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Icon Photography School

328 eye-catching photography themes, unleash your creativity.

This crazy list of photography themes is useful for those who feel like there is nothing to photograph. Photography themes are a great way to organize your photography. Often students say their town is boring or there is nothing to shoot. There is ALWAYS something to photograph you just have to get creative. This list should get the creative juices flowing.

Just take a look at this list of themes and items that are interesting to shoot. It should get you started.

If you're wondering why using themes in photography is useful read this.

• Abandoned Buildings
• Architecture
• Back Alleys
• Bad Weather
• Bicycle Parts
• Black and White
• Broken Glass
• Butterflies
• Butterflies / Bees
• Car Details
• Catching People Unaware
• Celebrations
• Church Windows
• City Skylines
• City Street Scenes
• Covered Bridges
• Custom Cars
• Decorations
• Demonstrations
• Disappearing Professions
• Disappearing Technologies
• Documentary
• Doom and gloom
• Dots / Dashes / Diagonals
• Emergency Situations
• Enthusiasm / eager
• Environmental Trash
• Eye Glasses
• Farm Animals
• Fetes & Festivals
• Fire Engines
• Fireworks / Fire
• Flower Petals
• Forms in Nature
• Geriatric (older folks)
• Hot Rod Cars
• Indian Ruins
• Indigenous Things Or People
• Inspiration
• Isolated Objects
• Journalistic
• Kin or Families
• Machine Parts
• Marine life
• Masculinity
• Mass flowers
• Movie Theater Marquees
• Night lights
• Odd Couples
• Old Everything
• Paper Abstracts
• Parallel Lines
• Peeling Paint
• People At Work
• People Walking Dogs
• Perspective
• Pictures in Pictures
• Piles of Things
• Pink / Purple
• Railroad Cars
• Railroad Tracks
• Reenactments
• Reflections in Glass
• Reflections in Water
• Roads-capes
• Round Things
• Rows of Things
• Sand Patterns
• Silhouettes
• Sleeping Animals
• Sleeping People
• Small Furry Animals
• Smoke Stacks
• Soft Curves
• Spanish Moss
• Steam Railroads
• Strange Signs
• String Instruments
• Superstitions
• Teddy Bear / toy
• The Local School
• The spot (X marks it, you know)
• Tools of the Trade
• Ugly Everything
• Ungulates (hoofed animals, pigs, goats, deer horses)
• Vices or Habits
• Weathered Wood
• Wide Angle Everything

How's that for a list of things to shoot?! Now get out there and take some great photographs!?

Here 61 Inspiring Photography Themes to Ignite Your Creativity!

Not enough? Check this out for some more ideas:

Video by COOPH

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Photography Ideas: 100+ Things to Photograph in 2024

A Post By: Mat Coker

Sooner or later, we all run out of things to photograph. Or we think we do.

In truth, there are countless subjects worth photographing – and many of them can be found in your house, in your backyard, or on a short walk.

I’ve compiled a list of more than 100 photography ideas, which I share below. It includes dozens of things to photograph along with lots of example photos. So if you’re looking for cool photos to take or you’re in need of inspiration, read on!

Note: I include a handful of idea categories, including nature , people , animals , events , and architecture . I recommend you start by tackling a category you’re not especially familiar with; that way, you can spend time exploring an area of photography that feels fresh .

Nature photography ideas

There is a whole wide world out there, and it’s waiting to be explored by you and your camera! I’m not just talking about natural subjects that your eyes can see; I encourage you to find what is hidden underneath and behind and inside .

First, pull out your closest-focusing lens and capture the surfaces of the natural world. Try photographing:

• Trees, branches, and bark
• Fruits and vegetables

Don’t just go for the typical nature shot. Adjust your angle, experiment with different settings, and do what you can to shoot from close and far away.

Also, photograph these natural subjects at many different times: noon, golden hour , dusk, and everything in between. Don’t forget to photograph after it rains.

Then bring out your wide-angle or telephoto lens and spend time capturing:

• Orchards (in bloom or full of fruit)
• Pumpkin patches
• Sunflower fields

Next, explore water. If you’re up for it, consider purchasing underwater housing for your camera. Here are just a few water-related items to take pictures of:

• Water spraying from the sprinkler or hose
• Creeks, ponds, lakes, and oceans

If you’re interested in more unusual nature photography ideas , consider shooting the ground, such as:

And if you’re more of a people photographer, bring some friends along with you on a morning walk and include them in your photos. You might capture beautiful shots of people on:

Portrait photography ideas

Looking for some people photography ideas? Here are a handful of subjects you can photograph from home:

• Twins and triplets
• A whole family
• 3+ generations

Note that there are many ways to photograph people. You could take posed shots, of course – but you might also capture candid moments.

And don’t pressure yourself to go big. Just find somebody you can take pictures of. You don’t have to know what you’re doing; just aim your camera and something interesting will emerge.

(Worst-case scenario, just photograph yourself! There are plenty of awesome self-portrait ideas worth trying, such as multiple exposures , abstract blurs, and more.)

If you have a child, you can capture an infinite number of possible photos. For instance, you might photograph them:

• Playing with bubbles
• At a playground
• Riding a bike
• Playing sports

Maybe you prefer to photograph friends? That’s okay, too! Grab a friend and photograph them:

• In an interesting job
• Engaging in a hobby
• Playing (or listening to) music
• Having fun with paints
• Working with tools
• Acting very professional

Really, you could produce an entire portfolio just by photographing one person over a month or two.

Animal photography ideas

If you like the idea of capturing animals, now’s your chance to get started. Consider photographing:

• At a shelter
• At an animal rescue
• At a pet store
• At an aquarium
• Local wildlife
• Fish and other water creatures

Event photography ideas

Events combine plenty of great photographic subjects, such as people, places, food, and interesting activities. You can find plenty of events listed on city websites, but consider capturing household events, too.

Here are just a few events to photograph:

• Local charity events
• Animal shelters
• Farmers markets
• Boating events

Architectural photography ideas

Architectural photography might sound a little boring, but in my experience, it can be a whole lot of fun! You don’t need to restrict yourself to the “standard” architectural subjects (like real-estate interiors and churches). Instead, try your hand at a few of these unusual photography ideas:

• Old buildings
• City neighborhoods
• Modern buildings
• Glass buildings
• Train stations

Pay careful attention to your perspective, and – if necessary – shoot wide and make distortion corrections during post-processing.

Still-life photography ideas

Still life photography is a great way to memorialize precious objects. You can create complex still life arrangements – or you can capture single items.

Note that you can aim to convey the essence of your subject, or you can strive to tell a story.

Here are just a few meaningful objects to photograph:

• Products for a small business
• Crafts for a friend’s Etsy store
• Family heirlooms
• Museum artifacts
• The items on your desk
• Your cameras
• The furniture in your house
• Junkyard items (such as rusty old cars)

Photo project ideas

Looking for a more contemplative photography idea? Then consider a photography project that spans several months (or even years).

For instance, you might produce a series of photos that aims to convey the essence of:

Or you might produce a photo series that captures the essence of:

• Cloudy days
• Stormy days

You might also select a single subject (perhaps from the photo ideas shared in previous sections), then capture it across several seasons or across an entire day.

Creative technique ideas

I’ve shared plenty of ideas about what to take pictures of…

…but in addition to all the options mentioned above, consider how you can use different techniques to capture unique shots.

For instance, regardless of your subject matter, you might capture:

• Black and white shots
• Silhouettes
• Close-up or macro shots
• Reflections

Also, consider the different results you can achieve by focusing on:

• Backgrounds

100+ photography ideas: final words

Hopefully, you’ve found this list – detailing over a hundred things to take pictures of – useful!

You have plenty of potential subjects. So grab your camera and start photographing!

Now over to you:

Have any additional photography ideas to add to my list? Share them in the comments below!

Read more from our Tips & Tutorials category

is a family photographer from Ontario, Canada. He teaches photography to parents and families, showing them how to document their life and adventures. You can get his free photography ebook , and learn more about taking creative photos.

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65+ Photography Project Ideas You Can Start Today

Written by  Shutterfly Community Last Updated: Dec 8, 2020

Do you want to sharpen your skills, learn fresh techniques or just have fun with your camera? Photography projects help you accomplish all three.

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Through themed projects, you can capture unique images that follow a certain framework or style. Your project can last a week, month or year—depending on how in depth you’d like to go. To offer you inspiration, we’ve compiled 68 creative photography projects that are appropriate for all skill levels.

Once you’ve completed your project, be sure to create a photo book with your images or select your favorite for a canvas print .

1. Self Portrait

By switching the focus from other subjects to yourself as the subject, your photography takes on a whole new perspective. When setting up your shot, choose a landmark item to use as a stand-in until you’re ready to jump in the frame.

Play with auto and manual focus with your stand-in until you get the shot just right. Then, enter the scene using the timer option.

For the wisdom project, the goal is to gather photographs of those who have offered you wisdom or a helpful perspective. You might feature grandparents or mentors—or be inclined to include young ones who have provided you a fresh angle on life.

Aim to capture individuals in their natural state, especially if it’s in a location where they shared a special moment with you.

3. Candid Photo

Photographing someone in their natural state allows for their true personality to shine through. With a candid photography project, incorporate a range of human subjects for a diverse collection, or capture the same subject across different settings and days.

Building a portfolio of several candids allows you to paint a vivid persona of your subjects.

4. Street Style Photography

Authentic street style photography allows you to snag shots of the latest fashion—all without the strut of the runway. Look for colors first (either eye-catching or stunningly neutral), then watch for the cut and structure of the clothes.

Aim for overall beauty within the frame, including the street or walkway, so the focus isn’t solely on the clothes.

5. All About The Details

Create a collection of shots with unique subjects that focus on the details. Whether the photos are for an engagement , graduation or everyday occasion, you can take portraits of smaller details, like wisps of hair, relaxed hands and prominent features. Making your subjects feel comfortable and confident in front of the camera is the first priority. Plan a single shoot for various angles to help capture what looks best on a given day or moment.

6. Natural Element

Plan for your gallery of photos to include candid shots of the subject in their element. Whether they love the beach or like to craft, you can capture your subject in their favorite space or place to go.

If a subject feels awkward in front of the camera, have him or her lean against something vertical, like a fence, wall or car. They’ll feel more anchored and their body angle will offer the photo some character without seeming unnatural.

7. Pet Photography

From cats to dogs to horses, the heart and soul of your pets can be captured with the right technique. Incorporate natural light in your shoot keep watch of your pet’s eyes. Expressions and personality often shine through and it’s a great time to capture these moments.

8. Motherhood

Being a mother is one of life’s greatest gifts. When we’re parents, beautiful moments take place along with messy and chaotic ones. Encapsulate the full spectrum of motherhood with photos from quiet moments like snuggling with your child to lively times like cooking together in the kitchen.

With any photography project, it’s important that your images tell a story.

9. Panoramic Pictures

A popular technique for landscapes, panoramic photography enlarges the viewpoint beyond the normal size of a camera lens. To ensure there are no gaps in your panoramic shot, overlap your image by 15-30%.

You’ll also want to keep your camera as level as possible to ensure the photo is even throughout. Don’t forget that panos work well for vertical shots, too, like waterfalls and deep canyons.

10. Sunsets Photos

Sunsets make for stunning photos—especially when executed well. For maximum beauty, be sure to slightly underexpose the sunset for rich and dramatic colors. Use manual mode and a fast shutter speed for underexposure, or use aperture priority with exposure compensation.

Make your sunset even more magnificent by arranging an object or scene in the foreground of the sunset, like a lake or mountain.

Mist and fog are natural elements that can enhance the beauty of your photography. Check the weather to determine when fog might pop up. Oftentimes the best lighting for fog photos occurs in the wee hours of the morning or late in the evening after sunset. The low lighting causes a slower shutter speed, which means a shakier camera.

Keep your camera as still as possible or use a tripod. The best places for foggy photos? Open bodies of water and other sweeping landscapes like fields and low rolling hills.

12. Cityscapes

Hovering skyscrapers and diverse skylines are part of what makes cityscapes such attractive photography. For a cityscapes project, try different vantage points across the city to see what works best (think: a popular lookout compared with a more secret locale).

Prepare for an after sunset shoot, allowing the city lights to pop against the dark sky. Remember to use a wide angle lens to cover as much ground as possible.

13. Water (Rain, Ocean)

Whether you’re hoping to create scenes of smooth, flowing water or capture dynamic waves crashing against a seawall, it’s critical to have better than average camera equipment. For nearly every water shot, a tripod is also essential to keep the frame still for the length of the exposure (usually two to four seconds).

Pack along a lens-friendly cloth to remove splashes and water marks. Plan to get wet if you’re banking on a stunning water shot.

14. Seasons

Each season offers its own charms—from snowy branches to colored leaves. Select a location for your seasons project where you’ll snap photos throughout all four seasons. Once the year is complete, you’ll have a collection of stunning images that tell the story of your special place over the course of a year.

15. Star Trails

Spectacular from edge to edge, star trails photography is an adventure to shoot. The first step is to find a clear sky full of stars, but free of pollution and other light interference. Anchoring your camera on a tripod, set your camera to shoot on manual mode. The faster the lens you have, the better.

Once you have your shot prepared, select drive mode for consecutive shots rather than a single frame. With your remote, let your camera take photos for thirty minutes up to a few hours, depending on the length of star trails you’re creating.

Capturing still images with a remote-controlled drone opens up the options for angles and perspectives in your photography. Consider sending a drone above a beach, golf course or mountaintop.

Increase the altitude of your drone for a more impressive viewpoint and try GPS mode for a more stable shot.

17. Food Photography

As a still life technique, food photography requires a few main ingredients: good lighting, props and style. Place your items near natural lighting or use a flash to give the photo a balanced look. When it comes to the arrangement, consider adding in table setting details like plates and silverware.

Amplify the photo’s texture with decorative pieces like colorful fruits and sprigs of herbs. For a well-rounded food photography project, shoot a variety of foods and dishes.

18. Black and White Month

Instead of using the full color spectrum, this project idea prompts you to capture images in black and white only. Two-toned photography provides a different perspective or feel to your work, and gives you a chance to highlight people, places and objects in a novel way.

For instance, a close-up of hands be enticing when displayed in color, but in black and white, the image paints the story that all humankind is united.

19. Everyday Moments

Photos that showcase a slice of regular life contain a certain genuine beauty. When preparing for everyday moment shots, make sure subjects are comfortable. People should interact as if you aren’t even present.

The true magic happens when you’re able to capture two people’s true connection.

20. Random Acts of Kindness

The random acts of kindness project prompts you to capture someone doing something thoughtful or helpful for another person. By photographing these moments, you’re telling a larger story of humanity.

To be successful in this project, you’ll need to keep a keen eye out for small acts of generosity, like a young man holding the door or a little girl smiling at a stranger.

21. Shoes For a Week

Narrow your photography focus for a week by capturing different styles of footwear. From boots to sandals to athletic shoes, diversify your image collection. Be sure to utilize a range of angles to create unique stories for each photo (i.e. a guy lounging with shoes on, two people talking while standing, a woman running).

22. Comfort Zone Challenge

Pushing the limits of your creativity often leaves you with impressive and surprising results. With the comfort zone challenge, throw caution to the wind and experiment without expectations.

Maybe that means you’ll shoot a paragliding experience, a fireworks explosion or animals in action. When you’re snapping shots, play around with your shutter speed, aperture, focal length and movement.

23. 30 Strangers

Taking a photo of someone whom you’ve only just met can be thrilling. It can also be personally and professionally rewarding. Through the 30 strangers project, you’ll capture 30 portraits of people you’ve never met before. Find people on the street, in a shopping mall or at a park.

Be sure to ask each person’s consent first before posting publicly. The 30 strangers challenge will certainly stretch you outside of your artistic comfort zone.

24. Duotone

Duotone photography refers to a multitone production of an image, usually imposed through photo editing techniques. The superimposition of a contrasting color halftone (normally black) over another color halftone enhances the middle tones of an image.

Photographs with one main object, like a flower, seashell or tree, are ideal for creating duotone effects.

25. Perspective

Perspective photography can take many forms: those shot from a low angle, ones with strong leading lines and those that look straight up into the sky. Whether your scene is a railroad track or skyscraper, your image should emphasize the angle and the unique perspective you’re hoping to give the viewer.

Train your eye to notice patterns, lines and reflections you can capture from different angles.

Not only is coffee delicious and rejuvenating, it’s also a work of art. Collaborate with a barista on a latte design or the type of mug to use. Choose a simple backdrop so the coffee remains the focal point.

A dark backdrop is best if you’re aiming to capture the steam rolling off of a warm drink.

27. Create a Photo Album

Let your memories last forever by creating a photo album for a recent vacation, an adventurous summer or a year filled with fun. Design your photo album with a theme in mind to build cohesion. Vary your layouts from page to page for texture and personality.

28. Traffic Lights

When photographing traffic lights and other light trails, the best time is during or after twilight on a night when minimal wind is present. Based on your camera angle and objects, you’ll need to adjust and experiment with your settings.

Often times, shutter priority mode is ideal along with a shutter speed of six seconds. Make stability a non-issue with a tripod, and remember you won’t be using a flash.

29. Happy Days

Allow joy to take the center stage of your photos. Whether they’re candid shots of family members interacting or a single subject, make sure the smiles are natural. Enhance the happiness level by highlighting the subject with ample natural lightening.

30. Photo Scavenger Hunt

Challenge yourself and your fellow photographers by setting up a photo scavenger hunt . Rather than choosing objects and locations to capture, create a list of photography styles to achieve. For instance, your list might include building a motion blur or catching a clear action shot. At the end of your hunt, you’ll have a collection of impressive photographs.

31. Night Scenes

Night scenes, also known as low light photography, allow you to make the most of dark scenes that are hard to capture. When less light is present, it means you’ll also have slower shutter speeds, which equals more camera shake. For this reason, landscapes and long exposures at night time require tripods.

Whether you’re shooting special moments around the campfire or gazing up at the stars, utilize a wide aperture or a low f-number to let in as much light as possible.

32. Polaroids

Polaroids offer a timeless feel and give photos a natural frame. When creating a collection of polaroids, be sure to switch up your angles and perspectives. Try a few upclose shots of objects along with macro shots of mountains and lakes.

For polaroids with human subjects, allow for plenty of natural light and aim for candids.

33. Letters/Signs

With any inanimate object, the challenge with photography is to bring it to life. With letters and signs, try to enrich the shot with the surrounding scene whether it’s greenery or a neat light fixture. Angle your lens in a way that makes the lettering most striking.

Build a full photography project with at least five to ten different signs.

34. Action Shots

To nail a clear action shot—for sports, animals or anything else—the most important aspect is to be prepared. Consider pre-focusing your shot, so when the subject enters the frame, you’re ready.

Because it may take several shots to capture even one solid photo, shoot in short bursts for a few seconds at a time. Keep extra space at either edge of your frame to allow for your subject’s movement.

35. Abstract

Fundamental to abstract photography are lines and curves. The shapes you highlight will guide the viewer’s eye to a certain engaging element. To get up close and personal with an object or design, use a macro lens. With the macro, your photo composition will have clearer resolution and sharpness. Complete your project by gathering a collection of abstract photo pieces.

36. New Lens

Your camera equipment plays a large role in your work as a photographer. Your tools, like your lenses, can fundamentally change the structure your art.

To sharpen your skills, try using a single lense for an entire month. Ideally, the lense will be new to you—allowing you to master the new tool and broaden your photography skills.

37. Architecture

Photographing architecture—whether modern or classic—presents unique challenges. Consider capturing an array of building styles for your portfolio and don’t forget to mix up your angles. Vary your shots by choosing a different weather conditions and times of day.

Through your diversity of shots, you’ll have richer story of the buildings’ relationship with the environment.

38. Thankful

To enhance your gratitude and happiness, consider completing a thankful project where you take one photo every day of something you’re grateful for. From flowers to pets to family members, find subjects that have personal meaning to you.

By capturing what you’re thankful for, you connect deeper with the people, places and things that surround you.

39. Sunday Mornings

Whether you’re enjoying a cup of coffee or a good book, snap a photo every Sunday morning for one month or a year. Capturing everyday occurrences through photography is a form of artistic journaling, helping you to document life’s big and small moments.

40. Top View

The angle of your shot makes all the difference in how appealing and engaging it is. Try a series of photos where your perspective comes from the top. Amp up the creativity by getting higher for your shoot and using a wide angle lens.

A busy environment, like a packed street or active household, can become a striking composition when using a top view perspective because it offers necessary distance from the cluttered setting.

41. Guilty Pleasures

We all have foods and activities we love despite feeling that they might not be held in high regard. Perhaps your guilty pleasure is cream-filled donuts or binge watching reruns of your favorite sitcom.

Collecting images of your guilty pleasures will likely bring you humor and levity, knowing that these items are a part of you, but they don’t necessarily define you.

42. Silhouettes

Forming a distinct contrast between light and dark, silhouettes highlight one or multiple subjects. Ensure your subject is backlit with the sun behind them. The best times to shoot silhouettes are in the morning or late evening.

Build a stunning image by setting the scene with open space, like in a field or along the beach. Set up your camera angle facing the sun, then ask your subject to stand between the sun and you. Play around with the exact angle until you have a strong contrast.

Create a collection of photos shot with prism filters on your lens or by placing a prism in front of your lens. The light that dances off of the prism will add creative effects to your photography by dispersing light before it hits the camera. Secure your camera on a tripod so you can have your hands free to play with the prism and lighting.

