The 2013 PhotoChallenge

Over the years, PhotoChallenge.org has sponsored quite a number of themed photography challenges. Participants simply commit to make their best creative effort to create a photo or series of photos adhering to the given theme. I think I made that sound more complicated than I should have. You can take a look at a few of them above, under Past Challenges.

This brings me back to now.

Now, for 2013 we’ve decided to not only return with a vengeance, but we’ve decided to relaunch!

OK, I’ll get to the point! (I know you were thinking it.) For 2013 we’re challenging you to commit to photographing at least one choice image a week, for all 52-ish weeks. Yes, you may end up photographing more than just one a week. However, we’re hoping that you’ll do some self-critiquing and submit to us all, just one.

Each week we’ll post a new blog post here, describing our selected theme. Sometimes it’ll be simple, like bicycle. Other times it’ll be surprisingly thought-provoking, like entropy. Read some of our past challenges, and there are plenty, to get an idea of what we’re talking about.

Over the course of this upcoming year you’ll not only see posts by Jeremy and myself, but you’ll be introduced to two new contributors as well! I’m excited to double the creative input. You’ll meet them in due time. I’ll allow them to introduce themselves.

In the past we had everyone tag their submissions with the appropriate metadata, like “2013PhotoChallenge”. Since nearly everyone was using Flickr alone, it was easy to search for that term and find all the submissions. With the increased popularity of Facebook and the arrival of Google+, we need to reevaluate. We have a PhotoChallenge Facebook group, a Google+ Community, and a Flickr group. So from now on, we’d like to see each participant’s submission be actually posted to at least one group or community. Of course, feel free to keep tagging your photos appropriately; “2013PhotoChallenge”.

The first week’s theme is ICON. This first “week” will actually run through January 12, 2013. Consider something iconic, or possibly even a religious icon. The word icon is defined as…

i·con

/ˈīkän/

Noun

1. A painting of Christ or another holy figure, used as an aid to devotion in the Byzantine and other Eastern Churches.

2. A person or thing regarded as a representative symbol of something: “icon of manhood”.

Honestly, my focus is on the second definition above. Even though my example below is really the first definition. Worry not, I think you should follow your gut, and capture the best photograph of an icon. Feel free to be creative and think outside the box. Below you’ll find one of my photos from my Jesus Series.

The theme for each week will be announced over the weekend, hopefully by Sunday. Give us some grace, if we are running late. 🙂 If you find that you’re getting behind, don’t have the time, or simply forget to shoot, don’t be worried. We are glad to have you join us again just as soon as you can. Remember, this is about having fun and challenging yourself to become a better photographer!