2017 TREVOR CARPENTER PHOTOCHALLENGE, WEEK 44: The Perfect CIRCLE

Welcome everyone to the first TREVOR CARPENTER PHOTOCHALLENGE post on our new site, a continuation of the photochallenge.org in honor of our friend Trevor Carpenter. Our new site will be faster and more versatile thus allowing us to present you with more audiovisual examples with fewer restrictions. This will be a welcome advantage as the PHOTOCHALLENGE will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2018.

Before we begin with this week’s challenge, I want to update the Halloween Challenge info. The original post mentions posting your Halloween Challenge images on Halloween Day but I’ve been thinking about it and that’s too restrictive. Starting Saturday the 28th of October, you can post your Halloween PhotoChallenge images.

This week’s challenge is inspired by a little story in my head about Leonardo da Vinci. Based on facts, I don’t know, but apparently Leonardo da Vinci was challenged as an artist to draw a perfect circle and he did so…

I want to stress the PERFECT CIRCLE as we will not be looking at anything circular apart from perfect circles. This means that THE GOLDEN MEAN, the formula for the natural growth and design, what happens when something straight is added to something round and creates a spiral, such as snail shells, chameleon tails, the universe, etc… is not permitted this week.

Circles are everywhere and can easily be hidden if we don’t look carefully. A good example is these arches from the image above. Depending on the time of year and the water level, the perfect circle will appear. I must admit that it’s a little imperfect but within the acceptable realm of the PhotoChallenge.

Any spinning object will end up forming a circle in a long exposure and a Ferris Wheel starts of round making it the perfect night-time candidate for full perfect circle photography.

Bicycle wheels, unless you’ve been practicing on asphalt moguls should make a perfect circle. I realize that there’s also a ton of great indoor studio subjects that can be produced but I really like to encourage individuals to get out, take some fresh air and shoot…

Should you find yourself in the quintessential absence of circles you can always turn to a tiny planet image as your goal to complete this challenge.

WHAT YOU NEED TO COMPLETE THIS PERFECT CIRCLE PHOTOCHALLENGE

Incorporating a circular object in your image is only the beginning. In photography it’s all about technique to differentiate your image from another as you develop your own style.

For me this always means, USE A TRIPOD! Why? It’s very simple a tripod allows you to think and take your time while maintaining a uniform composition throughout your shooting.

Experiment with different angles, light and filters. You may want to use an ND filter to create a long exposure or a polarized filter to eliminate some reflections. You may also want to try IR as in my first image. A tripod will always make it easier and open the door to long exposure photography.

The friendly community guidelines are pretty simple:

Post one original photograph (Your Image) shot each week per theme posted on this blog to Facebook, or Flickr (or all three). Tag the photo #photochallenge and #photochallenge2017
The shot should be a new shot you took for the current weekly theme, not something from your back catalog or someone else’s image.
Don’t leave home without your camera. Participating in the 2017 PhotoChallenge is fun and easy.

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