Prism photography can include large subjects like nature scenes and architecture or smaller objects like books and candles.

44. Symmetry

Finding subjects that offer you symmetry is the foundational step for this photography project idea. Look for symmetry in architecture and nature, but don’t leave out human and animals subjects. Smaller details, like hands or feet, often make for the perfect symmetrical photo.

Bokeh photography is denoted by one unique characteristic: a blur produced in the out-of-focus area of an image. The blur, produced by a lens, helps direct the focus of the photo. A fast lens is necessary to achieve this technique, with at least an f/2.8 aperture.

With a wide open lens, you can create bokeh with subjects like butterflies, humans and fencing around a baseball field. These photos are perfect for framing around your home .

46. Action Figures

Due to their size, action figures are easy to rearrange and shoot from multiple angles. Bring the scene to life by having the figures interact with each other. If you’re looking for an extra challenge, tell a story through your action figures, like one you would find in a comic book. Include action shots against a simple backdrop.

47. Steel Wool

Although it may seem like steel wool photography would require expensive equipment, it is a surprisingly inexpensive technique. For this project, you’ll need the following: a camera, lens, tripod, shutter cable, steel wool, string, stainless steel whisk, lighter and protective gloves. In a dark location—away from combustible items and other people—burn steel wool that’s loosely packed in a whisk.

As the steel wool burns, spin the whisk either vertically or horizontally to create the desired effect. The burning will only last about ten seconds, so you’ll want to set up for at least five seconds of exposure time. Steel wool photography creates wild and interesting images, but be sure to follow safety precautions to avoid hazards.

To enhance your skills and test out a nifty shooting technique, try macro photography on tiny subjects like insects, match-heads and flowers. Keeping your budget in mind, choose a magnification lens that lets you make super small items appear larger than life. For your macro project, vary your subjects.

Consider nature’s smallest members, miniature household items and up close shots of human elements for your portfolio.

49. Double Exposure

Double exposure, also known as multiple exposure, is a technique that combines two images in a single image. By using double exposure, you can create a distinct effect like a mirror image or ghost-like presence. The layering technique can be done with or without photoshop, depending on your equipment and skill set.

50. Escapism

Photography, like any type of art, can be a form of escapism. Through the camera, we can create images that help us step out of reality and into our daydreams. Prepare for your escapism photography project by thinking of your ‘happy places’ or locations you go to get away.

After brainstorming, head to one of those locations and shoot scenes that offer a mystical aura—whether it’s birds fluttering in the forest or the clouds lifting off of the mountains.

51. Shadow Art

Just as light is a critical element to photography, so is darkness. With shadow art, the focus is placed on the subject as it blocks light from reaching a surface, like a sidewalk or table. Experiment with the angle, distance and size of your light source to alter the intensity and scale of your shadows.

Consider humans as your subjects, but inanimate objects, too, like musical instruments, buildings and action figures.

52. Texture

From brick walls to tiled roofs to wooden fences, textures are all around us. Complete a photo challenge where you take one shot of a textured surface every day. Turn on your auto focus to ensure the object is in perfect focus. Adjust your distance from the subject based on how much detail you want in your image. This idea is perfect if you’re also looking for creative Instagram photo ideas .

Aim for a ninety degree angle when you shoot the image so your texture is lined up straight with the camera.

53. 365 Wardrobe

On each day of the year, snap photos of your clothes before you begin the day. Arrange them differently—sometimes orderly, sometimes more carelessly—to gain a sense of how your mood changed from day to day. Remember to include accessories like purses, shoes, belts and headbands.

54. Suspend Time

Photography is a powerful art medium: it can even pause time. Whether you’re suspending an item with a fishing line or taking a shot of someone jumping, you can create the look of time being stopped. Start this photography project by choosing three items or people you’d like to suspend.

55. Balloons

Bursting with color or more neutral tones, balloons make for versatile props. Let helium balloons off into the sky and capture photos as they float up. Surround the birthday girl with balloons in an otherwise empty room. Or tie a balloon to a child’s wrist and photograph them as they wander through a park.

56. Hotel Carpet

If you travel frequently, the hotel carpet project may be the right kind of fun for you. Next time you’re walking through a hotel lobby, glance down at the carpet beneath your feet. All sorts of patterns and colors are used in hotel carpets across the world. Take a snapshot (ideally at a 90-degree angle) of each carpet for a collection that will help you remember all of the places you’ve been.

Across neighborhoods and cities, doors provide insight to each home’s character. For this photography project, set out on an adventure to collect as many styles and sizes of doors as possible. Choose a macro approach, where the whole door makes the shot, or go micro by narrowing the frame to door handles and styles of wood.

58. Juxtaposition

To build juxtaposition in your photographs, place two opposite subjects next to one another. Like a blue ocean and a green forest, the contrast between the two is noticeable yet stunning. Types of juxtaposition might include a person and their shadow or a thin item next to a thicker item. For this photography project, try several contrasting subjects or locations.

Photos full of irony can be humorous or thought-provoking. Maybe you snap an image of a tow truck hauling another tow truck or you notice a descriptive sign in a place that doesn’t quite seem to fit. When it comes to ironic photos, a keen eye is needed along with a quick wit.

60. Fairy Lights

Fairy lights make for beautiful focal points. You can wrap the lights around a tree, weave them between human subjects or fill mason jars with them. Build a larger scene by ensuring no backdrop distractions are present or capture the fairy lights up close.

Regardless of what subjects and scenes you decide to shoot, proper exposure is crucial.

For this photography project, choose smoke as your primary accent. Incense sticks are easy to use and allow you to play with various colors. Your setup should ensure ample ventilation for the smoke to escape the room. Some photographers merge two photographs (one of the smoke and one of the object) to design a special scene, like one of a toy train blowing smoke or a tea kettle steaming.

62. Vintage Cars

From sporty models to classic town cars, vintage vehicles never go out of style. Look for vintage makes at car rallies and exhibitions, although sometimes you’ll come across them in your everyday happenings. The golden hours, right after sunrise or right before sunset, are ideal for shooting cars. Highlight specific parts, like bumpers, trunks and hoods for diverse perspectives.

63. Faces In Things

You’ve probably seen images that double as a face and another object. In this photography project, you’ll create a similar effect. Take a close look at nature, food and furniture to locate hidden human faces. Compile as many faces as you can, and see if your friends can guess what’s in the images.

Alter your perspective by shooting your subject through a picture frame. The frame technique works best outdoors where you can place ample distance between your lens and your subject. Consider creating scenes with a woman standing on the beach, a tree in an open field or a tall building at the end of a street.

65. Reflections

Any body of water—like a lake, river, pond or swimming pool—can act as your reflective tool for this photography project. You’ll want to avoid direct light on the water to eliminate glare. Practice using reflections on waterfront cityscapes or mountains overlooking a lake.

66. Take My Hand

When you can represent human connection in photography, the emotion of the image is strengthened. Head out on a hike or stroll through a garden to practice photographing two hands linked together.

67. Picception

A relatively new technique, picception images incorporate another camera or photo into the shot. It can be a picture-in-a-picture style or something more subtle like a photograph of someone taking a photograph. While often informal, picception shots can be formal if intentionally designed.

Often eye-catching, neon photos provide a stunning mix of light, shape and color. Whether you’re on the Vegas strip or exploring your hometown at night, take photos of neon signs with your camera’s evaluative meter exposure setting. Choose a low ISO of 200 or 100 to avoid noise. Be sure to place your camera on a tripod for stability.

No matter which photography projects you decide to complete, remember to enjoy the process and save copies of your photos. Design a themed calendar or metal print to showcase your results.

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52 photography projects: a great technique to try every week of the year

Our pick of the perfect weekend photography projects

• Home photography projects
• Outdoor photography projects
• More outdoor photography projects
• Long-term photography projects

Looking for photography projects to stimulate your creativity? Whether you’re a beginner who’s just learning the ropes or a seasoned snapper in need of inspiration, trying out a new technique can help you grow as a photographer. That’s why the list below features our pick of the best ideas to try with your camera.

From painting with light trails to capturing twilight landscapes, there are countless creative ways to use your camera and its lens. This round-up of our favorite weekend projects features suggestions to suit every skill level – whether you’re shooting with a smartphone or a ‘proper’ camera like a DSLR.

Some you can do from the comfort of you home, while others will have you heading out in search of specific scenes. Whether it’s a novel technique or an inventive suggestion for finding fresh subjects, every idea below has one thing in common: it should challenge you to try something different and find a fresh perspective.

Most of the projects can be attempted using the equipment you already own. Those that do require additional materials should all be achievable with pocket-money purchases – and if there’s any crafting involved, it should be well worth the effort when you see the results.

We’ve shared 52 of our favorite suggestions to do in 2022 below. Try them all and, in a year’s time, there’s a good chance you’ll be a better photographer, with a keener understanding of your camera and what it’s capable of. Plus you’ll be all set to attempt the final project: self-publishing a photo book.

The best home photography projects:

1. water drop art.

The basic idea with this project is to suspend a container of liquid and let drops fall through a small hole, then capture the resulting splash. Timing the shutter as the splash is created is everything. We achieved good results using two flashguns set to their lowest power (1/128th), an aperture of f/22 and water mixed with Xanthan gum to make a more viscous solution. We also used a SplashArt water drop kit from PhotoTrigger , which helped to regulate the size and frequency of the drops.

2. Indoor splash shots

For this project you'll need a flashgun that you can fire remotely, a container with clear sides for your water, a coloured background and a tripod. Set up the container and backdrop, then position the flash over the container. With the camera on a tripod and set to manual focus and exposure - f/8, ISO200 and the fastest shutter speed that will work with your flash - drop the object into the water and fire the shutter as it hits.

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3. Shapes of bokeh

Out-of-focus orbs of light can add magic to any image, but the bokeh effect needn’t be limited to standard circles. From love hearts to stars, a simple cutout filter can transform background sparkles into brilliant shapes. 

Using your lens cap as a guide, draw a circle on a piece of card. Cut out the circle, score a small shape in the centre using scissors or a craft knife, then push the card onto the front of your lens (or attach it with an elastic band). When you next shoot a scene, any unfocused light will take the form of your shape. 

Use a wide aperture to maximize the effect and remember that, as the filter restricts the amount of light entering your lens, you’ll want to set a longer exposure or higher ISO. Try simple shapes such as triangles to get started, before progressing to stars, hearts, crosses and more.

4. Create smoke art

Smoke trails are a firm favourite among still-life photographers. But how about taking it to the next level and using the shapes in a creative Photoshop project. Once you've taken a few good smoke art photos, make a blank document in Photoshop, then copy and paste one of the smoke images into it. Set the blending mode to Screen and use Warp Transform to reshape it. Continue the process to combine a range of smoke shots into a new image.

5. DIY lightbox

Lightboxes are used to illuminate objects evenly against a plain background, often for the purposes of product or food photography. Luckily, you don’t have to have a pro budget to make one at home. All you need is a cardboard box, some white paper and a table lamp. 

Remove the top flaps, stand the box on one end and cut window holes in either side. Line the box with a single, seamless piece of white paper and cover the holes with thin paper or fabric, taped in place. Then it’s as simple as positioning a desk lamp on one or both sides: the paper will diffuse the light, evenly illuminating whatever object you put inside. 

Or for an even simpler setup, use a single piece of paper as the backdrop, with one white wall made from card, and position near a window (as pictured). Experiment with aperture and shutter speed to shoot subjects with totally white backgrounds or some shadow for a sense of perspective. Then mix things up with color backgrounds. If the quality is high enough, you could list your images for sale on a stock photography website to earn some lockdown pocket money.

6. Lubricate your lens

Want to give your housebound portraits added glow? If you have a spare lens filter lying around, try an old Hollywood trick: smear a layer of Vaseline on the glass to give your images a soft, dreamy look, keeping aperture wide to emphasize the ethereal effect with a shallow depth of field. 

Get experimental by leaving the middle of the filter free from Vaseline to create a halo effect, with the centre in clear focus but the outer elements blurry and soft. Don’t want to sacrifice a filter? Stretch cling-film tight across the lens and keep it in place with an elastic band, before using the Vaseline in the same way. If you’re not into portraits, try the effect when shooting a light source for a unique style of diffusion.

7. Make your own filters

It’s no secret that color is a major element of any image, but you don’t need expensive filters or editing software to experiment with saturation. In fact, you don’t even need to leave your home: all manner of household objects can function as color filters to bring new hues to your photography – and to transform mundane moments into brighter snaps. 

Attach tissue paper to your lens with an elastic band for an instant change of scene, or try shooting through thin fabric with a light source placed behind. Too easy? Take a snap through a laundry capsule for a liquid tone adjustment or use a whisky bottle for sepia shades with a hint of distortion. Petals are pretty effective, too, as are translucent sweet wrappers.

8. Try cross-polarization

This fun project exploits the effect that polarised light has on some plastics. You'll need two polarising filters - ideally one of these should be a sheet of polarising film. You can pick up an A4 sheet of Lee 239 polarising film for £50 (try www.robertwhite.co.uk or www.pnta.com ). The sheet of film should be placed on a lightbox or in front of the only light source. An iPad screen and most computer screens have a polarising filter built in, so if you don't have a sheet of polarising film you can always experiment by creating a white document to fill the screen. Simply attach the circular polariser to the camera lens and rotate it to make the colours appear in clear plastic items

9. Food landscapes

Spice up your food photography! All you need is a set of model figures - Hornby 00 gauge figures are perfect, as they're available in a wide range of poses. Preiser has a great range too. The most important aspect is to establish a sense of narrative. Here you can see that there's a conversation between the characters, with the mountaineer on the 'mash face' being helped by his colleagues on the ground.

10. Fine-art food

Try turning your dinner ingredients into photo art using just a lightbox and a very sharp knife. Slice fruit and vegetables as thinly and evenly as possible, then place them on the lightbox. With the camera positioned directly above, use Live View to focus manually on the details. Set an aperture of f/8 to give adequate depth of field, and dial in some exposure compensation of +1 to +3 stops as the bright light can fool the camera's meter into underexposure.

11. Flowers in ice

A relatively inexpensive way of taking 'kitchen sink' close-ups that look great blown up as wall art. Freeze flowers in plastic containers of distilled or de-ionised water (available through your local auto or hardware store). The flowers will float, so try to weigh them down or fasten them in place so that they freeze under the water. Place the block of ice on top of a clear bowl or glass in a white sink or plate, so that the light can bounce through from below. Position a flashgun off to one side, angled down towards it, and shoot from the opposite side.

12. Abstracts in oil

Oil floating on the surface of water is a great way to make striking abstracts. This table-top photo project exploits the refractive quality of oil and bubbles to accentuate and distort colours. All you need to do is place a few drops of cooking oil on the surface of water in a glass dish. Make sure the dish is supported about 25cm about the table top, then place coloured paper under it and use an anglepoise lamp or flashgun to light the paper.

13. Play with fire

It doesn’t take a pyromaniac to see the photographic potential of fire, but it does take patience, skill and plenty of precautionary measures to capture a stunning action shot of a match igniting. If you’d rather not risk singeing your fingertips, try a different type of flame photography.

Shooting by candlelight alone can lead to magical results. As with any single source of light, it allows you to experiment extensively with shadows – especially if you’re capturing a portrait – while the soft, warm tone and flicker of the flame both contribute to an especially ethereal effect.

In a darkened room, try shooting with a medium-high ISO and a relatively slow shutter speed. Start with just a candle and your subject, before introducing additional elements and playing with positioning. A nearby wall, for example, will throw the candlelight back in different ways, while glass will add to the magic with fiery reflections

Tweak shutter speed to affect the strength of shadows or try adding further flames – though you might need to adjust the white balance if things look more yellow than mellow.

14. Repaint the walls with camera obscura

Familiar with pinhole photography? That technique relies on camera obscura – a natural optical effect that occurs when a small hole in an otherwise sealed space (such as a box) projects an inverted image of the world outside onto the opposite wall. You could make a pinhole camera as an at-home project, or you could go even bigger: with the right setup, you can create the camera obscura phenomenon in an entire room. 

First, you’ll need to black out a room – for example, by taping opaque sheets over your windows. Then you’ll need to make an aperture through which light can enter; the smaller the hole, the sharper but dimmer the image. Camera obscura works best in small/medium rooms, with an aperture of around 10-15mm diameter. Allow your eyes to adjust and determine whether you need to brighten the image by making a larger hole, then marvel as an inverted version of the outside world appears on the wall. 

Capture the entirety of this remarkable natural effect using a wide angle, a relatively long exposure and a tripod, or focus on specific elements of your room to emphasis the effect – such as houses appearing to float upside down on your mantelpiece.

15. Camera tossing

Chucking your precious photographic equipment into the air might sound like something designed to void the warranty, but – provided you’re not too clumsy – camera tossing can deliver some truly spectacular results. Try it in a dark room with a single light source. Set a shutter speed of around one second (roughly the length of time it’ll be in the air) and, as the timer hits zero, launch it upwards. Catching it is the important part, but once you’re comfortable with the technique you can experiment with multiple light sources, different colors and even spinning your camera as you release it.

16. Psychedelic soap film

This is a wonderful project that makes for vibrant desktop wallpaper or abstract wall art. You'll need liquid soap mixed with glycerine for long-lasting soap film, plus a wire loop, a black cloth background and a macro lens of at least 100mm. The colours created by soap film only appear when hit by light from a certain angle, so set up near a north-facing window and shoot from around 45 degrees.

17. Refractive art

Light bends when it passes through water, causing the objects behind to change appearance. This is called refraction, and you'll make use of this phenomenon in this arty photo project. All you need is a few glasses, a flashgun, a tripod and a black-and-white pattern print. Simply place the pattern in the background with the glasses in front. Fill them with different levels of water and move the pattern backwards or forwards to fine-tune the effect.

18. Kitchen close-ups

Your kitchen is an ideal location for shooting a macro project. Its reflective surfaces can be used to create interesting backgrounds for your shots, and a shallow depth of field can transform the most mundane of objects you'll find there. Creating a triptych of images can result in a piece of fantastic wall art for your kitchen too, although it's important to think about how they're going to work together before you start shooting. Here, 3 objects - a fork, a bowl of cereal and coffee granules - were all shot from a similar angle, with the impression of height linking the sequence.

19. Invert the world with a crystal ball

Shoot through a crystal ball and, while you won’t see into the future, you will capture an inverted version of the scene behind the orb. Just as light is refracted when it passes through the glass elements of a lens, the same thing happens with a glass sphere. There are dedicated photography balls on the market, but the effect can often be achieved using a clear marble or even a paperweight. Nothing suitable? A water-filled wine glass can also work. 

All sorts of subjects look good through an orb, from sunsets and cityscapes to abstract items and even portraits. Try shooting with a macro lens to fill the frame with the sphere, or with a wider angle to include some of the scene behind. To really play with perspectives, rotate the image with editing software so that the background is inverted but the scene in the orb is the right way up.  You can also incorporate elements that support the ball into the image, such as hands, bowls or miscellaneous objects.

20. Still-life bokeh

Something as simple as a crumpled piece of foil can be the basis for a creative photo project. Position a still-life subject on a sheet of glass with a piece of dark material underneath it. Scrunch up the kitchen foil then smooth it back out and place it in the background. Shine a table lamp or torch on the foil and, with a tripod mounted camera, dial in the lens's widest aperture to create some beautiful ' bokeh '. During the exposure, shine a flashlight onto the subject.

21. Play with shadows

Photography is fundamentally about capturing light, which is exactly why shadows can be so powerful. They can create contrast with lighter parts of a composition or add texture to an otherwise plain subject. They can even be manipulated to tell a story. Incorporating shadows into your images will challenge you to think not just about the objects within a scene, but how things outside of the frame can affect the light that falls within it.

To play with shadows, all you need is a light source and a solid object to block it. This could be something natural, such as the shadow of a tree cast by sunlight. Equally, it could be something man-made, such as the outline of a street sign created by a car’s headlights. Or it could be something you create yourself: try playing puppet-master by shining a torch and dancing your hand in front of it. 

You can also invert this idea by shooting a subject which is predominantly in shadow and experimenting with how splashes of light fall upon it.

22. Still life light trails

Light trails can be used in all kinds of photography, but they're perfect for a creative still life project. You can use a regular Maglite torch, but try removing the end to reveal the bulb and make the light more direct. Use some electrical tape to attach a coloured sweet wrapper, which you can use as a makeshift 'gel'. Set the canera's shutter speed to around 30 secs with an aperture of around f/8, then start moving the torch within the frame before pressing the shutter. Continue the movement throughout the exposure. Here, we suspended the torch from a piece of string and made a gentle circular movement to create a spiral around the bottle.

23. Light spirals

You'll need to attach a torch, suspended by string, to an open area of ceiling. Fit the widest lens you have on your camera, and mount it on a tripod pointing straight up. With the light turned on, autofocus on the tip of the torch and set the lens to manual focus to lock the setting in. With an aperture of f/11 or f/16 dialled in, use Bulb mode and a remote release to keep the shutter open for a minute or so as you send the torch spinning in the dark…

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Current page: Home photography projects

Formerly News Editor at Stuff, Chris has rarely been able to resist the bite of the travel bug – so he now writes about tech from the road, in whichever Wi-Fi-equipped café he can find. Fond of coffee kit, classic cars and sustainable gear, if there’s one thing Chris loves more than scribbling, shooting and sharing his way around the world, it’s alliterative triplets.

