Monday 22 March 2010

5 Minute Photo Challenge - Dress Rehearsal

The clock is now ticking until my all day talk this Saturday. If you’re around the Oxford area on the 27th March 2010 then there’s still time to book your place. Details are here.

I’ve been working hard to find ways of adding some audience participation in to the day. One of the things I’m planning to do is recruit 2 or 3 delegates to take part in a mini photo challenge with me.

The idea is pretty simple. I’m going to give them a basic point and shoot compact camera and a list of three photos they need to take. They’ll then have 10 minutes to take the best photograph they can to fulfil each brief. Later I’ll process the images live in front of the audience taking suggestions from the floor.

Now, as I’ve never attempted this before I though it would be wise to test the idea first. Below is the result from the pictures taken by myself and my wife Sam in our 5 minute mini photo challenge. As always, click a photo to enlarge







I'm really pleased at how well this worked. Five minutes isn't long, so I'll be increasing it to 10 minutes on the day. Best of all, I had no idea what images I was going to get from Sam until she handed me the memory card. If it works half as well on Saturday I'll be very pleased.
By the way the camera's are all second hand EBay bargains. Not one cost more the £15 inc delivery. To quote Chase Jarvis... The best camera is the one you have with you.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice shots Gavin and Sam, I particularly like the "self portrait" primarily for it's originality and the grittiness of the post processing. I wish i was in the Oxford area to attend your workshop, it would be a sure-not-to-miss event, but let me know the next time you are in Hanoi or Montreal (my two bases at the moment) ;-)

Just a question what were the instructions you gave your wife (and yourself) for this 5 mins assignment? Did you have specific photo subject (shot of a cat, shot of car lights)? or was it more general (shot showing a soft moment, shot showing strong emotions)? I'm interested because i'm always in search of themes to work on. I find it very stimulating. I find more specific themes (windows, balconies, sunsets) easier to deal with but i would like to develop the skills to work with more fuzzy concepts like emotions for instance. It would be a nice subject for one of your instruction video btw
;-) hint hint
cheers and keep up the good work
michel

Gavin Hoey Training said...

Hi Michel

Inspiration can be a problem for all photographers, so shooting specific themes can help focus the mind.

For each challenge I'd written three subjects. E.G. Panoramic, Self Portrait & Bit of Red

We then ran around looking for suitable images that might fit the bill.

I did suggest to Sam that a bonus prize might be awarded to any image that contained all three subjects!

For a bit of random inspiration go to http://www.tipsquirrel.com/index.php/inspire-o-tron

Unknown said...

thanks Gavin it's an interesting site i will use it for inspiration or at least some challenge. Michel

Henk Hulshof said...

thes pics really inspire me Gavin, specially that car (with sky), the black cat and your cup (without) tea.
You show very well that its possible to make very nice pictures of really simple things, when you post-edit it tastefull.
You're a master in that.
Thanx!

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