See you all here the themes of 2010 for this monthly feast of photographic genius. You now have plenty of time to prepare, to think it hard and to oil those gears to come up with creative masterpieces for every one of the twelve. You’d need to have a few ideas all right – you thought up the themes! Thanks to everyone for suggesting the categories. There were so many to fit in to twelve slots that some I’ve combined to bring a few together in one.
Get going then. Dust off your lenses, and go open that shutter a few times.
Thank you to our wonderful sponsors, Samsung UK. We’ll have a fantastic compact to give away for the best shot each month. For the first six months that camera will be the Samsung ST550, and there’ll be a fresh model to come for the months after.
As you will also no doubt know, the second and third placed entrants win a top of the range, fully waterproof, 'AP loves my pictures' mug.
PLEASE READ THE "POSTING IMAGES - MAXIMUM SIZES - Free programs & tutorials" sticky BEFORE POSTING FOR THE FIRST TIME as this contains important information.
You can catch-up with all the chat about each round and see the entries and results in our Monthly Competition forum area
Best of luck to all of you, and I can't wait to see your pictures.
Damien Demolder
Forum competition 2010
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January - "Opposites" - a head-on visual collision ***Closed***
Right and wrong, young and old, cold and hot, not started and finished – find two conflicting ideas, situations, concepts or objects and show their relationship in a picture that shouts quietly.
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February - "On the street" - pictures on tarmac ***Closed***
Take to the street to see the movement, the bustle and life on the outside. Stand back and observe humans out of their burrows, and the places they go and the way they behave. It can be funny or sad, show a sense of community or an impersonal inward-looking existence.
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March - "Darkness and light" - beyond the physical ***Closed***
Without light there is no see, no shutter speeds, no ‘there it is’. And without darkness there are no shadows, no shape and no form. These elements of our world make reality visible, so for a while forget the objects they describe and just concentrate on the light and the shade. See the light reflecting, streaking, bouncing, creeping and glowing – and photograph it just as you see it.
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April - "I love curves" - abstracted detail ***Closed***
Look and see the beauty of lines, curves, bends, shapes and texture. Use your camera to isolate the shapes of daily life so we can appreciate an edge against a plain background, a repeated pattern that streaks into the distance or a crazy jumble that makes us cross-eyed. Shoot it abstract and keep us all guessing.
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May - "Built" - constructions in our lives ***Closed***
We are surrounded by amazing feats of design and engineering, walls that stand, corners that fit, decorations that dress the functional. Photograph architecture that inspires you, that makes you wonder, or that you just plain love. Shoot the whole building or just a corner, a joint or a bolt, but show what an incredible thing it is.
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June - "Small wonders" - small and amazing ***Closed***
The best things come in small parcels - unless you’re really hungry. Find the details or a tiny subject and magnify it for us all to see. Get closer than we would usually, so the things we miss can be brought to life. Make it macro or just close; either way, make it wonderful.
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July - "Shoot it square" - as broad as high ***Closed***
There’s nothing like a square to contain, restrain, restrict, reserve or display. Forget those oblong viewfinders and switch to the classic view, working with equal height and width. Of course you haven’t got a Hasselblad, but I don’t know that – go fool me with a 6x6 crop.
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August - "Only human" - persons and people ***Closed***
You amaze me people; you smile, dance, cry, stare, walk, sit, talk and sometimes do nothing at all. It’s amazing that you can move, considering what you are made of. Take a portrait, a still life, an action shot, an x-ray, wildlife – but make it of a person or persons.
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September - "RGB" - Strictly additives ***Closed***
The Holy Trinity of colours – white can’t exist unless they sing in unison, each pulling the same burden of photons through your apertures. Take a picture in praise of these colours – you might have a favourite, but make sure each is present.
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October - "Weathered, worn, decayed and done-in" ***Closed***
It’s not only good things that come to an end – everything does. And as it does, it wastes away, it winkles, rots, dries up, crumbles and flakes. Show us decay, show us the final breaths and the signs that reveal that the end is nigh.
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November - "Sweeping statements" - panning for gold ***Closed***
Swing that camera and create a blur, or chase a butterfly across the green. Here the only thing that counts is that the camera was moving at the moment of impact. The subject might be still as a rock or a hurdler jumping a fence, but it’s the rush, the streak, the drag that matters. Make it visual, arty or factual.
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December - "Unnatural light" - and then there was… ***Closed***
Play the creator and control the sun. Use a flash, or two, a torch, a desk lamp or a match, or any form manmade light to illuminate your subject. Mix colours or keep them natural, fire the light from unexpected angles, bounce it, reflect it, swirl it around – and I don’t care what the subject is, inside or out.
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