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Personal Photography Projects: 13 of the Best Ideas

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• February 14, 2024
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Personal photography projects are one of the best ways to help you improve your photography . Being focused on a particular topic you will develop more than if you photograph random subjects. Learning as you regularly take photos for your project will accelerate your progress even more.

We all like to get better at the things we enjoy doing. How we approach our photography has a direct effect on whether we will improve much over time. Taking photos now and then with no real direction will not help you develop your technical or creative skills. 

When you work on personal photography projects you will become a better photographer. You’ll be able to compare your photos over the period of time you are working on your project and see your development.

Using your camera each day, and combining this will some study, will help you build your skill more than if you don’t incorporate any study. Learning a little each day and putting it into practice is the best way to grow as a photographer.

365 Photography

Take photos of one subject, day in the life (day in my life), see everything in black and white, use only one (prime) lens, practice composition one rule at a time, photograph your other hobby, make a personal photography project of your community, volunteer as a photographer, illustrate songs you love, emulate a master, create a photography project book, become a self portrait artist, choosing personal photography projects, how to come up with personal photography project ideas.

Some photographers struggle to come up with project ideas for their personal photography . The best encouragement I can offer you is to make a photography project on something you enjoy a lot. The more you take photos of what you love,  the more exceptional your images will be.

Combine photographing what you love with on-going education. This will build your photography skills more than anything else. Learning a little and putting it into practice often will help you keep your ideas alive and more easily come up with new ones.

Make a point of pushing your photography abilities beyond what you are comfortable with. The main risk in photographing something you really enjoy is that you become complacent and capture images that are all very similar. This is why learning step by step as you work on your photography project will help your progress and growth as a photographer.

Ideas for photo projects are important. What’s also necessary is that you are committed to the continuation of your project. If your motivation wanes and you become disinterested, your personal photography project idea will be no fun. This article will help you come up with some good ideas.

Sometimes known as project 365, this idea for a personal project has a long history. I remember reading about the concept of taking a photo a day when I got my first camera. That’s nearly 40 years ago. 365 Photography has remained popular throughout the world because it’s effective.

Taking photos each day for a year will make you a better photographer. Combine this with learning a little about photography each day. You will see a progressive quality increase in your pictures.

Doing a search online and you’ll find lists of ideas of what to photograph for the 365 photo challenge . These lists may not be so helpful, depending on what you like to photograph and where in the world you live. I think a personal photography project is more effective and fun when you come up with ideas of what to photograph yourself. These lists can be helpful used as guides for inspiration, but I don’t think they work so well if you stick to them rigidly.

Being self-motivated leads to success when doing a 365 photo challenge. Having a well planned and mapped-out study guide helps keep you energized throughout the 365 projects. Having a photo challenge associated with the 365 lessons means you put into practice what you are learning, as you are learning it. 

If you take your focus off having to come up with ideas of what to photograph every day, then you’ll be less anxious. Focus on learning and the ideas of what to photograph will come to you naturally. You could also combine this with some of the following photography project ideas I have listed below.

Concentrating your photography on a single subject eliminates the need to come up with other ideas of what to take pictures of. Find a subject that intrigues you and challenge yourself to take interesting photos of it. 

You might like to photograph your kids or your pets. Maybe you love being in your garden or walking in your local park. The more you can easily incorporate your idea so it’s a regular part of your routine, the more likely you are to succeed. 

You don’t need to photograph lots of different things. Sometimes photographing one subject will improve your photography even more.

This is another well-seasoned photo project idea. Taking photos from dawn until dusk. Following a routine and so that you compile a series of photos that tell a story.

You could make it about any topic that changes during the day. Your own life could be the most convenient. 

Start taking photos in the morning and throughout the day. Keep in mind who your audience might be. It could be friends who know you or people on social media who may not know you. Think about what you are photographing and how people will relate to the images you are presenting to them.

We see everything in color. Choosing a topic of black and white for a personal project you’ll have to develop a habit of seeing in black and white. This is one of the best photography tips I can give you that will help produce stronger monochrome images.

It’s easy to convert digital images to black and white . Taking photos purposely to display them as monochrome images requires you to think differently. This is a great photo project challenge that can be used in conjunction with any other photography project idea.

Restrict yourself to photographing everything with one lens. Especially if it’s a new one. Limiting yourself like this, and using only a prime lens, will heighten your awareness. Looking at what to photograph using a single focal length will reshape the way you think about composition.

If you’ve recently bought a new lens, attach it to your camera and leave it there. For a zoom lens, leave it set to one focal length. Try to make as many interesting compositions without changing focal lengths.

The compositional rules are taught for a reason. Using them often makes your images stronger and they help build your sense of how to arrange elements within your frame. 

Many photographers don’t practice their craft as a musician practices with their instrument. Study the rules of composition. Choose one and work it until you know it inside out and backward.

Look to make your chosen rule the format of your composition for a week, or a month, or longer. Aim to become proficient in knowing when and how to apply it. Then move on and practice another composition rule in the same manner.

Photograph things you enjoy. Your images will have more feeling because of the connection you make. Choose one of your other hobbies and create a photo project around it. Maybe you like gardening. Photograph your garden. You might enjoy cycling. Photograph bicycles. Whatever you enjoy doing, think about how you can make an interesting series of images for your project.

Where you live and interact every day. Take photos of the people you meet along the way. Have a story to tell them about what you are doing and don’t be shy to ask. People make a community. Aim to build a collective portrait of the people who inhabit your locale.

Take pictures of the trees, architecture, and transportation. Think about what makes your community unique and make a collection of photos to illustrate this.

Put yourself forward and offer to take photos for a non-profit organization. It might be your place of worship, your kid’s school, an animal shelter, a social group, etc. Choose something that will interest you.

This can be quite a challenging personal project because you will have to take photos that meet others’ requirements. This to me is the main difference between an amateur and a professional. Professionals have to take photos to please someone else. They must provide photographs that their clients or editors want.

Being a volunteer will provide you with a wonderful opportunity to grow as a photographer and to bless others with the photos you take.

Think about music and how you can illustrate the lyrics of feel of your favorite songs. Engaging with this type of photography project will push you to think abstractly. How can you show an image of what you hear in the music?

Stretch your mind and be as creative as you like. There is no right or wrong way. Be flexible in your intent and the expression of what you enjoy most in the songs you love to listen to.

You could choose to restrict your style to a particular genre that you like to shoot. Maybe you like street photography or macro photography . Use any style you like to be the basis of how you illustrate and have fun doing it!

My two on-going personal photography projects are both inspired by famous photographers.

I make photomontages . I first started producing them after seeing a documentary about British artist David Hockney. He was making what he called a photo joiner. This got me hooked. Working with multiple photographs and putting them together to create cubist like artwork is great fun. 

I also produce these as videos. Mainly working with photographs. Sometimes including video clips. I combine them on a timeline and add movement.

Irving Penn inspired my other main photography project ideas. Penn was a master of natural light and had a portable outdoor studio. After reading about it I adapted the idea and made my own outdoor studio. I take it with me when I visit mountain villages here in Thailand and make portraits of the ethnic minorities.

Find a photographer whose work you love and emulate it. This will push you to become a better photographer as you seek to see the hidden style in their photographs and begin to create your own.

It could be a fiction or a non-fiction book. Think about the story you want to tell and then go about illustrating it with the pictures you take. Plan your book and map out the photos you think you’ll need. 

Set yourself a deadline so your project does not become endless. Think about how many pages you want and how you will publish it. This could be something you plan to give as a gift or use to present as a portfolio of your photography to others.

Many people struggle to come up with ideas for personal projects. Choosing to take self portraits is a great way to overcome this problem. With self-portrait projects, you always have your subject on hand. Your portraits can be made at home or anywhere you feel comfortable.

I’m not talking about selfies you’d take with your mobile photo, but well-composed, lit, and styled portraits of yourself in various situations. Think about how you can include props to make more interesting portraits.

This might seem challenging at first for some people. Think about it and how it will help your understanding as a photographer. Particularly if you are someone who likes to photograph other people. Taking self-portraits will give you a better understanding of what it’s like to be in front of the camera. Give it a shot! You may love it.

Whatever type of personal photography project ideas you think of, your commitment to is key. Photographers are often not focused on personal projects or practicing in some way or another. They rely on picking up photography tips here and there and have a random approach to improving their craft.

Tackling the 365 Days of Photography or 52 Week Challenge will make you a better photographer. Being committed to a plan and having a focused purpose you will start to see your photography develop in ways you may never have been able to imagine.

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Photo Karma 2024 - Free Trend Report

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15 Hottest Photography Trends to Be Aware of in 2024

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Knowing the top photography trends is incredibly useful for any photographer. Staying ahead of the crowd puts you at the head of the game. It can help point you toward new genres, techniques, or areas to grow your photography.

Also, clients are always looking for something new. Whether it’s wedding shots, stock images, or product photography, they want fresh ideas. They aim to use images that others don’t have, as it makes their own products one-of-a-kind.

15 Hottest Photography Trends in 2024

So, what is the hottest photography trend in 2024? AI is still at the forefront of photography this year as it evolves rapidly. We will see other photography styles and niches come as the year progresses.

Here are our picks for the top photography trends for 2024. They include trends in creativity, experimentation, connection, and storytelling. We also have a separate post about stock photography trends you can check out.

1. AI in Photography

Artificial intelligence (AI) was once just the topic of science fiction. But the future is already upon us. More and more photographers are embracing AI to boost their photography and creativity.

You see AI in elite cameras . Cameras like the Sony a7R V use AI for more advanced autofocusing. AI technology is used for faster and more accurate subject tracking. There are face- and eye-recognition features. And cameras can predict a subject’s movement. They don’t just respond to it.

But we also see its impact most in AI photo editing software . Developers are using AI to simplify complex editing processes. With the help of AI, tedious and laborious tasks now have one-click solutions.

Complex edits have become accessible to even beginners. You can easily optimize your photography and enhance your editing style. You can imagine more with your photography using artificial intelligence (AI).

Skylum has pioneered AI photo editing for the last couple of years. And Luminar Neo is the best AI-powered software on the market. It uses AI to recommend presets. But its headline features are its AI editing tools. Its GenSwap tool can now add or replace objects in your photo!

Now, AI image generation is entering the fray. Programs like PhotoAI take these tools one step further, creating portraits without a camera. Plus, software and stock photo companies have followed suit, making AI tools available to create images from scratch!

AI saves photographers time, effort, and money. But is it photography? It pushes the boundaries between what is real and imagined. But it will continue to change photography and photo editing for the foreseeable future.

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2. Smartphone Photography

As technology improves, smartphones are becoming a tool for serious photography. Now, we’re seeing almost editorial-quality images. And smartphone photography is more popular than ever.

Smartphone camera technology moves at lightning speed. There are powerful phone cameras on the market. People love their iPhone 15 and Galaxy 23 . And their successors are again eagerly anticipated this year.

You don’t have to lug around a camera to take breathtaking shots or video. There have been smartphone breakthroughs with high-resolution cameras, image stabilization, and low-light capabilities. So, you have everything they need in your pocket to take stunning images.

We are seeing more smartphone photographers. And it’s not just for everyday use. Many artists now use smartphones as their primary cameras, forgoing the latest mirrorless camera.

Social media and photojournalism will continue to propel smartphone photography into the spotlight. Newsworthy events, conflicts, and celebrations will always persist worldwide. And photographers will use their phones even more to capture and share images.

You can easily share your stories, adventures, and selfies wherever you are. Thus, smartphone photography is exploding with creativity and versatility. Candids, food photography, portraits, and minimalist architecture are just a few of the growing niches.

As smartphone cameras have improved, better AI-powered camera apps and image editors have emerged. Editing software and social media continue catering to smartphone photographers’ needs. And mobile photo editing has become easier and more convenient.

Check out iPhone School’s course for a leg up in smartphone photography .

3. Sustainability

Climate change is still at the forefront of public discourse. But there is more and more talk and debate about clean energy and renewables. So, this year, capturing tech images like wind power, hybrid cars, and electric bikes will be trending.

Net-zero emissions, climate impact, and renewables are buzzwords in 2024. But what does this mean in practice? Photojournalists and lifestyle photographers can document how the world transitions or resists sustainability.

More practically, we must be conscious of what we buy and throw away. Everything we buy has a cost to our environment. And buying photography equipment is no different.

We can reduce plastic waste by making thoughtful choices when buying photography gear . For instance, we can spend more on better equipment instead of buying a low-quality kit at a discount.

Cheap options will break within a year and end up in a landfill. The better option can be ours for years, reducing waste. We expect more and more photographers to look for durable, long-lasting options.

Photography manufacturers aren’t the biggest culprits. But they must become more climate-conscious as demands change. Camera bag brands like Thule and Peak Design and camera filter companies like Urth lead the way.

4. Storytelling Through Self-Portraits

Last year, we saw the rise of self-portraits, bold self-expression, and self-love in photography. We expect these photography trends to continue but with a twist. Photography is growing as a vehicle for telling our narratives through documentary-like images .

The “selfie” still dominates our social media news feeds. But self-portraiture’s credibility has taken off. Excellent self-portrait photographers tell compelling stories with their work. So, expect to see even more wonderful self-portraiture in the coming year.

These photographers are not taking selfies in the bathroom mirror. They are re-establishing the self-portrait as a serious art form. Their pictures are stylized and involve a lot of consideration. They explore themes of self-exploration and geopolitics.

Take self-portraits that express something meaningful to you. Photographers are expressing themselves unabashedly. You can shout, laugh, cry, etc., in front of your camera as much as you like. Self-portraiture can be very therapeutic!

Plus, you don’t always need to express yourself through self-portraits. You can tell personal stories through other genres, like still-life and landscape photography . Meaningful objects, rituals, or places can tell your story creatively and powerfully.

Two artists we have collaborated with provide fantastic tips for self-portraits. Check out our Fantastic Photo Adventures course and Creative Portrait Concepts eBook. They offer excellent advice for compelling, artistic self-portraiture.

5. Bridging Generational Gaps

Cultural, body, and age diversity have recently been important and relevant topics—and they continue to be. But generational gaps are increasingly being highlighted in social media and advertising.

We see distinct goals, outlooks, and viewpoints between generations. Yet, more and more people are starting to live in multi-generational households. And while Generation Z has entered the workplace, more and more people are working well into their golden years.

You can highlight these gaps by photographing people of all ages in different settings . Photograph older people with young people so this photography trend is clear in your work. But you can juxtapose more than age.

Look for ways to differentiate between baby boomers and Generation X, Y, and Z. But don’t just show differences. Themes like cyclical fashion trends can show similarities in sensibilities and likes.

You don’t need to take photos only in households and offices. You can choose public places, like parks, cultural events, or festivals. Show how people are bridging gaps by taking photos of different generations having fun together. You can experiment a lot with this photography trend.

6. More Than Binary

A notable trend in contemporary photography involves breaking away from traditional binary themes. Photographers are increasingly moving beyond rigid categories. And they are creating work that defies easy classification.

Photographers are embracing a multidisciplinary approach by switching roles within the creative process. They may act as both the photographer and the subject, blurring the lines between creator and observer.

This trend fosters self-expression and introspection. It lets people convey personal narratives and perspectives more authentically and nuancedly.

Photographers are also moving away from binary answers. They are embracing the complexity of the human experience. Instead of focusing solely on contrasts, they explore their subject’s multifaceted aspects.

It’s not just male or female, but masculine and feminine. It’s not just black and white, but colorful tones and shades .

This trend reflects a desire to capture the diversity and intricacies of life. It challenges viewers to engage with images on a deeper level. It prompts conversations about the complexity of identity, culture, and social issues.

This trend aligns with a broader cultural shift towards inclusivity. It helps break down stereotypes and embraces diversity.

Photographers are increasingly taking pictures that celebrate this richness of human experience. This challenges preconceived notions and fosters more inclusive and empathetic visual language.

7. Cinematic Photography

Cinematic photography is emerging as a prominent trend this year. This style applies the artistry of filmmaking to still images . Think dramatic depth of field, compelling composition, and bold colors and backdrops.

This style attempts to evoke a cinematic feel and create visually compelling narratives. It uses techniques like strategic framing, dynamic composition, and atmospheric lighting.

Another key aspect of cinematic photography is using a wide aspect ratio. This format resembles the widescreen format of movies. It lets photographers capture expansive scenes and emphasizes storytelling with a broader canvas.

Lighting also plays a pivotal role in cinematic photography. It often features dramatic contrasts and shadows reminiscent of film noir or iconic cinematic scenes. The interplay of light and shadow helps convey emotions. It also enhances depth and creates a sense of atmosphere.

Also, color grading is a hallmark of cinematic photography. Photographers use post-processing techniques to achieve a distinct color palette. This enhances the mood and thematic elements. Warm tones, cool hues, and selective color grading enhance the cinematic aesthetic.

Cinematic photographers use storytelling elements. They use visual cues to suggest a narrative or evoke a specific emotion. They may use props, settings, and even models in a way that mirrors movies. This invites viewers to see a photo as if it were a still frame from a film.

You can use many modern digital cameras to extract a still frame from a video. Or, you can extract images from video through Adobe Photoshop .

8. Hyperrealism

An extreme level of detail characterizes hyperrealism in photography. It goes beyond what the human eye typically perceives.

This style aims to create realistic images that appear more authentic than reality. Hyperrealistic photos are meticulously composed. They use advanced techniques to capture every nuance with precision.

Photographers in this genre often use high-resolution cameras , like the GFX100 II , and special lenses. They also use sophisticated post-processing methods to achieve an unprecedented level of clarity.

Every texture, reflection, and detail is precisely rendered. The result is images that can be mistaken for paintings or digital renderings. It explores subjects in mundane, everyday settings. But it elevates the ordinary to an extraordinary level through meticulous attention to detail.

This approach challenges viewers to reconsider their perception of reality. It prompts them to appreciate the world’s beauty and intricacies.

Also, hyperrealism in photography frequently involves the use of controlled lighting . This enhances details and creates a sense of heightened reality.

Hyperrealistic photography is distinguished by its combination of technical precision and artistic vision. It is compelling and thought-provoking. And it will push the boundaries of what we capture in the visual world this year.

9. Natural Looks

To counteract AI and hyperrealism, we also expect a trend toward natural looks in photography. This style emphasizes authenticity and simplicity and avoids heavy retouching and artificial edits.

Photographers who embrace this trend seek to showcase their subjects genuinely and unfiltered. This trend celebrates imperfections and embraces the beauty found in the everyday.

The emphasis is on minimalism, both in composition and post-processing. Photographers often opt for soft, natural lighting to illuminate their subjects. Harsh artificial lights are avoided.

The goal is to capture the moment’s essence without imposing an overly stylized or contrived aesthetic. This trend extends to portraiture, where minimal makeup and styling are used. This contributes to a more authentic representation of individuals.

Candid moments and spontaneous expressions are valued . They emphasize the real emotions and connections between subjects. The overall intent is to create a visual narrative that feels honest, relatable, and closer to reality.

Post-processing techniques are subtle, with an emphasis on enhancing rather than altering. This may include slight adjustments to color balance, contrast, and clarity. But the organic feel of the image is preserved.

The world is saturated with highly curated and digitally manipulated images. Natural looks provide a refreshing reprieve.

It celebrates the inherent beauty found in simplicity and authenticity. This resonates with viewers seeking a genuine and relatable visual experience in photography.

10. Modern Minimalism

Every year, we look at our images through a magnifying glass. Complexity has always been valued in photography. Photographers use so many different techniques besides composition and color management.

With the overuse of filters and editing software, photographers who want to stand out may want to take a step back. Look for minimalistic approaches to distinguish your images.

Think uncluttered compositions, bold, clean lines, and negative spaces. Think minimalist design and muted colors.

Less “noise” means more focus on the subject. This applies to shooting minimalist portraits , simple fashion shoots, bare landscapes , and more. The more stripped down you can make your images, the better.

When evaluating a shot, look at what you can remove. Depending on your composition, you can wait for elements to move out of your frame (in street photography, for example). Or aim for simpler backgrounds.

In a complex world, photography trends will continue to favor the beauty of simplicity. For more tips, check out our Urban Minimalism Smartphone eBook !

11. Retro Aesthetics and Vintage Photography

Retro aesthetics and vintage photography have experienced a resurgence. Photographers are embracing the charm and nostalgia associated with bygone eras. As each generation gets older, nostalgia grows.

This trend involves deliberately using older photo techniques, equipment, and visual styles. Vintage and retro-looking cameras , film photography, and color palettes like Kodak film are back in vogue. 

So, take out your analog cameras , film , or digital filters that mimic the characteristics of old film stocks. Or, grab that editing software and app that gives your digital photography easy access to Kodachrome filters.

Grain, color shifts, and vignettes impart a nostalgic feel to images. This trend celebrates imperfections. It embraces the character and warmth associated with vintage photos.

But retro aesthetics extend beyond photography and encompass a broader visual style. They are inspired by specific historical periods, such as the 1970s, 80s, or 90s. These looks emphasize textures, diffuse lighting , and warm but faded colors.

This trend involves recreating the look and feel of design elements from these eras. It includes retro fashion, typography, and color palettes. Photographers contribute to this aesthetic by framing their shots in a way that mirrors the visual language of the chosen period.

Both retro aesthetics and vintage photography appeal to our desire for a simpler, more romanticized past. Photographers blend contemporary subjects with the stylistic elements of earlier times.

