TEN Great Ideas For Your Next Photo Competition - Part Two

And we're back, with five MORE ideas (to make a total of ten.. get it?) for your next photo competition.

1. Have a smartphone? Get yourself a copy of OKDOTHIS. OKDOTHIS is an app for iPhone (Android coming soon?) that has just bucketloads of inspiration for taking pictures. While many ideas may not suit your specific group, the sheer number of ideas the app contains could provide you with unique photo competitions for years. Go to the webpage to see some sample ideas and images that users have submitted.



via kringle.com

2. Appease the Subject Matter Expert! Does your town manufacture a product of some kind that is somewhat unique to your area? Something that is accessible to all your members? In my hometown of Racine, WI, we have the Case Corporation, that manufactures agricultural tractors. We are also one of the few places in the United States that you can get yourself a kringle, a tasty treat so obscure that spell check doesn't even recognize it. Just to the north of us, in Milwaukee, is the Harley Davidson headquarters, and more breweries than you can shake a stick at. The point that I've failed to make up to this point, is that when we have photo competitions, we usually have photography experts come in and judge the images on their technical merits, composition, etc, however, there isn't any rule that says you can't have a subject matter expert judge pictures as well. So, contact your local bakery with the best doughnut maker in town, and have him come in and give his opinion of your creative doughnut images!
3. Give your members a lighting challenge. Instruct them that the image for the next competition can only be lit by a specific light source. Such as? Well, how about a single light bulb, a full moon, or a flashlight. Of course, longer exposure images would benefit greatly from a good tripod.
   
   You'll need a good tripod for long exposures.
   
   
   



OK, it's only a 3 second exposure. 

4. Use features on your camera you might have seldom, or never, used before. We are told that we should always have our camera set to the lowest ISO possible, that the higher ISO's cause grain. We are told to always use the fastest shutter speed we can, that slow shutter speeds mean blurry pictures. Well, how about a contest where all the images must have been shout at 3,200 (or higher) ISO, or all the images must have been shot with a 30 second exposure? 
5. Alphabet soup! Pick a letter of the alphabet, and all the images have to have a subject that begins with that letter. Try to think back to grade school when the teacher taught you the alphabet by showing you pictures of things that began with a certain letter. Don't make it easy by using "S" or "T" or one of those popular letters. Give them a "G" or a "W". If you are in a particularly mean mood, give them "X"

Double points if your assigned letter is "B", and you
get a good image of a Bee. Trust me, no one will see
that coming.. hilarious!

Annnd, here's your bonus again.. a remarkabley similar list to the last one I linked you to, however, this one has links to sample images.