunities:
RPS Distinctions Facebook Group
To celebrate achieving a milestone of 1,000 members in two weeks, the RPS Distinctions Facebook Group has launched a competition to win a new A3 print by Joe Cornish Hon FRPS. You will need to join the RPS Distinctions Facebook Group and post an image taken between 23 March and 30 April by 22.00 on Thursday 30 April. For full details, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/818415748671322/announcements/.
Getty Museum Recreations of Famous Artwork
There are no prizes for this, but the Getty Museum’s social media challenge will get you trawling through their outstanding collection, which is bound to be inspiring. The opportunity to be featured on the Getty Museum’s Twitter feed, which currently boasts 1.3 million followers, might make it worth the effort to enter its current stay-at-home challenge. To qualify, recreate famous works of art from the Getty Museum using three objects found in the home with these simple requirements:
- Choose your favorite artwork
- Find three things lying around your house
- Recreate the artwork with those items
- And share with us (by replying to their Twitter posts)
FIAP: We Stay at Home
Free to enter up to 4 photos taken between 15 March and 31 May, but FIAP will donate an amount of money for each photographer who enters to a WHO-nominated organisation working on COVID-19. Deadline is Sunday 31st May: http://www.fiap-westayhome.net/fiap-WSAH.php.