This takes viewers on a nostalgic journey. It offers a refreshing departure from the crisp, high-tech imagery prevalent in modern photography. We want to create timeless memories with old looks.

12. Instant Photography

Instant photography has resurged as a popular trend. It is fueled by nostalgia and a desire for tangible, immediate results. It is led by brands like Polaroid and Fujifilm’s Instax . Their instant cameras offer a unique, hands-on experience in our digital age.

The appeal lies in the instant gratification of holding a physical print seconds after capturing a moment. The unpredictability of colors, soft focus, and the one-of-a-kind nature of each print contribute to the charm.

We expect more wedding couples to use self-capturing instant photography options, like Instax cameras and a guest book. You get fun, spontaneous, “off-the-cuff” photos to supplement traditional wedding photography.

Influencers, artists, and enthusiasts embrace instant photography for its spontaneity and artistic possibilities. It fosters a more intentional and mindful approach to image-making. Users must carefully choose when and what to capture due to film limitations.

Beyond the look, instant photos are a counterrevolution against the delete culture of digital photos. They celebrate imperfections and the beauty of the fleeting moment.

13. Drone Photography

Drone shots have emerged as a significant photography trend. This is due to its ability to capture unique, dynamic perspectives. Plus, drones are now cheaper and more accessible than ever.

There have been many tech advancements. Improved camera resolution and stabilization means high-quality aerial images. And there will continue to be constant innovation in camera drone technology.

The impact of social media, like Instagram, has amplified the popularity of drone photography. These striking visuals stand out on platforms.

Drones find applications beyond artistic pursuits. They are widely used in landscape, real estate, and travel photography. Drones are also versatile cameras that can explore remote locations. This greatly appeals to adventure and outdoor photographers.

There are strict rules on where you can fly a drone, and rightly so. But travel photographers will continue to use aerial photography to capture jaw-dropping scenery.

The quality of images has become outstanding and helps create great content. Photography trends like drone wedding photography will continue to grow. And drone cameras will find their way into many other areas we didn’t expect.

Below is a drone image of a sandstone plateau in the Saudi Arabia’s Hisma desert. Don’t forget to use a filter for bright scenes !

14. 360 Photography

Again, this year, 360-degree photography will be a big trend. This type of photography gained a foothold in product photography. The subject turns as the camera captures a 360-degree view .

Photographers are changing how they shoot by turning the camera 360 degrees to capture the world around them. Time-lapse photography benefits from this process.

But it is also great for real estate photography. With this setup, you can capture a 360-degree scene of a room, where the viewer can move around it as if they were there. It helps bridge the gap between photography and reality.

There is, of course, also huge potential for 360 panoramic landscapes. You can create tiny planet images in Photoshop that look fantastic when done correctly.

Maybe you don’t have the capital to invest in Photoshop or an expensive 360-degree camera . But you can recreate the same technique using a tripod with a special 360-degree head, like the Vanguard Alta Pro .

15. Light and Compact Mirrorless Cameras

We have entered a new era of photography for serious photographers. Camera manufacturers continue to pour resources into digital mirrorless cameras. So, if you’re holding onto a DSLR, now is the time to take that leap and buy a mirrorless one.

Mirrorless systems have always been smaller, quieter, and lighter while retaining great resolution. Now, we are seeing a trend toward mirrorless cameras that are lighter and more compact while still retaining great optics.

Last year, Canon released its lightest full-frame mirrorless camera , the EOS R8 . The Fujifilm X100v remains an in-demand compact camera. And this year, its highly anticipated successor, the X100R, is on the horizon.

Compact cameras will continue to be trendy accessories to throw in our bags. But why carry around the extra weight compared to a smartphone?

Mirrorless cameras have larger sensors for more image detail and low-light performance. They also have more versatility and better manual controls. If you want to improve your image-taking abilities, consider getting one.

Canon, Nikon, and other major camera brands are expanding their mirrorless camera lines. The trend of powerful cameras getting even lighter and more compact will continue.

Conclusion: Photography Trends 2024

The future is impossible for anyone to see. But that doesn’t mean we can’t make our predictions for the hottest photography trends this year.

Some trends, like AI in photography, have been growing for some time and will continue to grow in the next 12 months. But others are newer trends. Whether right or wrong, 2024 will be an exciting year for photography and photographers!

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24 creative photography projects for 2024

4 seasons of creative challenges and inspiration to enjoy over the next 12 months

Creative photography projects for winter 2024

Creative photography projects for spring 2024, creative photography projects for summer 2024, creative photography projects for fall 2024.

It’s time to bid farewell to 2023 and say hello to 2024! The new year is always a great time to start afresh and to reassess your ambitions and aims for the year. As well as thinking of the personal changes you want to make, you can also think about what you want to achieve from your photography – and we are here to help you do just that. 

To get you started, we’ve curated 24 fabulous photo projects for you to try throughout the year. The aim is to tackle one project every fortnight so you can explore different genres and use different skills that will help you grow as a photographer.

To make it easier to follow, we‘ve themed the projects into seasonal categories, starting with winter, but mix and match as you see fit. You can also adapt our suggestions to suit your own shooting and editing style – feel free to put your own creative stamp on them!

Project 1: Fabulous flora

You may think that spring and summer are the best times of year to take stunning garden shots, and while this is true, the winter garden also has plenty of photographic opportunities. Look for structural and skeletal plants such as dead thistles or cow parsley to shoot as your main subject. Remember to get down low to compose your shots. Bring along a bag or old cushion to save your knees from getting dirty and wet on the ground.

• Convert your images to black and white. This style of photography lends itself to the monochromatic medium as your winter garden shots should all be about the form and structure of the plant. 
• Isolate your subject. Think about your background and how to make your subject stand out. A wide aperture setting will help you do this. 
• Consider how you are going to present your image. A double or triptych can work well.

Project 2: Bleak landscapes

Instead of waiting for the perfect golden hour, embrace the dull weather by shooting bleak and minimal landscapes this winter. Misty conditions are ideal and use negative space to aid your composition. This type of project can be shot in both rural and urban locations, so wherever you live, you can achieve great results. Trees work particularly well as a main subject, but so do man-made structures such as water towers and industrial power plants. Have a look at the works of Hilla and Bernd Becher and Josef Koudelka for some inspiration.

• When converting your image to black and white, it’s easy to over-boost the contrast and make the blacks too dark and the whites too light. Pulling it back a little will let the image speak for itself.
• A wide-angle lens is useful for this style of photography.  
• When it comes to composing your image, as well as using the rule of thirds, you can also think more symmetrically.

Project 3: Light the way

Winter months are the perfect time to shoot light trails. Head out into the urban environment or look for a busy and interesting piece of road for your location. Essential kit includes a tripod, high-vis (if you stand near a road) and a wide-angle lens. Experiment using different shutter speed settings (starting at 30 seconds) to see how they add to the final effect. The speed of the traffic and the number of vehicles will also affect the result.

Project 4: Serene still-life

On those days when it’s freezing cold or the rain is hammering down and you can’t face the outdoors, find some household objects to create a simple still-life setup. In our example, we used some candles as our main subject and draped a household plant around to add some interest to the shot. Your background choice is also important as this sets the feel and tone of the image.

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Project 5: Creative portraits

This project is easy to do at home but it will require some planning, milk (around six liters), a model and flowers, although these are optional. We shot our image using flash and elevated our position above the model using a step ladder. Make sure you have your camera strapped and secured to your body to avoid any accidents. To create the milky effect, fill your bath about halfway with warm water and then add the milk. If you don’t want to use fresh milk, you can also use milk powder.

• Bounce the flash to achieve a clean look. You want to avoid heavy or distracting shadows. 
• If you’re going to add floating flowers to the milk, add these after your model is in position; otherwise, they will go underneath the water as your model gets into the bath.  
• Once you’ve added the milk, the water cools down reasonably quickly – be ready to shoot so that your model doesn’t get cold!

Project 6: Festive bokeh

Bokeh comes from the Japanese word boke, which means blur or haze. In photography, you can achieve an easy bokeh effect using a lens that can be opened to a wide aperture setting – the wider the better, so prime lenses are ideal. You will also need some lights in the background, and small lights work best, so Christmas trees are perfect for this type of effect.

Project 7: Bring spring indoors

When the first signs of spring start to emerge, we all seem to breathe a sigh of relief… However, we are also aware that April showers can go on way beyond April, so on those rainy days, bring the spring indoors. A flat lay is a great way to do this and can be achieved in a few easy steps.

Set up the background

Lay down a piece of coloured card on a table and place it next to a large window. As you want to make your image bright and vibrant, colored card will work best.

Bounce the light

To reduce the shadows, place a reflector on the opposite side to your main light source. This lifts the image and removes the stronger shadows for a more even result.

Set up your camera

Put your camera into Aperture Priority mode and set the aperture to f/4 and the ISO around 200. You can either shoot this handheld or on a tripod if your shutter speed is too slow.

Project 8: Animal portraits

Many animals are born in the spring, so take advantage of this to create some characterful animal portraits. For a winning shot, keep the focus on the eye or the face of the animal to create a connection between the subject and the viewer. Animals can be tricky to work with (especially those that aren’t domesticated) so be patient and keep shooting to ensure you get a winning shot.

Project 9: The Bartocha technique

Sandra Bartocha was one of the first to invent this popular technique where you layer images on top of each other (often nature images) to create a beautiful effect. To achieve this, shoot multiple images of your subject at different focus points and then build your image using an editing software program like Photoshop , where you can blend multiple layers together.

Project 10: Garden lifestyle

The spring garden is the perfect setting for a lifestyle project. Although this shot looks as though it has been taken candidly from behind the flowers, it has in fact been carefully composed and thought through to sell the dream. Placing items such as a blanket and a magazine on the table adds that lifestyle element to the scene and enables the viewer to picture themselves in that setting.

Project 11: Beautiful butterflies

By late spring, many different varieties of butterfly are starting to hatch. To shoot our spring butterflies, we grew them ourselves. We ordered some caterpillars from Insect Lore (insectlore.co.uk) and watched them grow from caterpillars into Painted Lady butterflies – this is also a particularly interesting project to do if you have children. When we released the butterflies into our garden, they were completely docile, meaning we could spend time getting them into a good position.

• Head to your back garden or the local park and look for flowers (such as the daisies in our example) or for interesting backdrops where the butterflies can rest.
• Use a long lens such as a macro 100mm prime for best results.
• When shooting at a close proximity, your aperture setting is affected. For example, our images were shot at f/8, which on a wide-angle image would be sharp from front to back. For our butterfly images, f/8 was the perfect setting as it softened the background while keeping some of the butterfly sharp, which was the effect we were after.

Project 12: Wide and shallow

As spring leaps into action, you’ll find fields of flowers starting to bloom. Our instinct and habit when we shoot a wide-angle shot is to set the aperture to a narrow setting to keep the scene sharp from front to back. On this occasion, however, you should do the exact opposite. Open your aperture to a wide setting and blur the background and foreground. This works best in-camera if you have a lens that can go as wide as f/2.8. However, if you don’t have an f/2.8 optic, shoot as wide as you can and then exaggerate the blur effect at the editing stage.

• Look for a colorful setting. Fields of tulips or lines of flowers are the perfect arrangement for this technique (lavender fields also work in the summer months).
• Think about where you want your focus to sit in the image. About a third of the way up often creates a pleasing result.
• Plan your shoot to coincide with good weather. Avoid the brightest part of the day and opt to shoot in softer light at the beginning or the end of the day.

Project 13: Splash and shoot

Jumping into the sea or a large body of water is great fun to do and you can get some eye-catching photographic results at the same time. To make sure your shots are sharp, set your camera to fire in the fastest burst mode you have and ensure your AF setting is set to the tracking feature, so you can follow your subject. You may need to get your model to do a few jumps to get the perfect shot.

• It’s all about communication. Speak to your model first to tell them where they need to jump so you can be ready to get the action shot.
• Shoot a sequence of images and either pick the best of the bunch or present them as a sequence. 
• Sea salt and cameras do not mix! Protect your camera with a waterproof cover and keep it clear of any big splashes. A long lens will help you get close to your subjects.

Project 14: Divine drinks

Cold drinks on a hot summer’s day make the perfect combination for a winning photograph. Not only is it better to shoot into the light here, but you also want to make sure your drinks are ice-cold so that they bubble with condensation, which adds to the overall effect.

• Think about your setting and how that adds to the overall look. In the summer, an outdoor setting such as a garden is the best way to go.
• Open your aperture to a wide setting to blur the background and isolate your subject.
• Bring in additional props to add interest to the corner or side of the frame, but make sure they don’t become the main focus. Here, we used a pair of sunglasses as a prop.

Project 15: Summer scenes

The first or last light of the summer day are the best times to shoot spectacular summer scenes. Blackpool Sands in Devon, pictured here, were shining as the sun set behind the fields. Shoot in raw format and bring those warm tones back into your image at the editing stage to make the most out of it.

• Calm and still days are the ideal settings to shoot scenes like the one below. Have a recce beforehand to work out the best spot from which to compose your shot.
• Use a wide-angle lens to frame the full scene and look for curves and shapes in the landscape to help you with your composition.
• At the editing stage, bring some detail back into the shadows. You may also need to warm the shadows up as the light is much cooler there compared with the rest of the scene.

Project 16: Perfect portraits

The long summer days are blissful and at the start and end of the day, the light begins to soften meaning you can achieve excellent results with your portraits. Coordinate your sitter’s clothing to match the scenery. In our example, the girl’s blue flowery dress matches the flowers on the ground perfectly. We’ve also added a creative filter and toned the image to make every element in the scene work together.

• Have fun and engage with your subject as you are shooting. Although it might be tricky to think about camera settings while directing a model, you should make sure they are comfortable.
• If working with children, you need to be quick as they won’t stand still for long. To hold their attention, do your research first – find out their interests so you can engage with them for longer.
• Keep the focus fixed on the face, but if shooting closer up, focus on the eyes.

Project 17: Capture fun at a festival

If you like people-watching and listening to loud music, there’s nothing better than photographing a music festival. These images were taken for the Dart Music Festival last summer and are the perfect example of how to get great results…

Look for light

Photography is all about finding the best light and this is also the case at a festival or an event. Natural or ambient lighting can be used to your advantage so look for opportune moments with your subject in the setting.

As well as photographing the musicians at a music festival, there are lots of images to be captured in the crowd. Look for fun moments, especially when people are unaware of your presence for a more candid and natural result.

Capture the moment

It’s all about being ready to capture the perfect moment. A shake of the head or someone jumping in the air are always winners. Keep your ISO above 800 to ensure your shutter speed is fast enough to freeze the action.

Project 18: Shoot big group photos

Shooting a large group of people is never easy so think of fun ways you can get them to engage with each other. People feel a lot less awkward if they have something to do or are given good direction. These colorful bridesmaids naturally formed around their bride, creating the perfect lineup for a group picture. Luckily, it was a hot day so it didn’t take much encouragement to get them to paddle in the water! Make sure you keep your aperture setting around f/8 so everyone in the frame stays sharp.

Project 19: Fall close-up

As well as offering plenty of opportunities for wide-angle shots in the fall, the small details of the season are also a joy to photograph. Look for slithers of light to frame your subject and when it comes to editing your images, follow our steps for atmospheric results. We think Lightroom is one of the best image-editing software programs for toning and styling your images, so we opted to use this.

Open Lightroom

Import your images and then go to the Develop Module. Start by adjusting the controls in the basic tab. Correct the Exposure and White Balance, boost the Contrast and use the Whites, Blacks, Shadows and Highlights sliders to tone your image. Also, play around with the Tone Curve setting below for further effects.

Profiles and presets

Profiles and presets are easy ways of toning and styling your image and are a great starting point. You can create your own or import them. There are plenty of profiles and presets for sale on the internet. We added a touch of a profile called Soft Fade as the base for our image. You can adjust the amount applied by any profile or preset using the Amount slider – sometimes a hint is all you need.

Color grading

Now take it a step further and go to the Color Grading feature. This enables you to color-tone the mid-tones, highlights and shadows separately. Start by picking your color, for example, warmer mid-tones and highlights and cooler shadows; you can then adjust the amount added by clicking further out on the circle. Again, less is more, so have a play around for subtle results like ours.

Project 20: Location portraits

Although landscape photographers search for that perfect autumnal light, portrait photographers also do the same when out on location. This image taken of a girl at an outdoor adventure club is the perfect example of what a setting sun in autumn can bring to an image.

• Keep your camera in Aperture Priority mode and knock the exposure meter down a stop to ensure your highlights aren’t overexposing.
• Shoot into the light, keeping the focus on your subject.
• Color is important for a shot like this so think about what you want your subject to wear. In our example, the red jumper is perfectly matched to the light conditions.

Project 21: Shoot abstract architecture

Sometimes less is more, such as in this example of an image of a beach sauna. The contrast of the patterned orange tiles placed against a clear blue sky is what makes it such an effective result. You don’t need to go far to find this type of image, so have a search around your local area to see what you can find.

Project 22: Still-life around the home

If you need a day at home, you can still take great photographs. The home has plenty of areas you can style, from living room areas to a shelf and dresser in the bedroom. If you have busy surfaces, remove the clutter and style your shots using a few books, plants, candles, blankets, cushions or whatever you have lying around… it’s also a good excuse to have a clean and sort out household items at the same time.

• Use a tripod as you want to keep your ISO down low to ensure your shots aren’t grainy. Using a tripod indoors enables you to keep your ISO low, at 100, as you will need to use a longer shutter speed. 
• Unless you have a library of beautiful old books that all match in color and style when shooting books, turn them around so you can’t see the spine to create a neutral look. 
• For scenes where you have a big difference between the highlights and shadows of the image, try bracketing exposures and merge the shots at the editing stage.

Project 23: Fire and food

Smoky and fiery conditions are perfect for food photography in action. Look for flames created by dripping meat to capture effective results. When it comes to selecting the right camera settings, don’t be afraid to push the ISO up if you are shooting in low light. Here, we set ours to 1600 and the aperture at f/2.8 to get a shutter speed of 1/400 sec. This meant the action of the flame and the hand stayed sharp.

Project 24: Present your photos

On those rainy days later in the year, take time to reflect on your photography, go through and organise your photos and edit them accordingly. Try printing out some of your images, thinking of different ways to present them, and if you need to share images with a client or a friend then find a pleasing presentation method, such as the wooden box in our example, or frame your favorite photos of the year and hang them on a wall.

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Claire is a professional photographer and writer, and lives by the the sea with her two young children, husband and cat in the southwest of the UK.

After graduating from The Bournemouth Arts Institute with a first-class degree in photography, Claire worked for a number of years in the publishing industry, including as Technique Editor for Digital Camera magazine.

She loves anything and everything to do with photography, from creating magazine articles to photographing ballerinas on the beach and newborn babies (but not at the same time). She mainly shoots with digital DSLRs, but does dust off her beloved Hasselblad medium-format film camera once in a while…

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Creative Photography Ideas

These creative photography ideas are worth trying. Follow them when you lack inspiration. But if you want to get unusual pictures, it is better not to spare time searching for suitable places, subjects and scenes, and start taking creative photography right now!

50 Creative Photography Ideas to Try in 2024

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Are you interested in creative photography ideas? The following ones may serve as an inspiration for your own unique picture compositions.

1. Play With Shapes

A very simple yet interesting example of cool photo ideas is to combine two totally different objects which have a shared feature. It may be the shape, color or anything else.

• View more still life photography ideas .

2. Spiral Light Photography

One of the variations of light painting photography is spiral light photography. To bring such unique photography ideas to life, you need to shoot at night and involve a torch. Stand in front of the camera and start spinning around while holding a beaming torch.

The captured angles will touch the floor or produce an illuminated path. Try using light-sticks or gels of various colors for the torches.

3. High-Speed Photography

For many shooters, high-speed photography is a rather challenging type. I believe that everyone made an attempt to take pictures of an object in swift motion at least once.

To realize these creative photography ideas, shoot with a camera capable of working at fast shutter speed. This way, you will “freeze” an actively moving object, even a plane or a train.

4. Light Trail Photography

With light trail photography, you can highlight an eye-catching item or composition. To make such ideas for photographs work, you need a moving lighting source. The key to successful light trail images is to use a long exposure.

Also, the scene for the shot should be really captivating; otherwise, you won’t achieve the desired result. Combine a picturesque place with the movements of lights and you are bound to get breathtaking images.

• Use a tripod to take perfect quality photos.

5. Light Graffiti

I am sure you have come across the pictures taken at night with a person drawing some stuff in front of the camera. For this kind of creative photography, bring a torch, a tripod, set a slow shutter speed and be patient.

The scene here matters a lot, so it should be attention-grabbing. Then locate yourself in front of the camera (it is better to have someone to help you) to paint away.

6. Long Exposure Daytime

If you are looking for dramatic and, at the same time, creative picture ideas, pay attention to a long exposure. When you concentrate on the camera’s shutter speed, you may affect any kind of motion in the shot. There exist many methods of how you can take advantage of this shooting style. For instance, you may use it to remove needless objects from the composition, like by-passers.

Moreover, it puts emphasis on the energy of moving objects, with water transforming into glass and clouds into streaks. The scene appears more captivating and the significant details are highlighted.

• View more about landscape photography .

7. Water Splash

For this idea, you will need a remote-controlled flash, a water tank, a black background and a tripod.

Install a water tank and a black background, then place a flash above the tank. Place the camera on a tripod and switch to manual focus mode.

