We’ve officially entered fall and there are only 10, 2020 Photo Challenges left after this one. I chose “ELECTRIC” for this week’s challenge and hopefully you watched the introduction video to hear it from my own spoken words. If you can, focus on CLEAN GREEN ELECTRIC ENERGY 🙂

As I mentioned, for me, no other brand is more synonymous with ELECTRIC than Tesla and their Electric Cars. Considering the incredible number of Electric Cars that have now entered the worldwide market, there’s no lack of subjects for car photography enthusiasts.

Even if electric cars aren’t your thing, there’s an entire industry of charging stations and other paraphernalia growing around the electric car industry.

Modes of electric transportation have been around for a long time from trolleys, trains, buses, and metro links. A big difference is they were actually dependent on an infrastructure of electric cables and/or conductive tracks to power the vehicles.

I did bring up Vintage Guitars in our Antique, Vintage, and Historical PhotoChallenge, well electric guitars have been around for a long time, new or vintage, they make a great subject for this week’s Photo Challenge.

For the few exceptions of gas-powered lamps as in the Historic District of Savannah, our cities, towns, and villages are lit with electric bulbs from LED to Tungsten with a wide array of other technology-based on gas-filled bulbs. This makes for a creative evening or early morning of long exposure photography

We are submerged in electric devices and gadgets in our daily lives from our home to city streets. It doesn’t matter what subject you chose, the emphasis is on creating a photograph and not just a snapshot.

This doesn’t mean that only the big professional cameras can succeed in this challenge. Regardless of the type of camera you are using, a photograph is created when you apply yourself and use documented or your own techniques to create an image worthy of the title. Composition and lighting are the two most important elements of a photograph. Naturally, you can elaborate on this with aperture, speed, and ISO settings. Choosing the right lens / focal length for your photograph is also an important part of the photographic process.

It doesn’t matter if you’re shooting with a smartphone, a pinhole camera, a polaroid, or a top of the line pro-setup, it’s the technique you use that make the image you produce a photograph. Using a tripod regardless of the camera setup will help you take your time, maintain your composition, and test different settings to get the image just right. In some cases when photographing moving subjects the tripod may be less helpful. I often use a monopod to get the best of both worlds.

The above image is in the category of a snapshot. Little definition of what is the subject with an array of distracting elements. Indoor or outdoors, clearly define your subject and attempt to isolate it in-camera. Be aware of your background. Try and have it as neutral and distraction-free as possible. Remember you’re photographing a specific subject.

Scroll through the past Trevor Carpenter Photo Challenges, there’s a ton of techniques that have been covered through the years.

COMPLETING YOUR CHALLENGE :

Identify a subject that is dependent on electricity to operate. I.E. an ELECTRIC device…

Determine the best way to photograph the subject. Attempt different angles and heights.

If necessary use reflectors, lights or flashes to better isolate or/and illuminate your subject.

Use a tripod when necessary even with smartphone photography.

Don’t be afraid to use vignettes and background treatments to better isolate your subject and reduce distracting elements.

Experiment with Color, desaturation techniques, color isolation, or B&W and see what better suits your subject.

Have fun with photography 🙂

The friendly community guidelines are pretty simple:

• Take a new photo for the current weekly theme, not something from your back catalog or someone else’s image.
• Post your photo each week to our active communities on Facebook or Flickr (or both). Tag the photo:  #2020photochallenge #photochallenge #tempusaura
• Don’t leave home without your camera. Participating in the 2020 Trevor Carpenter Photo Challenge is fun and easy.