July 2023

Celebrate Your Creativity

You've finished your first half of the year! How are you feeling about it? Proud that you made it this far? Encouraged that you are learning and improving? Maybe even frustrated that this is a little harder than you thought? Whatever you're feeling, we have some great new ideas to help keep you motivated. And we have a great group that cheers each other on.

We're kicking off July with the color sepia. Sepia is a soft, warm shade of brown that is often associated with vintage photographic images. But we'll be approaching it from the point-of-view of the color itself, although no one will fault you if you'd like to create a vintage-looking picture!

For Picture Style Week, we're getting sporty! There's lots going on outdoors at this time of year, so you'll have no trouble finding subject matter whether it's about you, your family, or your favorite team even if you're spectating.

We want you to share more about yourself, of course, and this time it's by showing us what is 100 steps from where you are--whether your front door, back door, workplace door, or however you want to interpret it. We can't wait to see what you see on a regular basis!

Winding up July's weekly themes we'll practice wide aperture, that f-stop thing that blurs the background. It's a great basic technique that can enhance the mood of your photo or clarify your subject. Fortunately, even most phones have adjustments to give this look, so no one will have to feel left out!

July will also give an opportunity for another special photo challenge. This time it will be about creating silhouettes. Silhouetting part of your image, either the subject or the space around it, is a device that brings big impact with little special equipment or photo experience. We hope you'll give it a try.

In July, members in the States will celebrate independence and freedom. But wherever you are, celebrate the creative freedom that photography gives you to explore the world through your lens. Happy Creative Independence!

Explaining the Prompts

Each month is broken into 4 weekly themes: Picture Life, Picture Basic, Picture Color and Picture Style. These are meant to fuel your imagination, keep you engaged, and challenge your creativity. They give you the opportunity to see the same things in different ways.

PICTURE LIFE

Picture Life is where you will be challenged to chronicle your life. Each Picture Life week will have a theme which will give us a glimpse into your day to day life. This is where we all will have the opportunity to get to know one another a little more. We encourage you to show us all aspects of your life, including your beautiful self! In Picture Life week there will be a Where I Stand prompt coupled with a time of day prompt. Here we encourage you once a month to show us what you are doing at a certain time of the day by showing us where you are standing.

PICTURE BASIC

Let’s get technical! This will challenge your creativity with a technical agenda. In these weeks of your year you will look at leading lines, flat lays, lights and shadows, (to name a few!). Don’t be shy to ask for clarification, camera settings or any tips and tricks. We aren’t magicians here, we share our secrets!

PICTURE COLOR

We will focus on a specific color chosen by the Creative Team for these weeks. This year our colour choices will be a little beyond just the basics. You can include a little of the color, go completely monochrome or anything in between. You will likely find that this is one of your favourite weeks.

PICTURE STYLE

Lifestyle, architecture, landscape, sports, golden hour, are just some of the styles you will be encouraged to play around with to try out something new. Some of these might be a little out of your comfort zone. Our hope is that by the end of the week you may have discovered something you love. You might find style in your original photo or add some style in post-processing.

EXTRA CHALLENGES

Along the way you’ll notice a few added monthly challenges sprinkled in to give you extra inspiration.

Macro Monday
For this prompt we encourage you to get in close. Grab your macro lens, macro filters or just crop your photo in post-processing. This is where we can focus on the little details.

Scavenger Hunt
A quarterly challenge where instead of one prompt, you have 4 . Take the 4 photos and make a collage. Make it work for you and your day.

Picture My World
This is a quarterly challenge. We are hoping you can return to the same spot 4 times on these days to document the changing seasons in your world or in your life.

Extra Seasonal Challenge

We are introducing something new this year…. Seasonal challenges. Seasonal challenges are extra technical challenges to help you learn or practice technical skills. The challenge is separate from daily prompts and is there to give you that extra boost if you want to take it on. The extra challenge will occur 4 times a year and will come with technical instruction. Once the challenge is offered, you will have a week to think about it, practice, and then take and post your image.

Daily Prompts