With f/8 aperture and ISO 200, set the fastest shutter speed possible. So, throw the subject into the water and press the shutter button as soon as it touches the surface of the water.

• Use a black background to take perfect water splash photos.

8. Macro Photography

Macro photography is often neglected by many shooters. If you have an extension tube or a macro lens, you have an opportunity to take cool close-up pictures.

When realizing this still life idea, you may shoot whatever you want. We don’t inspect the items very closely in everyday life, that’s why such shots will look very out-of-the-ordinary.

• Check out my list of the best cameras for macro photography .

9. Crystal Ball Photography

Thanks to David Bowie and jugglers, crystal balls became popular. You can come up with plenty of creative photography ideas when shooting through a crystal ball.

In this way, you direct the way a person perceives the composition. It is presented simultaneously in a normal view and upside down.

• Read more about crystal ball photography ideas .

10. Water Droplet Photography

When you wish to shoot an ordinary object in an extraordinary manner, resort to water droplet photography. With its help, you can effectively take pictures of different products, food or realize creative photography packaging ideas.

You need to direct water drops at a height towards a bowl with water. The task is to capture the water splash.

For a larger splash, increase the height from which the water drops fall. You are free to customize the composition to your taste.

11. Oil and Water

Combining things that regularly don’t go together may result in fascinating still life photography ideas. For instance, it may be water and oil.

Since they can’t be mixed, you can add texture, form and shape even to an ordinary shot. It is a bright example of abstract photography.

Simply get some water, oil, a place to locate them and a bit of color. In this way, you may get not only stunning pictures but also outstanding artworks to hang on the wall.

Such a simple object as a crumpled piece of foil can easily become the basis for creative photography ideas. Place the subject on the glass and place a piece of dark material under the glass.

Use your hands to crumple regular kitchen foil, then spread it and place it as a background. Direct the light from the table lamp or any other source at the foil.

With the camera on a tripod, open the aperture as wide as possible. Light the foil using flash while shooting.

13. Try Some Motion Blur

You can get motion blur in a number of ways. As for me, motion blur is freezing the motion in the shot.

Take a picture of the subject moving or move yourself or the camera (also known as panning). I prefer capturing motion blur by adjusting slow shutter speed and showing the motion of the subject.

If you do it correctly, you can successfully implement cool photography ideas. For a better result, use a tripod.

14. Shoot Out of Focus

When done accidentally or on purpose, in both cases, I enjoy pictures taken out of focus. It is one of the greatest experimental photography techniques.

Do it just out of curiosity, to express your vision, play around and see what results you can get. To get a better idea of how to adjust your camera for such a result, you can check out recommendation on Photo Doto .

15. Find Reflections

An interesting example of fun photography ideas is to place the subject in front of the mirror or near water and take pictures of the reflection.

• Read more about urban photography .

16. Double Exposures

Double exposure is one of the best and most efficient ways to make your shots really stand out and bring them to the next level of creativity. The technique involves blending two pictures into one. Several recent DSLR models offer a multiple exposure mode. You will need to take some time to figure it out, but the result will be undoubtedly worth it.

17. Try Adding Words

One of the truly creative photo ideas is to make your shots speak in the literal sense. You may spell a certain word or a phrase with the help of candies, wires, spices, flower petals, paper clips or other small objects and photograph it.

Look for the items related to letters and associated with one theme, like spring, food, toys, space, etc.

18. Shooting Through Objects

One of my favorite easy photography ideas is to take pictures through objects in order to make the shot deeper and eye-catching. Capture some ordinary items, such as branches, pieces of fabric or leaves for an extraordinary and unique effect in the image.

19. Shadow Play

You may realize creative photography ideas with the help of shadow play technique. It is especially effective in cases when the sun is shining brightly and produces strong shadows on the ground and the surface of the objects.

Such shots will also look wonderful taken inside. Don’t be afraid to take pictures from unusual angles to experiment with high contrast between sunlight and shadows.

20. Have Fun with Patterns

As for photography ideas at home for beginners, find objects belonging to one group, for instance, vegetables, stationery items, candies, jewelry, etc. Gather them and put the camera on a tripod. Create a composition, beginning with larger objects and moving to tinier elements.

21. Create Smoke Art

Use smoke wisps to realize your still life photography ideas. For a more spectacular image, you may take advantage of shapes in Photoshop.

Firstly, take several smoke art shots and create a new document in the program. After that, copy and paste one smoke picture into this document.

Select the Screen option in the blending mode and reshape it using Warp Transform. Keep creating smoke wisps and merge other smoke images into a new picture.

22. Art of Refraction

The light is refracted as it passes through the water, and the objects behind the water vessels look deformed. This phenomenon may be used in creative images photography.

All you need is a few glasses, a flashlight, a tripod and a picture with a black and white pattern that you place in the background. Fill the glasses with different amounts of water and move the picture forward/backward to adjust the effect.

23. Yummy Landscapes

Use food as a subject! Here you will need toy figures of people and/or animals and an idea for the theme. The main thing is to create a narrative scene for the frame and use plenty of different food that may look like potential landscapes.

24. Address Photo Retouching Services

Today, a lot of photographers turn to trusted outsourcing companies, for example, FixThePhoto for image editing and creative photo manipulations. Such proven services are always the key to a quality retouch in a short time.

25. Include Chalk Drawings

One of the best creative photography tricks is to combine a simple sketch with an actual object. You may produce a new setting for an item just by drawing a few lines with chalk.

The variety of settings is endless; it all depends on your imagination. Just find chalk, a place to draw and think of a sketch.

I’m not good at painting at all, so I look for basic items. I won’t be able to turn candy into a magical castle. However, it won’t be difficult for me to draw a flaming trail and pretend that it is a comet.

• Use Chalk to take creative and colorful photos.

26. Flowers in Ice

Try taking macro “kitchen sink” shots for creative photography Instagram profile. You won’t have to invest a lot of money and will also create an incredible wall décor.

Visit a nearby auto or hardware shop and buy de-ionized or distilled water. After that, pour it into plastic reservoirs where you should freeze flowers.

They won’t stay in one place so attach them to the surface or increase their weight. The flowers have to be frozen under the water. Locate a block of ice on top of a transparent glass or bowl in a white plate or sink.

In this way, the light will be bouncing through from the bottom. Place a flashgun off on one of the sides, at a down angle directed at it, then photograph from the opposite side.

27. Rubik’s Cube

Creative photography ideas don’t require elaborate props, as you can simply use something lying in your drawer for many years and still get interesting pictures. For example, a good old Rubik’s cube.

If you don’t have any, go to the nearest store and get it (it doesn’t cost much). Remember the times, when you learned how to shoot various objects casting shadows.

A Rubik’s cube works in the same way, so you just need to select the proper angle to capture the interplay of shadows and light. Depending on your camera’s capabilities, you can get really captivating photos.

28. Recreate a Tilt-shift Effect

Many architecture shooters often resort to the “toy-town” effect, which appears when a powerful tilt-shift lens is used incorrectly. You can go another way and create something similar using PS capabilities.

Just keep a small part of a photo sharp, while the rest of the frame heavily blurred. To get a true-to-life picture, photograph from a high point on a sunny day to accentuate the model’s vintage look.

29. Steel Wool on Fire

This is a sample of unique ideas for photographs that require thorough preparation and utmost care at the shooting. Having a photo session at night, choose an open area without flammable objects nearby.

Take a metal whisk and put a ball of fine wire wool in it. Attach the whisk to a chain, fire the wool and start spinning it.

You will need an assistant and tripod to stabilize your camera. Set the exposure of about 15 seconds at f/11 at ISO 100.

• Read more steel wool photography ideas .

30. Right Time, Wrong Lens

It may seem a bit crazy at first, but if you really want to bring some fresh feel to your works, be ready to try such creative photography ideas. You need to take advantage of the lens that you never use for this particular photography genre.

For instance, a wide-angle lens is rarely used for shooting animals, but it is your ideal choice if you want to get unpredictable results.

31. Deconstructed Landscapes

A great way to show a landscape is to compose a photo out of several pieces. Just grab your camera and go for a 15-minute walk in any picturesque place.

Take as many photos as you wish. Don’t get carried away with complicate shooting techniques, advanced settings or gear. Make the process simple and enjoyable.

Just remember that you need to activate the Aperture Priory mode to realize such cool photo ideas. Once you return home, open Photoshop, create a grid there and combine several photos into one image with the help of Layers.

32. Minimalist Mono Landscapes

This is also a great hack for a landscape photographer. Having a gorgeous view in front of your lens, what’s the point of cramming it into one frame?

You’d better take a series of miniature shots at a long exposure and later merge them into one composition (either symmetrical or square). Not to be dependent on the time of the shooting, use a strong Neutral Density (ND) filter.

Having a camera fixed on a tripod is also a reasonable idea. Use a shutter remote to get sharp images.

33. Car Park Abstracts

To learn creative photography and perform interesting photo sessions, you don’t need to go to remote places or constantly work outdoors. You can select any location, even a car park, and take some truly catchy shots there.

As for the equipment – a regular DSLR with a standard zoom will do. Opt for simple shooting techniques and try to find interesting colors, patterns, shapes and textures to capture.

34. Naked Night Photography

If easy photography ideas aren’t something that interests you, then try shooting a model totally naked at night outdoors. Find a comfortable place and take advantage of the available light. No flashes, no tripod and no long exposures.

35. Optical Illusions

You have surely seen such images on the net when the relations between elements of different shapes and sizes are represented in such a way that viewers doubt their real proportions, the direction they move, etc. If you are for such creative picture ideas, you need to photograph a common object, making it look in interaction with a bigger object that is typically located in the background.

A small aperture, meaning a larger depth of field, helps achieve a more captivating effect.

36. With Colored Smoke or Smoke Bombs

Colored smoke will help take a fresh look at the image of witches, queens, forest fairies and other interesting characters from the Middle Ages.Smoke bombs give an opportunity to make photo sessions in a futuristic style more dynamic and intense.

With such cool photography ideas, original photo shoots in the Gothic style will become even more stunning and a little frightening.

• Use Colorful Smoke Props to take creative portrait photos.

37. Using Drone

Since aerial photography is gaining vast popularity, there are lots of creative photography ideas that you can realize using specifically a drone. With a copter, you can show one and the same scene from an absolutely different perspective.

Why not capture dynamic moments of people having fun at a beach, climbing mountains or playing football from above with the help of a drone? The GPS mode will help get a sharper shot, while bigger altitude contributes to a stunning viewpoint.

• Look though these drone photography ideas .

38. Street Style Portraits

Street style photography is frequently used to show the fashion trends at this particular period of time. Primarily, look for the colors, either striking or surprisingly neutral. Then pay attention to the structure and cut of the clothing.

Don’t concentrate solely on the attire, but mind the surroundings as they must match the creative photo ideas you are going to realize.

39. Neon Portraits

One of the most popular creative photography techniques among portrait shooters is adding neon lights into the frame. You can photograph a person near a bright red sign or a shop window and get a truly memorable picture.

To eliminate shadows, use reflectors and take advantage of photo editing tools if you need to lighten certain parts of a photo.

• Read more about how to realize neon photography ideas .

40. Take My Hand

One of the easiest photography theme ideas. Photographing 2 people walking hand in hand helps tell a certain story and evoke positive emotions.

41. Underwater

You can get interesting shots taken against the sea background or in the rain, but underwater photographs look especially mesmerizing. In addition to unique poses for pictures, a photographer must prepare the necessary equipment and discuss everything with models.

Water itself helps create unusual images, playing with fabric and hair.

42. Near a Deserted Building

Pictures in deserted buildings are stylish andinteresting. Although such an idea appeared a long time ago, it is still relevant. To make your photoshoot original, carefully think the model’s look and creative photography poses over.

Mystical and Gothic themes suit abandoned buildings perfectly. Some people like the punk look, combining fun with aggression and negligence.

Moreover, negligence should be visible in everything: in makeup, hairstyle, clothing.

43. Sunrises and Sunsets

If you need creative photography ideas for self portraits, mind this one. Having sunset or sunrise as a background is awesome, just choose the appropriate pose and shoot from a nice angle. Silhouette pictures look absolutely original.

But you need to practice the poses before the shooting. Play with your hands in order to “touch” the beauty of nature.

• Read more about female poses .

44. Childish Fun

The expression "adults are big children" is easy to prove using a thematic photoshoot. Surely, you had some plans in the childhood that you haven’t realized yet – ride from a high children’s slide, run barefoot in the sandbox or fly a large kite.

45. In the Village

Want unique photos – go to the village. Engage anything and anybody that catches your attention. If you're on the field, capture the hay, for example. Also, you can include a child in this photo.

• View more family portrait poses .

46. Light and Shadow Interplay

One of the most helpful photography tricks that help make a photo of a pretty girl catchy and creative, is to use light and shadow interplay.

Whether it’s the color patterns of a stained glass lamp standing nearby, the hard shadow of a sheet falling on the model’s face or the distinctive light stencil that outlines her bone structure, all this adds “something special” that we usually look for in portraits.

• View more about shadow photography .

47. Shoot Through the Prisms

Searching for portrait creative photography ideas, you have probably heard about prisms. A shooter needs to locate a prism in front of a lens. As a result, you will get a spectacular reflection and add a glare effect to the portrait.

• View more portrait photography ideas .

48. Backlight Portraits

One of the best portrait photography ideas is to use backlighting techniques. You need 2 light sources and a decent light meter to get nice a lighting set-up.

49. Focus on One Part of the Body

Use a lens with a large focal length or get close to the subject so that you can photograph only one part of the body.Shooting hands, eyes, mouth, or even the lower part of the body will leave a lot of space for the viewer’s imagination.

50. A Series of Shots

Creative landscape artists often use this idea, though you can try it for other genres. Switch the camera to the burst mode and take several photos at once. Thus you can create a series of pictures that can be presented simultaneously, instead of a single static photo.

FREEBIES for Editing Creative Photos

After you manage to bring to life your creative photography ideas, it is high time to give your works a professional finishing. Download presets, actions and overlays presented below to cope with the task faster.

Double Exposure Photoshop Action "Three Color"

Mix your portrait photos with landscape/cityscape shots in several seconds with the help of this action. The results can’t but impress.

Color Action Photoshop "Aqua"

Have a picture with many blue shades? Enhance the coloring and overall mood by dint of this PS action. For minor adjustments, use the “Hard Contrast” action from this kit.

Photoshop Bokeh Overlay "Mirror Glows"

Think that your photo will look better with a bokeh effect? Then apply this overlay. Your picture will acquire glowing lights evenly scattered across the entire frame. Decide on the type of effect (Christmas tree, street lanterns, glistering water, etc.) that suits your images most of all.

Free Lightroom Preset Portrait "Contrast"

A universal preset for all studio portraits. It helps correct lighting and white balance, as well as smooth the skin tone.

Free LR Preset "Apricot"

If your image was taken in bright sun, you will surely need this preset. It will improve blue shades and make other colors more natural. You can freely combine this preset with other filters from the pack.

Hi there, I'm Tata Rossi - a professional blogger, read more

• Outdoor ideas
•   FREEBIES for editing photos

City life: Moscow

With a resurrected trainline, a high-concept park, edgy art spaces and changing attitudes, in moscow old and new are starting to dance — and it's a fascinating show to watch.

A wind orchestra plays in the small park beside Red Square

Inside the moodily lit Moskovsky Bar in the Four Seasons hotel, Ilya, the barman, is making me a Moscow Mule. It's a quiet evening and the ground-floor watering hole is almost empty, but Ilya is performing with a panache that suggests an audience. In goes the vodka with an arc of the arm, lifting the bottle like a ballerina in flight. The ginger beer is added with a splash. Then, like a magician unveiling an assistant who, it transpires, has not been sawn in half, he reveals the secret ingredient: kvas, the Russian version of coca cola, glugged from St Petersburg to Vladivostok in the Soviet era. The final touch has come from just as far. "The ice is from Lake Baikal, in Siberia," he tells me, producing a cube the size of a brick. As he hands me the copper mug I half expect him to say "ta-dah!"

I take the cocktail from him, noticing his tattoos as I do so. Snakes coil their way around his wrist, poking out from underneath his crisp white shirt. For a moment, they throw me, seeming to posit this cool cat of a cocktail maker in Shoreditch, Brooklyn, Kreuzberg or some other hip area of a city that has embraced the 21st century. Not in the Russian capital, where, some might argue, the 20th century is still alive and glowering.

Outside, Moscow is keeping up appearances. Two minutes walk south west, the soldiers who protect the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier — the monument dedicated to Russia's dead from the Second World War — are ending the day in a choreographed march back to barracks. Above them, the wall of the Kremlin looms. Behind this stark red barrier, the lights are on in the Senate building where the Russian president has his office. There's rain on the breeze, and the city is lost in a gloom redolent of Bond films and Le Carré novels. Back in Moskovsky Bar, Ilya reaches for the apricot brandy and asks: "How about a Pavlovan Mystery?" There'll be no frosty relations tonight. At least, not in here.

Despite its old-fashioned elements, however, in Moscow old and new are starting to dance ­— and it's fascinating to watch the show. On a Saturday morning I glimpse their faltering steps, their unsure foxtrot. It's 22 April, Lenin's birthday and a fortuitous time to be in Red Square. A crowd of well-wishers has congregated at the revolutionary icon's tomb to mark the anniversary. The red flags of the Russian Communist Party are waved in the misty air. Three elderly gentlemen, stooped and frail, are assisted by a son or daughter towards the tomb. Adjacent on the slippery cobbles, millennial Moscow looks on in bemusement and then passes by. There are selfies to be taken, smartphone conversations to be had and trainers to be bought in GUM, a department store that faces the mausoleum. Mirroring the trio of septuagenarian soldiers saluting their hero, metres away three teenage girls skip through the shop's giant entrance, arms linked, giggling in unison.

But it's too simplistic to say that Russia in 2017 is witnessing a schism between yesterday and tomorrow. Moscow is being pulled slowly and subtly in all manner of directions — by financial changes; by a glacial infrastructure overhaul; by cultural undercurrents; by the motion of youth and social media. Each tugs at the moorings of tradition, politics and ingrained attitudes. The process isn't tearing the city apart, but it's certainly stretching the stitches.

Some of the signs are obvious. Moya Ulitsa ('My Street') is an ambitious, overdue programme that began in 2014 to remove the city's electrical cables from overhead pylons and bury them beneath the pavement. In a metropolis of 13 million residents, it has only added to the traffic chaos — jams are constant. Some of the gridlock has been eased by the resurrection of the Moscow Central Circle, a 34-mile ring railway line around the centre. It was initially constructed in 1908, closed to passengers in 1934, and reconfigured as a fast commuter service last September. Travellers can ride it to Delovoy Tsentr station and the Moscow City business district, an image of 'new Russia', where buildings like the 1,227ft-tall Federation Tower scratch at the heavens.

A mile south west of the Kremlin, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour encapsulates Russia waltzing between old and new. It was originally built between 1839 and 1883 in thanks for Russia's deliverance from Napoleon, but was obliterated by dynamite on Stalin's orders in 1931, in the epoch of state atheism. Its replacement was built between 1990 and 2000 under the more benevolent eyes of Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, a looming giant of white walls and gold domes that admires its reflection in the River Moskva.

And yet, though a child in years, the cathedral belongs to a Russia of unflinching centuries. It was here, on 21 February 2012, that the all-female rock band Pussy Riot played a guerilla gig, an act of political defiance aimed at Vladimir Putin that would see three of its members tried on charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, and jailed for nearly two years in the harshest case. Watch the YouTube video of the incident and it appears utterly innocuous, but standing in the same vast space on a Saturday lunchtime, I'm suddenly not surprised that it provoked such a severe response. This cathedral represents the Russia of fervent Orthodox faith and extreme devotion. Elaborate mosaics and frescoes adorn the walls. The aroma of incense floats on the air. Women in headscarves rub tirelessly at brass candle stands, quietly angered by the wax that drips from burning wicks.

It's beautiful but stifling, an improbable context for protest, and I feel the need to flee to the roof, where an observation deck offers views of a shapeshifting conurbation. Moscow City is visible in the distance, but the past is also swarthily insistent. In the distance I spy the Seven Sisters, the septet of colossal gothic skyscrapers, commissioned by Stalin between 1947 and 1953 and an inalienable part of the Moscow skyline. They are magnificent in size and scope, serving as (among other things) Moscow State University, the five-star Hotel Ukraina and its luxury sibling the Hotel Leningradskaya. But with clouds gathering behind them, they also resemble hands clawing their way up from a grave.

Going underground The sense of a Russia braced against dissent is amplified by a ride south-west on the tube. The Moscow metro is a masterpiece, surely the planet's most spectacular subterranean transit system, but it pledges visual allegiance to the Soviet straitjacket. Park Kultury station, on Line 1, is a Stalinist celebration of Russian prowess, the concourse between its platforms peppered with marble statues of godlike youths, carved between 1931 and 1935: gorgeous boys reading literature, aspiring actors performing, athletic girls triumphing at tennis. It was carved out between 1931 and 1935, and does not seem too concerned that the world has moved on.

But a defiant flame flickers above ground. At first glance, Gorky Park — Moscow's prime green enclave — would seem to toe the party line as well, named after Russian literary giant and Stalin's favourite author Maxim Gorky, and featuring an enormous seven-archway entrance that booms with Soviet grandeur. The year 1955 is imprinted on its facade next to Lenin's face.

