March 2023

"March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb."

We have all heard this expression... it is basically a visual of the moving from Winter to Spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

You began this year's 365 Picture Today project in the dead of Winter (unless you are in our Down Under group!) You endured shadow week when there was no sun, Picture Life weeks when all there was to picture was gray skies and snow, Color week when there was no color to be found. You met the challenges and you persevered!

Don't be surprised that now is the time you begin to waiver. You may skip posting your photo a day or two. You may forget to take your photo until the last minute when the light has disappeared. You may not "feel" the prompt or even want to follow it.

It’s natural to have ebbs and flows in our lives, and that will spill over into our photography as well. We might find that we are enjoying the better weather and being outside sunshine keeps us busier and less engaged in looking for photo ops.

You can do it. You stayed the course through the long Winter and you can persevere through the Spring. Just pick up from wherever you are and begin again. If you miss a few days, don't worry about playing catch up, just jump back in and continue from there! Think about why you are taking a photo a day. What is your why for the project? Has it changed? Do you want to be more creative? Learn more about your camera? Capture family events? Inspire yourself with nature photos? Capture your mood? Be a part of a community? If your why has changed, that is perfectly fine. This is your project.

You've got this! Whether you feel like the lion or the lamb, go with it.

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