Hidden Treasures – Photography Challenge

Last time your challenge was to get experimental with some holiday photos and share them with us. Many of you did just that and you all did a great job!

There were lots of amazing shots and I was impressed with some of the techniques you all tried and the results you got, so give yourselves a pat on the back! Now to announce the winner.

And the winner is . . .

From all the comments and entries, one name was randomly selected. Congratulations go to B. Kreutter!

B. Kreutter, I do not have your email address so if you haven’t already gotten in touch with me, please fill in the contact form. Just mention you were the winner of the holiday challenge so I can get you the prize of your choice.

New Photography Challenge – Hidden Treasures

If you already have my free ebook, “10 Photography Challenges to Help you take better pictures without buying any new gear” then you may be familiar with this one. Even if you’ve already done it on your own, now is the time to revisit this one and give it another go. See if you can improve upon your last results.

But if it’s new for you, then you get to stretch your creative muscles. If they haven’t been used for a while or you feel like you don’t have any – then it’s even more important for you to participate!

Here’s the idea – go on a treasure hunt

The first thing you need to do is rummage around in your garage or basement looking for hidden treasures. You want to find at least three objects that you can photograph such as an old weathered shoe, tools, a pile of rusty nails, a teddy bear, etc.

NOTE: Do NOT make excuses to yourself about why you can’t do this challenge. Don’t count yourself out before you even start. If you have a “CAN DO” attitude you’ll go much farther in life, so give yourself permission to succeed and do this.

If you can’t find anything or you don’t have a basement or garage, ask your mom, neighbor or a friend if you can look through theirs. Explain the project and that you’ll bring it back afterward and show them your images.

Still no luck? Try a flea market, junkyard, or garage sale!

You know what they say, one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure. 

Photographing your treasures

Once you’ve found your hidden gems, it’s time to get shooting.

If the weather there is anything like what we’ve got here, you may want to do this one indoors. That’s totally fine.

Plan your lighting for the shot. Use natural light from the window, try using off-camera flash, or even use light painting – whatever you like!

Next, consider your gear. What lens you will use, what camera settings, and whether or not you’ll use a tripod. I do HIGHLY recommend you do use one because it will force you to slow down and take your time. That is a GOOD thing!!

There is no need to rush. You can even set up your shot and take a few frames, leave it for a day or two and come back and do a few more once you’ve had time to consider other ideas.

Think about the subject placement. Since you’re photographing inanimate objects, you can take your time and arrange them as you see fit. So try different things, move them around. Shoot just one, or put some together. Use a tight grouping or one with more space.

Also, think about how you will frame the image. Try different compositions like vertical, horizontal, tilting the camera, and try putting the subject in different spots in the image. Get close and shoot tight, and try some wide compositions.

Do the challenge with a friend

You could even encourage a friend to do this challenge with you. After you have each found and photographed some of your own hidden treasures – swap! Then do it all again with each other’s items.

The whole idea with this challenge first and foremost is to have fun! Secondly, it’s to get you thinking outside the box and trying things. This is the phrase of the month:

What if I did this…? 

So go crazy and try stuff that sounds weird, you never know what might make a good image. Just don’t set anything on fire or hurt anyone in the process!

Participate and share your images

In order to participate in this challenge and be eligible for this prize you need to:

1. Upload your favorite images (2-4) from your hidden treasures shots in the comments section below.
2. Tell us how you shot it (what lens, lighting and camera settings).
3. Tell us about your experience doing this challenge?  Did you learn anything? Find any cool techniques? Tell us about what you learned in as much detail as you can.
4. Upload your photo, shooting info, and tell us what you learned by the cut-off date of March 22nd,  2019. NOTE: please do NOT save your images as TIF (they will be too big to add in the comments, it must be under 2mb) and please do NOT email your images to me for critique. I cannot give personal critiques by email, leave your images below and I will comment there.

Please note: if you do NOT fulfill all the steps above your entry will not be valid. Just adding the photo will NOT be counted as an entry. I want to hear about it too, please. The point of these challenges is to help you learn something new – tell me about that.

You may post more than one photo, and do this as many times as you like over the month (you can comment as many times as you like, and share as many photos as you want – but it will be counted as one entry per person). The more you practice the better you’ll get at it, like anything – so share away. I also encourage you to share the link to this challenge with a friend, so you can do it together!

The Prize

This month the winner will have a choice of prizes between:

• Our 4 Weeks to Better Photography online course (retail value $29-49)
• My Lightroom Presets (retail value $29)

If you enjoyed this month’s challenge and want more, this is actually one of the ones inside my free ebook: 10 Challenges to Better Photography. Sign up to our email list to get the full PDF at no charge and get working on the other nine!

UPDATE: The randomly selected winner from all the entries on this challenge was Janet Jones! 

Cheers,