Yet inside, the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art is a clever question mark, probing at the fabric of the society around it. Its moniker is a red herring, referring to the former bus depot in which it was originally housed. It now occupies the shell of the Vremena Goda ('seasons of the year') restaurant, the park's culinary focal point in the Soviet decades. A mosaic of a female autumn clad in orange still adorns the main hall. The whole gallery, in fact, might be an act of misdirection, showcasing art that could be considered critical of the status quo, yet which wraps its barbs in ambiguity. 'Numbers', a 2015 work by the 28-year-old Chechen artist Aslan Gaisumov examines the destruction of his home city of Grozny by Russian forces in 1999. It reconstructs a street via the silent device of fixing salvaged house numbers — one to 99 — to a board. The reasons for the gaps' placement, in a pattern that approximates a mouth of broken teeth, are left to your interpretation. Similarly, photos by Anastasia Bogomolova capture the bleak mundanity of life in the city of Bakal (1,000 miles east of Moscow), without explicitly stating that it was born out of slavery, the site of one of Stalin's Gulags from 1941 to 1943.

Russia's left field is also identifiable two miles east of the Kremlin at Winzavod, another contemporary art hub cocooned in a onetime brewery and wine factory. Travelling to find it feels like a journey beneath the city's skin. Line 5 of the metro goes both above and below ground, surfacing next to Kurskaya railway station, from which drab armies of carriages trundle off in search of Moscow's southern suburbs. Further on, it passes through narrow roads lined with warehouses and splattered with graffiti. The gallery is entirely at home in this post-industrial realm. Since 2007, its brick outhouses have displayed the work of many of the country's brightest young visionaries and will continue to do so this summer via its Farewell to Eternal Youth exhibition. Video artist Evgeny Granilschikov will take centre stage until 16 July, and sculptor Irina Korina will come into focus for two months from 15 August. Both will enjoy audiences larger than you might expect of so scuffed a location. Hidden in the corner of the compound, diner-drinkery Kraftwerk is testament to Winzavod's popularity. A chalkboard behind the bar lists 29 beers, with titles as evocative as Red Sonya and Fucking Perfect. A DJ booth promises loud, late nights. I ask the waitress dashing between tables what time it closes. "We're open until our last customer leaves," she says with a shrug that suggests she is used to lengthy shifts.

A fragment of a less introverted, more expressive Russia? Maybe. And maybe Zaryadye Park, Moscow's current big creative project, is part of the same thing. Here is a flight of fantasy — a green lung. Due for completion in 2018, the space will incorporate everything from ecological zones that represent the flora of the Russian landscape to an orchestral concert hall and a half-bridge made from glass that will jut partially out over the Moskva River. That this will be the first new park in Moscow in 50 years is remarkable. That it's being crafted to the blueprint of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the New York design team who created Manhattan's iconic High Line walkway, is even more so. That this place of public promenade will sit directly next door to the Kremlin, on the footprint of the demolished Rossiya Hotel, the 3,000-room kraken that became an emblem of squat Soviet sixties architecture, seems almost impossible to conceive.

"Part of the idea is to open up the city for pedestrians," Timur Bashkaev, one of the architects responsible for the interiors of some of Zaryadye's futuristic buildings, tells me as we examine a scale model of the site at his office in the shadow of Christ the Saviour. "People will walk out of Red Square and into the park. It will alter the centre."

Later that day I take a stroll to inspect it, peering over wooden barricades to spy on the work in progress. All around, 20-something Muscovites are scurrying into the dusk, aiming for the shops of the Okhotny Ryad mall, a retail temple wedded to American capitalism with such enthusiasm that it offers Dunkin' Donuts. But around the corner, guards are still statuesque at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Mother Russia watching her children, uncertain where the future will carry them.

Getting there & around British Airways flies direct from Heathrow to Moscow's Domodedovo Airport, which lies 26 miles south east of the city centre. Russian national carrier Aeroflot serves Heathrow and Gatwick from Sheremetyevo Airport, 18 miles north west of the Kremlin. The Moscow Metro covers the city in depth and, including the Moscow Central Circle, it incorporates 15 lines, 245 miles of track and 237 stations. Single journeys are R55 (75p). The Aeroexpress aeroexpress.ru train service links Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo airports to the centre (the Belorussky and Paveletsky train terminals respectively), from R420 (£5.75) one way.

When to go The Russian winter can be notoriously fierce, but Moscow can hit temperatures of 23C in July and August. September, with average temperatures of around 16C, is also an ideal month to visit.

Places mentioned Bolshoi Theatre Cathedral of Christ the Saviour Four Seasons hotel Garage Museum GUM Kraftwerk Kremlin Museum Winzavod

More info visitrussia.org.uk

How to do it Steppes Travel , a Russia specialist, offers five-day breaks at the Four Seasons hotel, B&B, from £1,975 per person, including British Airways flights, a private guide, transfers and visa assistance.

Follow @LeadbeaterChris

Published in the Jul/Aug 2017 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK)

• Travel and Adventure

Shooter Files by f.d. walker

Street Photography Tips, Interaction, Travel, Guides

Apr 24 2017

City Street Guides by f.d. walker: A Street Photography Guide to Moscow, Russia

*A series of guides on shooting Street Photography in cities around the world. Find the best spots to shoot, things to capture, street walks, street tips, safety concerns, and more for cities around the world. I have personally researched, explored and shot Street Photography in every city that I create a guide for. So you can be ready to capture the streets as soon as you step outside with your camera!

At over 12 million people, Moscow is the largest city in Russia and second largest in Europe by population ( Istanbul is #1). An urban, cosmopolitan metropolis with more than enough glitz and glam to cater to the elite, but without losing its fair share of Soviet era roughness around the edges. It can be fast paced, brash, busy, and trendy like other big cities, but it has its blend of West meets Russia atmosphere and beauty that provides plenty of unique interest. The Red Square is as famous as it gets, but there’s so much more to this city, including the most beautiful subway system you’ve ever seen. It would take years to capture all of Moscow, but that means you have an endless amount of areas to discover.

So here’s a Street Photography guide so you can be ready to capture all that Moscow has to offer before you even arrive!

• Patriarch’s Pond
• Old Arbat Street
• Maroseyka Street
• Tverskoy Boulevard

Top 5 Street Spots:

1. red square.

The Red Square is the most famous square in not just Russia, but all of Eastern Europe. The name actually doesn’t come from the color of the bricks or communism, but from the name in Russian, Krásnaya, once meaning “beautiful” before its meaning changed to “red.” This large plaza is what you see on the cover of guide books and magazines for Moscow, with St. Basil’s Cathedral being the center piece next to Lenin’s Mausoleum surrounded by the Kremlin Wall. Of course, the Red Square attracts hordes of tourist due to the main attractions, but all that activity around an interesting atmosphere does provide street photo opportunities. It’s also the central square connecting to the city’s major streets, providing a good starting point to explore outward.

You’ll also find the popular pedestrian only Nikolskaya Street connecting the Red Square to Lubyanka Square. This line of expensive shops includes plenty of activity, while also leading you to another popular square. Filled with history rivaling any city, the Red Square and surrounding areas are the heart and soul of Russia.

2. Patriarch’s Ponds

Patriarch’s Ponds is one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Moscow. Despite the name being plural, there’s only one large pond, but it’s worth a visit with your camera. It’s a popular spot for locals and expats to come relax or take a stroll around the pond. You get an interesting mix of young and old too, from young love to “babushkas” feeding pigeons. It’s a very peaceful park atmosphere in one of the nicer areas within the city center, while bringing enough activity for street photography. 

The pond is shallow and in the winter becomes a popular spot for ice-skating too. The area is also well-known for the location in the famous Russian novel, The Master and Margarita. 

3. Old Arbat (Stary Arbat)

Old Arbat is the most famous pedestrian street in Moscow, and dating back to the 15th century, also one of its oldest. Originally, it was an area of trade, but soon became the most prestigious residential area in Moscow. During the 18th century, Arbat started attracting the city’s scholars and artists, including Alexander Pushkin. Cafes lined the streets and impressive homes filled the neighborhood. Since then, New Arbat street was created as a highway in the area, while Old Arbat was paved for a 1km pedestrian only walkway.

Due to the historic buildings, famous artists that lived here, and the bohemian atmosphere, Old Arbat has become a big attraction for tourists today. Now, there’s a mix of cafes, restaurants, souvenir shops, street performers, street merchants and other attractions for visitors, and some locals, to come enjoy. It can get really busy here and there’s usually something interesting going on so it’s a good street to come walk with your camera for guaranteed life.

4. Gorky Park

One of the most famous places in Moscow is Gorky Park. The official name is Maxim Gorky’s Central Park of Culture & Leisure, which gives you an idea of what goes on here. When built, it was the first of its kind in the Soviet Union. Divided into two parts, it stretches along Moscow River. One end contains fair rides, foods stands, tennis courts, a sports club, a lake for boat rides, and more. This end brings more active life due to its number of attractions, while the other end is more relaxed, where you’ll find gardens, trees, older buildings, and an outdoor amphitheater.

Gorky Park attracts mostly locals so it’s a good spot to capture the non-tourist side of Moscow life. Muscovites come here to escape the city and unwind in a picturesque setting. The park remains alive outside of the warmer months too, especially when the lake turns into the city’s largest outdoor skating rink. I’d recommend taking the metro out here to spend at least half a day exploring the massive park’s life with your camera.

5. Maroseyka Street

Maroseyka Street is a popular area not too far from the Red Square. The long, winding street turns into Pokrovka and is lined with restaurants, cafes, bars and places to stay. It’s actually where I like to stay when I’m in Moscow due to its location and solid street photography opportunities itself. You have Kitay-gorod station near and if you keep walking southwest, you’ll get to the Red Square. But if you walk northwest, as it changes to Pokrovka, you can find a long street of activity for photography with its own interesting atmosphere.

6. Tverskoy Boulevard

Tverskoy Boulevard is the oldest and longest boulevard in Moscow, beginning at the end of Nikitsky Boulevard, and finishing at Pushkin Square, a spot to come for activity itself. The boulevard is made up of two avenues, with pedestrian walkways in-between. You’ll find grass, shrubbery, trees, benches and more walking it’s almost kilometer length. Many people come here to enjoy some relaxation, walk their dog, or just to use it to walk wherever they’re going. Its center location also provides a nice place to walk with your camera near plenty of other spots you’ll want to check out anyway.

Sample Street Walk:

For a full day of Street Photography, covering some of the best spots, you can follow this sample street walk for Moscow:

• Start your morning walking around the Red Square (1), while exploring the surrounding area, including Nikolskaya Street
• Then walk northwest to Patriarch’s Ponds (2) and slowly walk the pond and surrounding area with your camera
• Next, walk east to the Pushkin Monument and stroll down Tverskoy Boulevard (6)
• Once Tverskoy Boulevard (6) ends, it will turn into Nikitsky Boulevard. Follow this down until you get to the start of Old Arbat Street (3), across from Arbatskaya station
• After you’re done walking down Old Arbat Street (3) for more street photography, spend some time checking out Moscow’s beautiful metro stations
• To finish off the day with more street photography, get off the metro near Red Square (1) again, Maroseyka Street (5) or wherever you’re staying for the night.

3 Things I’ll Remember about Shooting in Moscow:

1. museum metro.

The Moscow metro system was the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union and today includes 203 stations across 340km of routes. The elaborate system has some of the deepest stations in the world too, with escalators that seem to go on forever. None of this is what makes it so special, though. Many of its stations feel like stepping inside a museum, making it without a doubt the most interesting and beautiful metro system I’ve been in.

When built, Stalin wanted to make the metro stations “palaces for the people” with marble, chandeliers, and grand architecture. The best part is the variety of architecture and styles used, making many of the stations a completely different experience visually. You could easily spend a whole day traveling the stations and there are even tours available for people who wish to do just that. My advice, though, would be just to buy a ticket and hop on and off at different stations, while exploring different lines. The museum-like surrounding mixed with the crowds of characters can make for a great photography experience.

Since there are so many stations, here are some of my favorites to check out:

• Novoslobodskaya
• Mayakovskaya
• Elektrozavodskaya
• Komsomolskaya
• Ploschad Revolyutsii
• Dostoyevskaya
• Prospekt Mira

2. Moscow is Big

It’s no secret that Moscow is a big city, but it can feel even bigger with how spread out much of it is. This is especially true if you compare it to cities outside of Asia. If I compared it to cities in Europe, I’d probably say only Istanbul would warrant more time to really discover the depths of this city. Most only explore around the Red Square and surrounding area, but that is such a small part of the city. Although, that central area does give you plenty to see on its own.

Fortunately, I had a good friend living in the city to show me around, but it opened up my eyes even more to how much there is to discover in Moscow. It’s a big city with a variety of atmosphere that can take you from “east” to “west” and trendy to rugged depending on where you go. I’d imagine you’d have to live here a while to really know the city.

3. Cosmopolitan Mix of East meets West

Modern skyscrapers mixed with amazing architecture, a world-class metro system with museum-like beauty, trendy fashion and chic clubs, Moscow is a rich mix of Russian culture and history in a more western cosmopolitan package. There is a push to keep the Russian culture, while also pushing forward with a modern metropolis the whole world will envy. This comes with an impressive skyline, that continues to grow, and endless modernities, but with soviet nostalgia and atmosphere mixed in for good measure.

Mixed in with this grand western cosmopolitan atmosphere, is a strong national pride in Russia. This includes their famous leader, Vladimir Putin. Maybe no other place will you see a country’s leader more often. All over, from the pricey tourist shops to the underground walkway stalls, you’ll find goods with Putin’s likeness covering them. From t-shirts to magnets to Matryoshka dolls. There’s a strong national pride that can be seen around the city, which also extends to their leader. Moscow is many things. It’s East meets West, modernizations meets Soviet era, and a whole lot more.

What To Do For a Street Photography Break?:

Eat at a stolovaya.

Stolovayas are Russian cafeterias that became popular in the Soviet days. You grab a tray and walk down the line of freshly prepared local dishes, and select whatever you want from the chefs. They’re usually inexpensive and a much better value than restaurants, while giving you the opportunity to try from a wide selection of everyday Russian food. They’re also very tasty. I always include some borsch on my tray and go from there. The places themselves are all over Moscow and usually come with Soviet-era aesthetics to complete the experience.

Street Safety Score: 7

*As always, no place is completely safe! So when I talk about safety, I’m speaking in general comparison to other places. Always take precaution, be smart, observe your surroundings and trust your instincts anywhere you go!

Being the 2nd largest city in Europe with over 12 million people, you’re going to have your dangerous areas, but for the most part, it feels safe walking around. Russia is statistically higher in crime compared to most of Europe, but this generally doesn’t apply to tourists and visitors. Around the Red Square and surrounding city center, you should feel completely safe walking around. Pick pocketing can happen, but no more than other touristic places. I always explore Moscow freely without coming across too much to worry about. It’s a spread out city, though, so of course it matters where you are. Just use basic street smarts, know where you are and Moscow shouldn’t give you a problem. 

People’s Reaction Score: 7

Moscow is fast paced, big city life, which usually means people aren’t too concerned with you, or your camera. I don’t find people notice or pay much attention to me when I’m out taking photos in Moscow. For the most part, people just go about their day. You shouldn’t get too many looks or concern. But it can depend on the area you are in. The more you stick out, the more you might get noticed with suspicions. I’ve never had any problems in Moscow, or Russia, but just be careful who you’re taking a photo of if you get out of the city center. Other than that, it’s about average for reactions. 

Street Tips:

Learn the alphabet .

Much of Moscow, including the metro system, doesn’t use english. The Russian alphabet uses letters from the Cyrillic script, which if you aren’t familiar with it and don’t know the sounds, can be hard to decipher the words. This is most important for street names and metro stops when trying to get around. It can save confusion and make it easier getting around if you learn the basic alphabet. At the very least then, you can sound out the words to see which are similar in the english conversion, which can help matching them to maps. When out shooting street photography, getting around is as important as anything. So save yourself some time and frustration by learning the Russian Alphabet.

Use the metro

While Saint-Petersburg feels very walkable for a city its size, Moscow can feel very spread out, even for its bigger size. Outside of the Red Square area, you can have plenty of walking before getting anywhere very interesting, so you’ll need to take the metro a lot if you really want to explore the city. Maps are deceiving here too, it will always be further than it looks.

Another reason it’s less walkable than Saint-Petersburg is its completely different set-up. Moscow’s streets are mostly contstructed in rings with narrow, winding streets in-between. This is common with medieval city cities that used to be confined by walls, but you usually don’t have it in a city this massive. Saint-Petersburg has a more grid-like pattern that also uses the canals to help you know your way around. When it comes to navigating on foot in Moscow, it can be more difficult, so bring a map and take the metro when needed. It’s why Moscow’s metro carries more passengers per day than the London and Paris subways combined.

Explore other areas if you have time

Moscow is really big. While most people stay around the Red Square within the Boulevard Ring, there’s so much more to the city. I covered some other spots outside of this circle, but if you really want to see the city, you’ll need time. If you do have time, some other areas I’d check out first are Zamoskvarechye, along some of the south and western Moscow.

Inspiration:

For some more inspiration, you can look through the Street Photography of Moscow photographer Artem Zhitenev  and check out 33 of my photos taken in Moscow .

Conclusion:

Moscow’s name brings a certain mystique, but once you’re there it might bring a different atmosphere than you expect. It’s big and sprawling, but beautiful in many ways. It can feel like a European capital on a grand scale, but you can definitely find its Russian side in there.

The urban sprawl of Moscow can be intimidating, but give it enough time and you’ll be rewarded with plenty to discover. All with the world’s best metro system to take you around.

I hope this guide can help you start to experience some of what Moscow contains. So grab your camera and capture all that Moscow has to offer for Street Photography!

If you still have any questions about shooting in Moscow, feel free to comment below or email me!

(I want to make these guides as valuable as possible for all of you so add any ideas on improvements, including addition requests, in the comment section!)

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12 Most Commonly Asked Photography Questions (+ Answers)

Discover the answers to all the most commonly asked photography questions to help you improve your skills and knowledge in capturing great images.

Learn | By Tammy Danan

We gathered the most common questions about photography to answer in this guide.

You’ll see these photo questions asked time and time again by beginner and enthusiast photographers in photography forums and communities.

(Some experienced photographers may not even know the answers, too!)

Whatever your experience with a camera, it’s always good to refresh your knowledge about photography.

So, let’s dive in and start answering these popular questions about photography right now.

Table of Contents

12 Questions About Photography (And Their Simplified Answers!)

1. what’s the difference between dslr and mirrorless cameras.

Image Credit: Unsplash

A DSLR or digital single-lens reflex camera uses a mirror and pentaprism/pentamirror system to reflect the image into an optical viewfinder .

A mirrorless camera doesn’t have a mirror and uses an electronic viewfinder (EVF) or an LCD screen.

DSLRs are typically bulkier and heavier due to the mirror and optical viewfinder components, while mirrorless cameras are more compact and offer live views.

DSLRs also traditionally use phase-detection autofocus (PDAF), which is generally faster and more accurate for tracking moving subjects. In contrast, mirrorless cameras use contrast-detection, phase-detection, or hybrid autofocus systems.

Regarding lens compatibility, mirrorless cameras are more adaptable to different lens systems thanks to shorter flange distances, although native lens selections can be more limited.

On the other hand, DSLRs have a wider selection of native lenses and extensive compatibility with older lenses through lens adapters.

• Learn more: DSLR vs Mirrorless

2. How do I achieve a blurry background or bokeh in my photos?

Achieving a blurry background, often referred to as “bokeh,” is a popular technique in photography.

Using a wide aperture (f/1.8, f/2.8, or wider) is one of the keys to achieving the bokeh effect because the wider the aperture, the shallower the depth of field, and the more pronounced the background blur.

It’s also essential to find the right lens, and prime lenses with wide apertures, such as 50mm f/1.8 or 85mm f/1.4, are popular choices as they allow more light to enter the camera and provide a shallower depth of field.

Use your camera’s autofocus or manual focus to precisely focus on the subject’s eyes or the point of interest.

Ensure you have the right camera settings like faster shutter speed, lower ISO, or perhaps add a neutral density filter to reduce the amount of light entering the camera.

Achieving bokeh takes practice and patience, so explore different angles, perspectives, and compositions to find unique ways to incorporate blurred backgrounds into your photography.

• Learn more: How to create a bokeh background

3. What is the exposure triangle, and how does it affect my photos?

The exposure triangle is a fundamental concept in photography that explains the relationship between three key factors that affect the exposure of your photographs: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

It’s like a three-way balance in photography: it involves adjusting the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to control the brightness and look of your photo.

Think of it as the recipe for perfect exposure.

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To achieve a well-exposed image, you’ll need to balance these factors.

• Learn more: Understanding the exposure triangle

4. How can I prevent my photos from coming out blurry or out of focus?

There are many ways to produce a sharp, focused photo; one solid tip is to select the right auto-focus mode.

Most modern cameras offer multiple autofocus modes: single-point, continuous, and tracking autofocus.

Single-point autofocus is often recommended for still subjects, while continuous or tracking autofocus is better for moving subjects.

Choose the mode that best suits your subject and shooting conditions.

Another tip is to pay attention to your aperture.

Using a wide aperture (e.g., f/1.8) narrows the depth of field, which can result in a blurred background but requires precise focusing on the subject.

In contrast, a narrow aperture (e.g., f/11) creates a deeper depth of field, making it easier to achieve overall focus.

