Self portraits | Weekly Photo Challenge

The Baby Photographer

Photo Challenge

Published on Friday, 26 April 2013 10:30

Last Updated on 26 April 2013

Michael Shilling

0 Comments

This weekly photo challenge is deigned to complement our free online photography basics classes. Each week we will set a different theme and your homework is to go out and photograph a collection of images related to that theme.

You can start this challenge whenever you like and do the different themes in any order you see fit. Think of these challenges as a photography workout. Don’t just do them once and not revisit them. If you do start these challenges as you begin our online basics classes then in a few months why not revisit older challenges to see how much better a photographer you have become.

photo challenges

Also try to think outside the box as much as possible. Photography is as much about creative interpretation as it is about technical prowess.

If at any time you’d like a critique of your images then please feel free to email us.

Long long ago when I was an art student we were given a self-portrait project. The medium was oil on canvas but the essence of what we were given the task to achieve would be a similar one to that of a photography project.

The problem with creating a self-portrait is that the one face you think you know best (your own) is actually not quite as familiar as you might have thought. When it comes to photography the images we see of ourselves always seem wrong somehow. This might be due to the fact that the image we see most of ourselves is a reflection and a mirror of what appears in a photograph.

michael shilling photographer

For this photo challenge try to create an image which best describes you in the way that you see yourself. It will certainly be different from a portrait that anyone else might take.

Try and be a bit more technically savvy than standing in front of a mirror holding up your camera with a fish pout face. Use a tripod if you have one but if you don’t then a steady table and the self timer is good enough.

Michael Shilling with hair

These images don’t have to be portraits either, in fact you don’t even have to be in the photo. Ou could have footstep in the sand or a body print left in your unmade bed.

As always try to think outside the box and get creative.

Michael Shilling stupid faces