I am currently taking a photography class in which we use black and white. This class is independent high school course so I need to think up my own assignments. I'm needing some ideas on what kinds of things to do. Please help me out.

Sara

-- Sara (sarant45@hotmail.com), September 08, 2000

Answers

Sara, rather than point you to a specific subject, I think it would work best if you decide, and photograph something about which you are passionate. It can be a person, a place, a thing, an idea, almost anything. The IMPORTANT thing is that it be something that really, really interests you.

For example, a friend, or a group of friends, where they hang out, how they relate. Then photograph everything about them. The tiny, minute things about them, and the broad, overview of who they are, where they are, and perhaps why they are.

You can do the same thing with a place. Your room, your house, your street, your car, a place where you like to go and be, your school. The possibilities are endless.

Some photographers have done whole series just photographing the world outside their window.

Just remember that the most important thing about the project will be that you care about it, one way or the other. You don't have to love it, but you have to have strong feelings about it.

Good luck!

chris

-- Christian Harkness (chris.harkness@eudoramail.com), September 08, 2000.

An excerpt from On Being a Photographer:

Bill Jay: ... So lets get down to brass tacks, as the British would say, and give specific advice to young photographers on the choice of subject matter.

David Hurn: Garden gnomes!

---

There you have it from a master photographer, in facetious candor. :)

Photograph what is visual, practical, accessible, and interests you. If it meets those criteria, you're set.

-- Brian C. Miller (brian.c.miller@gte.net), September 11, 2000.

One project I had while attending a night school photography course was to show, movement, depth of field, panning, shots using different lighting. I had the flue that week and the day before it was due I still had not started, it was raining hard and I was in no shape to go out side to find a great shot so I did what I could. Movement ended up taking a five second exposure of a clock with a second hand on it. Depth of field was 6 pepsi bottles lined up in a straight line on a table with me at the end of the line, using f-1.8 I focused on a different bottle for each shot. Panning was done looking out the window and followed a car driving by on the street. Then for the lighting I used natural, flash and then candle light, the candle light was of the clock again for a 15 second exposure. I passed and the teacher was quite impressed. Looking at normal things from a different prespective was all it took. Show me the same 4 ideas but use what your own items in the shots. And hope you are not sick at the time. 10 people can look at the same thing and see different images.

-- John Cairns (jccc@nb.sympatico.ca), September 26, 2000.

Hi Sara,

I had a college professor who asked that the portfolios we turned in at the end of the semester be broken out into the three components of photography. These would be TIME, LIGHT, AND SPACE. I found this exercise to quite beneficial. I learned the way a subject is presented in terms of T, L & S is as important (if not more important) than the subject itself, in much the same way the non-spoken queues say as much as the spoken word.

whatever you choose to do, enjoy your assignment. ~james

-- james sobhani (bjs@briefcase.com), October 12, 2000.