Your shutter speed is important, too!

As a general rule, use a shutter speed that is at least as fast as the reciprocal of the lens focal length (e.g., 1/125 for a 50mm lens) to minimize motion blur caused by camera shake.

If you’re still not confident, there’s nothing wrong with grabbing a tripod to help with stability and shakiness.

• Learn more: How to fix blurry photos using apps

5. What type of lens should I use for [portrait/landscape/macro] photography?

The type of camera lens you’re using plays a vital role in the end result, which is to say it plays a vital role in the type of photography you’re doing.

Here are some guiding principles about portrait, landscape, and macro photography lenses.

• Portrait photography

Prime lenses are a popular choice for portrait photography, specifically 50mm or 85mm prime lenses, as they provide a natural perspective and pleasing compression of facial features.

Zoom lenses in the 70-200mm range are also an option because they offer a range of focal lengths to work with, allowing you to frame your subject comfortably from different distances.

For excellent subject isolation, medium telephoto lenses (e.g., 105mm, 135mm) are ideal for headshots and half-body portraits as they compress facial features and create flattering perspectives.

See more about the best lenses for portrait photography .

• Landscape Photography

Ultra-wide angles, such as 16-35mm, are suitable for grand landscapes because they allow you to capture expansive vistas and foreground elements and provide a greater depth of field.

They’re also excellent for scenes with dramatic perspective.

Another option is standard zoom lenses (24-70mm), which can capture wide scenes and more detailed, compressed compositions.

Then, tilt-shift lenses provide precise control over focus and perspective.

They are ideal for architectural photography or for controlling the plane of focus, such as in tilt-shift panoramas.

See more of the best lenses for landscape photography .

• Macro Photography

Dedicated macro lenses (60mm, 100mm, 105mm, 180mm) are designed specifically for close-up work.

They allow for 1:1 magnification, meaning the subject’s size on the sensor is life-size.

The choice of focal length depends on your subject and working distance, with shorter macro lenses (e.g., 60mm) suitable for subjects like insects, while longer macro lenses (e.g., 180mm) are used for subjects that require more working distance.

See more of the best lenses for macro photography .

6. How do I properly compose a shot? What is the rule of thirds?

Composing a shot effectively is a fundamental aspect of photography that can greatly enhance the visual impact of your photos.

Proper composition involves arranging the elements within the frame to create a visually pleasing and meaningful image.

One of the most well-known composition techniques is the rule of thirds.

The rule of thirds divides the frame into a 3×3 grid, creating four intersection points where the lines intersect—these intersections are known as “power points.”

The rule suggests that placing key elements or points of interest along these lines or at the intersections creates a more balanced and visually pleasing composition.

For example, when photographing a landscape, you might place the horizon on either the top or bottom third line, depending on whether the sky or ground is more interesting.

When capturing a portrait, you could position the subject’s eyes along one of the horizontal lines.

The rule of thirds helps avoid placing the subject dead center, which can result in a less dynamic and engaging composition.

Principles of Proper Composition

• Balance – Balance in composition helps distribute visual weight across the frame. You can achieve this through symmetry, asymmetry, or radial balance .
• Leading lines – These are elements that guide the viewer’s eye through the image and often lead to a focal point, adding depth and structure to the composition.
• Symmetry and patterns – These elements can create a sense of order and balance in a composition.
• Negative space – This is the area around your subject, and it can create a sense of isolation or emphasize the subject’s presence. Sometimes, less is more.
• Rule of thirds – Of course, we have the rule of thirds, where the idea is to place key elements along these lines or at the intersections to create a balanced composition.

Learn more: Rules of photography composition

7. What’s the difference between RAW and JPEG, and which should I shoot in?

RAW and JPEG are two common image file formats used in digital photography , and each has its own set of advantages and disadvantages.

The choice between the two depends on your specific needs and post-processing preferences.

RAW is an uncompressed and unprocessed image format that contains all the data captured by the camera’s sensor, including color information, brightness values, and more.

RAW files store the highest quality data, preserving all the details, dynamic range , and color information, and also offer more extensive post-processing capabilities.

Finally, RAW editing is non-destructive, meaning you can make changes without altering the original image data. You can experiment and revert to the original state at any time.

However, it’s important to note that RAW files are significantly larger than JPEGs, require post-processing to achieve their full potential, and are not readily shareable or viewable on all devices without conversion to another format.

JPEG Format

JPEG is a compressed image format that processes and reduces the image data captured by the camera’s sensor .

It’s a widely supported standard format and is suitable for sharing and viewing on various devices because of its significantly smaller in file size.

Many cameras offer in-camera processing options that allow you to fine-tune color, sharpness, and other settings before capturing your JPEG image.

It’s important to note that if you edit and save a JPEG image multiple times, you may experience a cumulative loss in image quality.

Which Format to Choose

Shoot in RAW if you value maximum image quality, plan to do extensive post-processing, or anticipate challenging lighting conditions.

This format is ideal for professional photographers like you and me and those who want complete control over their images.

On the other hand, shoot in JPEG if you want a more convenient and easily shareable format, have limited storage space, or need images for quick sharing on social media.

This is for casual and hobbyist photographers who prefer minimal post-processing.

• Learn more: RAW vs JPG

8. How can I improve my photos in low light conditions without using a flash?

Low light conditions are challenging, but there are many ways for you to take great photos still. Like any advice, this takes patience and practice.

Raise your camera’s ISO setting to a higher value to make the sensor more light-sensitive, allowing you to use faster shutter speeds.

However, be mindful of potential noise (grain) that may occur at higher ISO settings.

While modern cameras often handle high ISOs well, finding a balance that maintains image quality is important.

If your camera or lens has image stabilization (often referred to as IS, VR, or OIS), use it as it helps reduce the effects of camera shake and allows you to shoot at slower shutter speeds while maintaining sharpness.

Set your camera to aperture priority (A or Av) mode and choose a wide aperture (low f-number) to maximize the amount of light entering the lens.

In low light, autofocus may struggle to lock onto subjects, which is why it’s best to consider switching to manual focus and using focus peaking or magnification features if available.

Take your time to focus accurately.

Use exposure bracketing to capture a series of shots at different exposures for high-contrast scenes in low light.

• Learn more: Low light photography tips and techniques

9. What are the best settings for shooting [sunsets/sports/night sky]?

The best camera settings for shooting sunsets, sports, and the night sky can vary depending on your specific camera, lens, and the desired creative effect. Here are some starter information:

For epic sunset photography , use a mid-range aperture setting, typically between f/8 and f/16, to capture the full range of colors and details in the sunset.

Also, a smaller aperture can create a starburst effect from the sun, which can be aesthetically pleasing.

Slower shutter speed to allow more light into the camera, and depending on the lighting conditions, you may start with a shutter speed between 1/60 to 1/15 seconds.

Set the white balance to Daylight or Cloudy to enhance the warm, golden hues of the sunset.

You may also want to use graduated neutral density (ND) filters can help balance the exposure between the bright sky and the darker foreground during sunsets.

For sports photography , use a wide aperture (e.g., f/2.8 or wider) to achieve a shallow depth of field and help better isolate the subject from the background.

Use a fast shutter speed (1/500 to 1/2000 seconds) to freeze fast-moving subjects and adjust according to the speed of the action.

Depending on the lighting conditions, you may need to increase the ISO to maintain a fast shutter speed while keeping exposure balanced.

Finally, a telephoto lens (70-200mm or longer) is ideal for sports photography, allowing you to get close to the action and capture distant subjects.

Use a wide aperture (e.g., f/2.8 or wider) to gather as much light as possible. This is crucial for capturing stars and celestial objects.

To capture stars without trailing, use the “ 500 Rule ” as a guideline or divide 500 by the focal length of your lens to determine the maximum shutter speed (e.g., for a 24mm lens, 500 / 24 = 20.8 seconds).

Because it’s the night sky, you’d want to opt for wide-angle lenses (14mm-24mm) for capturing the entire sky or specific constellations.

You’d also want to switch to manual focus and use the camera’s live view mode to focus on a bright star or distant object.

10. How do I use manual mode, and why would I choose it over automatic mode?

This one is not better than the other scenario, although sometimes, one is better than the other—it depends on the situation.

Use manual mode when you want full creative control, especially in tricky lighting or for specific effects.

When setting the aperture, a lower f-number (e.g., f/2.8) results in a wide aperture, creating a shallow depth of field with background blur, while a higher f-number (e.g., f/16) results in a narrow aperture, making more of the scene appear in focus.

With shutter speeds, remember that a faster shutter speed (e.g., 1/1000) is suitable for freezing fast motion , while a slower shutter speed (e.g., 1/30) can create motion blur.

If you’re using a slow shutter speed , using a tripod to avoid shakes is best.

When it comes to setting your ISO manually, remember that a lower ISO (e.g., 100 or 200) results in high image quality with minimal noise. At the same time, a higher ISO (e.g., 800, 1600, or more) increases sensitivity but can introduce noise.

Most cameras have a built-in light meter that measures the scene’s brightness.

Use the camera’s meter to ensure proper exposure by adjusting the aperture, shutter speed, or ISO until the meter indicates a balanced exposure (typically zero or close to it).

So, why choose manual mode?

First off, it allows you to make creative decisions about the depth of field, motion, and exposure, and you can achieve unique and artistic effects by controlling all the settings yourself.

Another reason is that manual mode lets you fine-tune the settings for the best results when shooting in low light or with high contrast.

It ensures consistent exposures across multiple shots in a series or varying lighting conditions, especially when you need precise control over your shots.

Lastly, manual mode is often favored in specialized photography, such as long-exposure photography, astrophotography, and macro photography, where precise control is necessary to achieve the desired results.

• Learn more: How to use Manual Mode on your camera

11. What’s the best way to store and organize my photos?

It’s so easy to end up with a chaotic digital library—you’re not alone in this.

But there are ways and systems you can implement to store and organize your photos .

Invest in high-capacity, reliable external hard drives to store your photos and ensure you have at least one backup drive to protect your images in case of data loss.

Set up a regular backup schedule to keep your photos safe.

Cloud storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or dedicated photo services like Google Photos, iCloud, or Amazon Photos are perfect for a digital option.

These services provide automatic backups and remote access to your images.

To organize them, clear folder names are a good start.

Create main folders for different years or events and subfolders within them to further categorize your images.

It’s also best to give your photo files descriptive names, including dates and keywords, or go further and add metadata and tags because many photo management software tools allow you to add and search by this information.

At the end of the day, it’s all about figuring out a system that works for the type of photographer that you are.

The system that works for me might not work for you, and vice versa.

But these options above are pretty solid.

• Learn more : How to store digital photos

12. How can I get started with post-processing or photo editing?

One of the most important post-processing steps is determining which software you’re most comfortable with.

Here are some options for the best photo editing software .

• Adobe Lightroom: Ideal for photographers of all levels, Lightroom offers powerful editing tools and an intuitive interface. It’s excellent for managing and editing large photo collections.
• Adobe Photoshop : While more complex, Photoshop provides advanced editing capabilities. It’s well-suited for in-depth retouching, compositing, and creative effects.
• GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program): An open-source alternative to Photoshop, GIMP is free and provides a wide range of features for image editing.

Once you’ve found your preferred software, import your photo and start practicing.

The best way to learn photo editing is through hands-on experience.

Experiment with your photos, make adjustments, and see how they affect the final result.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes; you can always revert to the original photo or create duplicates for experimentation.

There are also many online tutorials and courses you can check.

Make sure you edit non-destructively.

Many editing programs allow you to create layers or use virtual copies, so you can always return to the original photo without losing your edits.

Remember that photo editing is a creative process, and there are no strict rules.

Your style and preferences will influence how you edit your photos.

Check out these 8 essential tools to help you succeed as a professional photographer.

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Tammy Danan is a freelance storyteller and the founder of Moss Content Studio. She’s a highly visual person who loves exploring how the art of photography intersects with our everyday lives.

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• PHOTOGRAPHY

7 extraordinary photographers share the stories behind their most iconic images

In their new documentary, Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi show how far—or high—photographers will go to get for a picture.

What kind of person chases a tornado, or dives among sharks, or travels into a conflict zone, all for a photograph? Jimmy Chin—mountain climber, skier, photographer, filmmaker—wondered this as a child growing up in Minnesota, flipping through the pages of his family’s copies of National Geographic. When he picked up photography in his twenties, his goal was to shoot for the magazine.

Joining the ranks of National Geographic photographers in 2002, he has since shown how far—or high—he’ll go for a picture. As his friend and fellow climber Alex Honnold attempted a ropeless ascent of the El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park in 2017, Chin dangled from a safety line nearby, more than 2,000 feet above the valley floor. Honnold’s death-defying feat also became the Oscar-winning National Geographic documentary Free Solo, directed by Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, his wife and creative partner.

( How they filmed Alex Honnold’s death-defying Free Solo. )

For a new series, the two National Geographic Explorers turned the camera on photographers. In March they debuted Photographer, six episodes that embed viewers with “some of the world’s most extraordinary visual storytellers,” as Chin describes them. “We’ve always been interested in stories about people who are pushing the edges of the human experience.” Doing something that’s never been done, or capturing an image that’s never been seen, arises from the “same instinct,” he explains.

Dedication to craft unites the show’s featured photographers. From the tiniest animals to a final flight into space, the following images sample their work and the stories behind them.

( Other photographers take you behind the scenes of their favorite shots. )

Krystle Wright

Imperial, Nebraska

It’s a tough thing to see because you feel this contradiction.  On one hand it’s just like, Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m witnessing this absolute phenomenon. But then at the same time, particularly when it’s going through a town, you realize, Well, this is absolutely destroying lives.

Photographer Krystle Wright and fellow storm chasers arrived on the scene just as   a supercell storm spitting lightning threatened a farm with a UFO-like “mother ship” formation in May 2019. The team’s timing that day was “sheer luck,” Wright recalls. After retreating from a storm in Colorado that pounded their SUV with hail, they crossed into Nebraska and caught up to this system at the apex of its power.

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( How Wright got the photo of her dreams. )

Anand Varma

Montréal, Quebec

National Geographic Explorer Anand Varma took thousands of frames of a ladybug clutching a braconid wasp’s cocoon for the cover of the November 2014 issue. The wasp larva developed inside the spotted lady beetle; just before the wasp emerged to spin a cocoon, it paralyzed its host. Something in the process made the ladybug twitch like a zombie. Readers wrote to Varma confessing that they used to dislike insects but his picture had opened their eyes. Or, as Varma puts it, “I used to think bugs were gross, but now I think they’re cool.”

( How to take photos of the world’s tiny creatures, according to Varma. )

Muhammed Muheisen  

Al Mafraq, Jordan

If you want to be able to capture the right emotion, to capture the image, you have to respect the  people and you have to gain their trust. It’s not something you buy or you sell. It’s something you invest. It’s a long-term investment. 

Zahra Mahmoud, photographed here at age seven in 2018, lives in a tent in Jordan. Muhammed Muheisen, a National Geographic Explorer who documents refugee crises, met Zahra and her family in 2015, soon after they fled the war in their native Syria. Every year he visits them at the encampment and photographs Zahra, now a teenager. Muheisen says he’ll continue telling the family’s story until they’re in a more permanent living situation.

( Muheisen tells the story of animals trapped in war zones finding a second chance. )

Campbell Addy

London, England/U.K.

This image represents a time in my career and life where I was truly questioning my purpose and direction. ... I felt that I had lost ‘me’ in the work. So, to reboot my creative mainframe, I went back to the beginning. I went back to me.

Campbell Addy’s fashion and portrait photography explores identity through boldly stylized depictions of diverse, often Black, faces and bodies. As part of an exhibition in 2023, Addy moved in front of the camera for a series of self-portraits, including this one, where he wears blackface—a motif in his work—and his hair intentionally evokes the strange rabbit in the cult classic film Donnie Darko . The photographer wanted to remind himself to stay artistically brave.

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( Learn how to take perfect portrait photos. )

Cristina Mittermeier  

Galápagos Islands

[Photography is] a very challenging job, to be gone all the time, months on end, to be so engaged in something that’s pretty isolating. To be a photographer, you’re a lone wolf. So when Paul and I met and we started working together, it was almost like finding your life jacket in the middle of the ocean.

In 2021 photographer Cristina Mittermeier and her partner, Paul Nicklen—both National Geographic Explorers— were diving together in the Galápagos Islands to promote the expansion of a protected marine reserve. As an ocean current pulled Mittermeier toward a reef and a large shark patrolled the area, she focused on the scene above her: a school of brightly colored cardinalfish darting from the path of a Galápagos sea lion.

( Mittermeier is on a mission to protect the ocean through the power of visual media. )

Paul Nicklen  

Nunavut Territory, Northern Canada

As Arctic sea ice disappears, hungry polar bears are increasingly forced to hunt seals in open water. In 2004 Nicklen photographed a male swimming beneath a floating piece of ice, its image reflected on the water’s surface. To get the angle, Nicklen leaned far over the side of the small boat from which he was observing the bear and dunked his camera underwater .  

( How Nicklen captured a healthy ecosystem. )

Dan Winters

Kennedy Space Center, Florida

My primary work is portrait work. But the other stuff is just really my passion. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with NASA in an official capacity, which is kind of amazing. I don’t think I would’ve imagined as a kid working with NASA. 

On May 16, 2011, the space shuttle Endeavour blasted through clouds for the final mission of its 19-year career. The day before the launch—the craft’s 25th— Dan Winters positioned sound-triggered cameras around the launchpad. He manually operated another camera, which he used to make this image, lowering its exposure level to create a darker, more dramatic scene. When the rocket boosters roared, the cameras clicked.

( Discover our top picks for pictures in 2023, including Winters's work. )

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Winners of the 2024 World Nature Photography Awards

• Alan Taylor
• March 26, 2024

The winning images and photographers of this year’s World Nature Photography Awards have just been announced. Contest organizers have once more shared some of the winning images, shown below, from their 14 categories. Captions were provided by the photographers and have been lightly edited for style and clarity.

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Third Place, Behavior—Mammals. Elephants reach for branches at Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe. #

Second Place, Planet Earth's Landscapes and Environments. Cloud cover above Chile's Villarrica volcano. #

Winner, Behavior—Mammals. A mother zebra and her foal are attacked by a cheetah in Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. "That morning, we decided to follow four cheetahs on the hunt. We followed them for hours. We passed herds of topis, gazelles, and zebras. We knew something was going to happen. When, five hours later, our Maasai guide whispered, ‘They are going for the zebras,’ I was convinced they would attack the topis or gazelles dotted across the valley. Seconds later, the cheetahs burst into a small group of zebras. One cheetah ran toward us, clinging onto a foal. In those seconds, I took this picture of the mother zebra launching a last attempt to push her foal away from the attacking cheetah. She failed. I will remember those last seconds for the rest of my life.” #

Winner, Underwater. "A female orca split a herring bait ball while diving through it to get one, shot from underneath while free diving. Every winter, enormous schools of herring migrate from the open ocean into the fjords of northern Norway and attract large numbers of big predators such as orcas and humpback whales." Photographed near Skjervøy, Norway. #

Second Place, Nature Art. A stand of aspen trees, seen in Aspen, Colorado. #

Winner, Animals in Their Habitat. A pair of Nubian ibex in the Negev desert in Israel. #

Second Place, Animal Portraits. The hands of a mother and infant gorilla, seen in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda. #

Winner, Planet Earth's Landscapes and Environments. "Winter in Stokksnes, Iceland. The beach with its black sand and the majestic mountain called Vestrahorn—I love the contrast in colors between the white mountains and the black dunes with yellow grass." #

Third Place, Nature Photojournalism. A binturong is kept in a cage for the production of kopi luwak coffee in Sulawesi, Indonesia. #

Second Place, Black and White. Mother elephant and calf, Amboseli National Park, Kenya. #

Third Place, Animal Portraits. The bloody head of a Himalayan vulture, photographed in Chopta, in Uttarakhand, India. #

Second Place, Animals in Their Habitat. A Canada lynx leaps through a snowy field. #

Winner, Plants and Fungi. "Once, a photographer whom I respected, Suchat Chanhomhuan, took me to Doi Hua Mot Mountain, Umphang Wildlife Sanctuary, Tak province, Thailand, to meet a kind of living organism with a strange shape that looked like an owl. The scientific name of this plant is Thismia thaithongiana." #

Third Place, People and Nature. A boy chases a swarm of locusts in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India. #

Second Place, Urban Wildlife. A fox walks among broken bricks in Lucerne, Switzerland. #

Third Place, Black and White. An osprey catches two fish in Kangasala, Finland. #

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected].

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Underwater photos from the World Nature Photography Awards reveal stunning scenes beneath the world's oceans

• The World Nature Photography Awards announced the winners of its 2024 contest.
• Underwater photos show whales, sea lions, and other marine life in their natural habitats.
• The grand prize-winning photo showed gannets battling for a fish in the Shetland Islands.

The annual World Nature Photography Awards highlight incredible photos of the natural world and animals in the wild.

The underwater images from this year's competition, chosen out of thousands of submissions from six continents, are particularly compelling, showing whales, sea lions, sea turtles, and other marine life in their natural habitats.

The contest also does its part to keep these habitats intact. The World Nature Photography Awards team plants a tree for every photo submission they receive and every print sold of a winning photo on their online store .

Here are nine underwater photos that earned top honors in this year's competition.

Tom Shlesinger's photo of a green sea turtle beneath the waves in the Galápagos Islands placed third in the Animals In Their Habitat category.

Second place in the Plants and Fungi category went to Martin Stevens for a photo of rainbow wrack seaweed taken at sunrise in Cornwall, UK.

Ferenc Lorincz's photo of a giant perch swimming past a shipwreck and a diver in Portugal won second place in People and Nature.

A photo of a jellyfish, taken in Italy by Giovanni Crisafulli, won third place in the contest's Underwater category.

Philip Hamilton won second place in the Underwater category for a photo of a humpback whale in Tonga.

A female orca swam through a school of herring in Norway in a photo taken by Andy Schmid, winning first place in the Underwater category.

Nicolas Remy won first place in the Animal Portraits category with a photo of a black anglerfish in Kurnell, Australia.

In first place in the Nature Photojournalism category, Celia Kujala photographed a sea lion playing with a piece of trash in Mexico.

Tracey Lund won the contest's grand prize, as well as the Behavior — Birds category, with a photo of two gannets in the Shetland Islands battling for a fish.

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Writing a Photography Blog That Gets Noticed: 10 Blog Post Ideas

Blog topics for surf photographers, adventure photographers, and lifestyle photographers.

Did you start your photography blog hoping to show off your stunning photos and those moments in time when you perfectly captured your client’s joy, love, and excitement? Breath-taking photos tell memorable stories, but your readers need word-driven stories too. 

Your blog can do so much more than act as an extended portfolio.

It can tell stories that highlight your talent, skills, and photography style. It can share advice to prepare your clients for their photoshoots. It can be your main source of inquiries and leads.

Whether you’re:

• a surf photographer capturing someone’s first wave
• an elopement photographer on a remote beach during golden hour
• a fashion photographer shooting the latest clothing line releases
• an adventure photographer leaning out the side of a helicopter

A blog can help your business grow. 

Sounds great right, but how exactly do you do all that in a blog? And what do you say in a blog to keep your readers engaged? Keep reading for 10 topics for your own professional photography blog – I even throw in some sample headlines for you to play around with.

Not a photographer? These blog topics might still be helpful! But if you’re an outdoor adventure organizer, website designer, or wellness leader, be sure to check out my posts specifically geared to your business.

Now, let’s dive into 10 simple blog post ideas for your photography blog.

photoshoot recaps

A great blog post idea is turning one of your portfolio pieces into a more in-depth case study. This gives you a chance to show off your gorgeous shots and provide your potential clients with a sneak peek of what they get when they hire you!

What should I wear to a photoshoot? How should I prepare for a session? How long will a photoshoot take? Where should our photoshoot take place? Think about those questions you get over and over. By turning these questions into topics on your photography blog, you’ll help ease your clients’ anxieties and establish your credibility as an empathetic expert.

What You Should Know Before Your Surf Photography Session

Photography location ideas

As a photographer, you know breathtaking locations in the area you work in. A blog post about these spots highlights your photography expertise and expands your portfolio. That ultra-modern art gallery you’ve wanted to shoot at? Put it on your list and you might have a client begging for their shoot to be there. 

4 Unconventional Urban Locations for Street Fashion Photography in Chicago

What to know about photography

Do you have clients coming to you with no clue about what you do, where you shoot, or the style you offer? When you write a blog post about what clients should ask before hiring a photographer or what it is photographers do, you’ll equip them with the knowledge to ensure the entire process goes smoothly. 

8 Questions You Need To Ask Before Hiring A Brand Photographer

Photography Tips

Let’s face it, not everyone who comes across your website will be ready to invest in a professional photographer. By offering tips and how-to’s, you form a connection with your readers and give them insight into the knowledge and challenges professional photographers face.

How to Shoot an At-Home Boudoir Session on Your iPhone  

Day in the Life of a Photographer

There’s a reason so many romcoms have photography as the leading star’s career. You get to capture people’s most loving, intimate, or courageous moments, oftentimes in places where most of us don’t get to go. Sharing what a day or two looks like in your life on your photography blog will fascinate your reader and let them see all the nitty-gritty details and headaches from late-night editing sessions.

A Day in the Life of an Adventure Photographer on the West Coast

Playlist Ideas for a Photoshoot

Short and sweet, how do you set the mood for your branding or boudoir photoshoots? Create a few playlists for different shoots and offer your clients a choice when they book with you!

This Self-Love Soundtrack Will Set the Mood for Your Intimate Photoshoot

Dream Photography Sessions

Manifest the clients, locations, and shoots of your dreams. Where would you love to book a session? Any creative styles you want to try out? Dipping a toe into maternity shoots? Describe your goals. You never know who might be reading your photography blog and thinking ‘ hey, that’s me!’

5 Dreamy Photo Spots for Adventurous Elopements

Photography Business Advice

Photography is a dream career for so many people. As a business owner and professional photographer, you’ve experienced your share of ups and downs. Sharing that information with new photographers gives back to the community that you’re a part of, and maybe you’ll meet new biz buddies along the way. 

What I Wish I Knew My First Year as a Professional Photographer

Technical Insight

Let’s face it, a lot of us don’t know what goes into being a professional photographer. Use your photography blog to offer that insight! Break down your favourite editing programs, camera gear, or lighting setup to help your readers understand the work you do for them.

The 3 Editing Programs Every Photographer Should Know 

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• #Luxury travel
• #Unusual Moscow
• #Jewish Heritage
• #Russian traditions

Best spots in Moscow for photo maniacs

• #Special Interest
• #Photospots
• Capturing the Kremlin and central Moscow: the higher, the better

Of course, pictures of the Kremlin shot from the Red Square are no doubt iconic and must-have, but they are taken by thousands of tourists every day and can hardly make a wow-effect on your friends on Instagram and other social networks.

Another problem with shooting from Red Square is that the photos do not fully represent the scale of the medieval fortress of Kremlin. So, you need to make some steps further and higher to catch the right shot. You’ll be surprised by the fact that the panoramic views of the Kremlin are pretty easy to get. We have four hints for you: Zaryadie, Ritz Carlton, Patriarch bridge, and Radisson riverboat.

If you want to not only make beautiful photos but also to learn something interesting about the history of Russia, we recommend an individual tour of the Kremlin. You can order it online here .

First, go to Zaryadye, which is located right next to the Red Square, behind the St Basil’s Cathedral, on the closest Moscow river bank. The most impressive views over the Kremlin are unfolded from the so-called Flying bridge of Zaryadye and Glass Dome building in the back part of the park.

Zaryadye is the new place of attraction in Moscow. It’s a landscape park, opened in September 2017 by the Moscow government on the hill where the giant soviet hotel ‘Rossiya’ located before its demolition in the early 2000-s. As a bonus, you’ll get an incredible view over one of Stalin’s skyscrapers, located on the opposite bank of Moscow river — the so-called Vysotka at Kotelnicheskaya, used as a residence of many Russian famous people and officials.

• The roof of the Ritz Carlton Hotel

This option is ok only in case if you’re ready to pay the average bar bill of over 2500 rubles (about $40). Visit the O2 Lounge Bar on the roof of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, where all the global celebrities take their Moscow pictures, from Angelina Jolie to Robert Downey Jr.

But such photo investments seem to pay off immediately. The deck of the bar makes an excellent panorama point for the Kremlin walls and towers, the Historical Museum, the Great Kremlin Palace, and the Kremlin cathedrals. All these landmarks are not too far away, which makes them perfectly recognizable, even in the background.

• The Radisson riverboat

This hint will be useful in case you’re traveling to Moscow in the cold season. River transportation in Moscow doesn't stop in winter. Many enclosed and heated tourist yachts with panoramic windows and ice-breaking equipment can be found in the Moscow River. For instance, one of the most recognizable is the flotilla Radisson.

Their route goes past all the main sights of pre-revolutionary and Soviet Moscow – from Stalin's skyscrapers (Ukraina hotel and Vysotka at Kotelnicheskaya) to the Kremlin and the Novodevichy Convent. It is possible to go out to the open deck and take photos of you and your family or friends against a backdrop of the city’s lights and their reflection in the river. The cruise lasts 2.5 hours. You can book a tour with a car roundtrip transfer from your hotel to the pier and back: book online here

• Patriarch bridge

The bridge is located further from the Kremlin, than Zaryadye or Ritz Carlton, so the Kremlin walls on your photos will look smaller. The brighter side of walking through the bridge is that you can do more fabulous pics of the Moscow river and city center landscapes. The Moscow river and the pretty recognizable giant statue of Peter the Great are ideally viewed from the bridge. Be prepared that it’s a famous and popular pedestrian area for tourists all over the world so the bridge may be crowded.

Also, the bridge is a part of a long promenade which leads from the Christ the Saviour Cathedral through the Balchug island to the opposite bank of the Moscow River, where another pedestrian area — Museon embankment — is ready to joy you with its cafes, cozy lawns and impressive views over the river flow, ducks and boats.

• Moscow City

The best spot to shoot the famous Moscow business downtown is located on the Taras Shevchenko embankment. To get there you need to come to the metro stations Vystavochnaya or Delovoi Tsentr, then go to the Bagration bridge (use the metro navigation, the path is tricky), cross the bridge — and voilà! You’ve reached the best spot for shooting, posing, sending selfies, and Instagramming.

• Ponds and orangeries

There are two ponds in Moscow, that deserve your attention in summer: the Chistye ponds (actually there is only one pond, but it’s worth it) and the pond in Gorky Park, which is full of small boats and catamarans. Both lakes are lost between the green alleys and are drowning in all the shades of green. Those are the perfect spots to catch the moment of peace amid the madness of big city life.

• Banya: Russian steam bath read
• Luxurious travel to Moscow: best places to visit read
• 7 Top Things to Do in Karelia Region read
• Russian Souvenir: what to bring home from a trip to Russia read
• The Top 10 Unusual Things to Do in Moscow read
• Christmas Festival in Moscow read

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A remembrance of John Barth

Author jennifer finney boylan, who earned an mfa from johns hopkins in 1986, now serves as the anna quindlen writer in residence at barnard college of columbia university.

By Jennifer Finney Boylan

In his office at Johns Hopkins, John Barth kept a mobius strip upon which were written the words: Once upon a time there was a story whose beginning was … . There, of course, the mobius strip joined back upon itself, so that the story thus begun went on forever and ever.

John Barth dies at 93

Barth, a mentor and inspiration to countless students during his time at Johns Hopkins, was known for his postmodernist, unpredictable fiction and his exacting, generous teaching

We know from Ovid that none of us is only one thing. And Jack Barth was many: a towering figure of 20th century postmodernism and metafiction; a man so smart that just to listen to him speak was like listening to Bach; a teacher of generosity and kindness and warmth and hilarious wit. His mantra, gleaned from his beloved Arabian Nights , was, "On with the story!" And in so many ways, the story Jack Barth began—in his many novels and collections of nonfiction and short stories; in the careers he made possible for a whole generation of writers; and in the delighted and astounded readers of everything from "The Floating Opera" (1956) to "Final Fridays" (2012)—his story will go on.

In his book On With the Story he once wrote, "Beginnings are exciting; middles are gratifying; but endings, boyoboy."

Boyoboy, Jack Barth. How I loved you.

Once upon a time there was a writer who changed my life. In his office at Johns Hopkins, John Barth kept a mobius strip upon which were written the words.

Posted in Voices+Opinion

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John barth, prolific author and revered mentor, dies at 93.

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What is the new etiquette for tipping?

Stacey Vanek Smith

What are the new rules for tipping?

Businesses that never seemed to ask for a tip before — like grocery stores, self-checkout machines and fast food restaurants — are now asking for one these days.

To answer this question, it helps to understand the purpose of tipping and why requests have increased over the past few years. It's a tricky topic, says Sylvia Allegretto , a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research who has done extensive research on wages and tipping. "It's confusing, people don't get it — but it's really quite important" to how some workers get paid.

While some of our experts say much of the etiquette remains the same (for example, if you're not sure about who or how much to tip, don't be afraid to ask), there are a few new variables to keep in mind.

To tip or not to tip? 3 reasons why tipping has gotten so out of control

A change in tipping culture.

Tipping expectations have grown over the past few years. According to a 2023 Pew Research survey of nearly 12,000 adults in the U.S., about 72% say they are being asked to tip service workers more frequently than in the past. And only about a third say it's "extremely or very easy" to know when and how much to tip.

One of the reasons is the pandemic. We started tipping people we didn't use to tip and tipping more than usual as a way to support essential workers at a time of crisis, says Shubhranshu Singh , a marketing professor at Johns Hopkins University, who focuses on business strategy and management.

At the same time, the technology around how we pay has changed, says Singh. Square, the company behind many electronic payment screens gets a cut of each transaction, including the tip . So creating software that encourages tipping (and encourages big tips) means more money for companies like Square.

Tipping is also a way to pay workers more without actually raising their wages. It allows restaurants to get more money to workers while still keeping their prices low, says Sean Jung , a professor at Boston University's School of Hospitality Administration.

Why we tip in America

In the U.S., we have a two-tier wage system, says Allegretto. "We have minimum wages and then we have subminimum or cash wages paid to workers who are tipped."

There's the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, but every state has the ability to set their own minimum wage. Some states have minimum wages that are more than twice that.

There's also a subminimum wage. That is a wage some service workers get paid that is below minimum wage. The idea is that workers earn a subminimum wage and then customer tips make up the difference to get workers up to minimum wage.

Throughline

The land of the fee, location matters.

When deciding how much to tip, it can be helpful to look up the minimum and subminimum wages of your state, says Allegretto. The think tank Economic Policy Institute has a wage tracker that can help you find this information.

The tip you leave for a server in one state might mean something different to a server in another. In Washington state, for example, the minimum wage is more than $16 an hour and there is no subminimum wage for workers like servers. Meanwhile in Tennessee, the subminimum wage is $2.13 — so your server is probably counting on the extra change you leave for your pie and coffee.

When in doubt, ask

It's not always clear which types of workers earn a minimum and subminimum wage. Often, a subminimum wage will get paid to bartenders, servers and people who work at car washes, but it's hard to know.

Allegretto acknowledges that the system is complicated. It "puts way too much on the customer [to know] what people are getting paid in different jobs in different states."

So if you're not sure whether you should tip or how much, simply ask the person who is serving you, says Singh. He shares some helpful questions:

• What is the minimum and subminimum wage in your state?  If the subminimum wage is low, your tip will help the employee make a livable wage. If there is no subminimum wage, tips are actually gratuity. 
• Do you keep your whole tip?  Some payment systems like Square take a portion of the tip, so that may be a factor in how much you decide to leave behind. 
• How can I make sure you're getting my tip?  Some businesses might not be tipping the person you think your money's going to.    

If you don't feel comfortable asking these questions, Singh says you can always tip in cash. "Then you know you are giving that person money right there."

Don't forget to tip people who you might not have a direct interaction with, like hotel housekeepers, says Singh.

How to deal with unexpected tip requests

If a business you don't expect to ask for a tip is suddenly asking you for a tip, what should you do?

It's up to you to decide whether or not to tip and how much, but Singh likes to leave a 10% tip. If an establishment is asking for a tip, it's often an indication that the workers there are not getting paid a minimum wage. So it's good to err on the side of leaving something.

Beware of 'screen pressure'

One last thing to watch out for? Screen pressure, says Singh. Some businesses load their payment systems with default minimum tip options of more than 20%. If you don't want to give that much, don't worry about holding up the line to take an extra moment to select the "custom tip" option.

The podcast version of this story was produced by Audrey Nguyen . The digital story was written by Malaka Gharib and edited by Clare Marie Schneider. The visual editor is Beck Harlan. We'd love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at [email protected] .

Listen to Life Kit on Apple Podcasts and Spotify , and sign up for our newsletter .

Correction March 29, 2024

A previous version of this story incorrectly said that some payment systems like Square take a portion of the tip. While Square charges a fee based on the whole transaction, including tip, a representative from Square says the worker still gets the full amount of their tip.

• minimum wage

Shin splints are one of the most common sports-related injuries. Here's how to get rid of them.

Though the official name for shin splints is "medial tibial stress syndrome," anyone experiencing them probably isn't concerned about using correct medical terminology. As a condition that causes pain or tenderness along the front or inner side of your lower leg or tibia, shin splints are among the most common sports-related injuries . They are especially common among athletes who engage in high-impact sports or exercises like runners , dancers, and tennis, basketball, football and soccer players.

While various factors can contribute to the condition, shin splints are sometimes preventable by doing things like  gradually  increasing the intensity and frequency of high-impact exercises, and by wearing properly fitting athletic shoes.

Here's how shin splints can be treated once they've developed. 

Why are shin splints so painful? 

Shin splints can be both painful and inconvenient. It's an injury that usually builds over time as a result of hard exercise that consists of repetitive movements. Shin splints become painful when inflammation develops along the tendon and muscle tissue surrounding the tibia. This can feel like a dull ache or a sharp pain and also cause swelling and tenderness in the affected area. Without giving shin splints time to heal, they can eventually lead to a bone break or stress fracture . 

Because shin splints cause ongoing pain, "they can certainly take the enjoyment out of any type of exercise," says Dr. Matthew Anastasi, a sports medicine specialist at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. In some cases, shin splints can even affect day-to-day activity. 

At first, the pain may not seem severe, "yet it persists without proper rest and treatment," says Dr. Naomi Brown, a pediatric sports medicine specialist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with a focus on sports injury prevention and overuse injuries. Further cause of frustration is the fact that "shin splints are often innocuous and occur without a specific injury," she adds. 

Will shin splints go away on their own? 

While the first inclination of many of us is to simply carry on with a sport while we endure pain, "shin splints are not something that you can just push through," says Anastasi.

Instead, "shin splints are best treated by allowing the body to heal ," says Dr. Brent Lambson, a board-certified sports medicine physician at Revere Health Orthopedics in Utah. This means shin splints usually do heal and improve over time, but only if the activity that caused the inflammation is paused or suspended in the meantime. "It sometimes takes weeks of rest to allow the affected area to heal," Lambson notes. 

How to get rid of shin splints

Resting and preventing any more stress to the area while it heals is the best way to get rid of shin splints. "Rest is critical to reduce the stress on the muscles and bones," says Brown. Muscle-strengthening (non-impact) exercises are sometimes recommended to aid that healing process.

Gently stretching your lower leg muscles is another way to treat the condition. "A calf stretch while leaning into a wall can help improve flexibility and stretching the front of the ankle may also improve symptoms," says Brown. Applying ice packs or cold compresses to the area can also be helpful in relieving pain and reducing swelling; as can taking over-the-counter anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen and naproxen. Anastasi says that wearing orthotics or arch supports in one's shoes may also help reduce the amount of stress on the area and can further help with healing. 

Sometimes a physical therapist is sought out as they can oversee specific strengthening exercises and recommending customized treatments. "A physical therapist can help with mobility and pain relief as well as prevent recurrence of shin splints," says Brown. 

When trying to decide which movements can be done while the condition heals, she says cross-training exercises such as swimming or use of an elliptical or stationary bike are usually fine, but "listening to your body and letting any pain be your guide" is best. To help with this, Lambson suggests following the “stop light” rule. "If an activity hurts, it's a red light, and you should stop whatever activity causes the pain," he explains. If an activity does not hurt, "then you have a green light to perform that activity." If the pain has subsided but slowly begins to return, "consider that a yellow light and slow down doing that activity until the pain goes away." 

More: Shin splints can be inconvenient and painful. Here's what causes them.

Adele Announces Rescheduled Las Vegas Residency Dates After Postponing Concerts

The Grammy winner previously announced that she was forced to postpone several shows due to an undisclosed illness.

Hello, is this the good Adele news you were looking for? Less than two months after announcing she would be delaying her Las Vegas residency because of an undisclosed illness, the Grammy winner is ready to announce rescheduled dates.

“The postponed dates for Weekends With Adele at The Colosseum, Caesars Palace from March have been rescheduled to the below dates later this year,” Adele, 35, wrote via Instagram on April 2. “Ticket holders for the postponed dates will be sent an email regarding their new allocated date.”

Those who had tickets for her March shows will now be able to see the “Easy on Me” singer perform her biggest hits in October and November of this year.

Adele also added that “all other shows remain unaffected.”

Some fans grew concerned in February when Adele first announced that she would be delaying her residency because she wasn’t feeling well.

“Sadly I have to take a beat and pause my Las Vegas residency,” she wrote via X on February 27. “I was sick at the end of the last leg and all the way through my break. I hadn’t quite gotten the chance to get back to full health before shows resumed and now I’m sick again, and unfortunately, it’s all taken a toll on my voice.”

Adele continued: “And so on Doctors orders, I have no choice but to rest thoroughly. The remaining 5 weekends of this leg are being postponed to a later date. We are already working out the details and you will be sent the information asap.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Adele (@adele)

Ever since her residency officially kicked off in November 2022, Adele has been delighting fans with her unforgettable voice. She also has provided more than a few surprise concert moments, including the night she attempted to try Beyonc é ’s “everybody on mute” challenge.

While celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Lady Gaga have expressed how grateful they are to have seen Adele’s shows, the “Hello” singer says the concerts have personally given her a new love for performing.

“This residency, these shows have changed my life,” Adele previously shared via Instagram in October 2023. “I desperately needed to fall back in love with performing live again, and I have. I needed to reconnect with my songs and remember what they mean to me, and I have! Being on stage over the last year so up close and personal with an audience again after all these years has been a truly extraordinary restorative experience that I’ll never forget.”