Hello everyone! Today I'm finally done with the challenge and I wish to go much more in depth about my approach, afterthoughts and my whole experience. This is a long post and I hope you stick around.
Every scale is like a puzzle piece, just a concept of the whole.
by @bronkong
All of the photos in this post were taken by me. I'm sharing the color versions to make it more interesting as you can find the black and white photos on my timeline
My final photo:
Glasses
I cannot imagine how I'd function or draw without seeing. Contact lenses are ok, but I cannot wear them while working on a monitor.
This challenge was really interesting to do and I recommend it, but you shouldn't stick to the rules.
First of all, I don't have much experience with artistic photography, as most of my photos are for drawing references. I joined this challenge simply because I was nominated. This seemed like an easy way to keep posting content while I'm extremely busy. Moreover, most of the people I nominated are those who also seemed busy and unable to post regular contest.
Bird reference
This challenge is also rather popular on Steemit and many have tried it. However, it's not as successful as it could be and many quit before finishing the seven days. I believe that the issue is that a single regular photo will hardly start a conversation. This leads to a lack of interest and motivation, making it harder to complete the challenge.
Sketches
Some of my suggestions on how to solve this are: possibly include an interesting title or a couple of keywords to start a discussion. There could be an alternative challenge that includes a list of 7 themes. One for each day, so that everyone can follow in the same order. Some examples of themes: favorite place/food/entertainment, biggest fear/ inspiration, your personality and more.
Moreover this isn't a contest with strict rules and rewards, so everyone is free to experiment and personalize this challenge. Bend or break the rules in favor of making it all more interesting and fun for everyone.
My books
Throughout the challenge I've tried various things to keep it interesting and new. I've added titles, descriptions, mini poem contests, additional photos and drawings. However, the only rule I actually stuck to is the core theme: to photograph things that describe me or my life.
Some of the things that I've photographed are: teas, toys, a jigsaws, books and art supplies. The bird photos were for drawing reference that I took recently. I love games and puzzles, they relax, motivate and inspire me. From books I mostly love fantasy, because I get to experience the impossible and there are infinite possibilities. I enjoy a variety of tea almost daily. Moreover, I prefer black tea over any coffee, especially for my energy boost as coffee tends to make me anxious unlike tea.
Tea
The art supplies and the pile of sketches are probably the most self explanatory of my photos. I love art and do it daily. Moreover, I enjoy experimenting with a variety of mediums.
When it comes to photography I prefer take photos in color, because I like having more control over the final image. You can approximate what colors will appear dark and what light in a scene. For example, a saturated yellow is going to be a lot brighter than a saturated purple or red. I also have a camera option for black and white photography, which I use to check the scene I planned. However, photographing directly in black and white is too challenging for me and I feel that my photos lose a lot of sharpness and quality.
Colors
Finally, because I'm extremely busy with work this month, I could only afford to post short posts and prepare the long ones over the course of many days. I believe that small posts are much better than nothing and they can help me to create a nice long summary. Most importantly, not posting for a week can easily turn into 3 months, just like it did for me not so long ago. However, to make up for making only short posts I've been giving away most of SBD that I've earned on those posts to those willing to participate in my small contests.
Five dragons are composing carefully
All puzzles of my life
Walking in the future
by @bela.skvo
Thank you very much for your time and for reading this post! I'd love to hear your opinion.
Especially, if you have participated in the B & W photo challenge, how do you feel about the rules? And did you finish the seven days or did you quit?
Last, but not least, I'll be doing daily dragon doodles. You can more and about how to participate here:
@kristyglas/7-day-b-and-w-challenge-day-6-dragon-doodle
Which of the photos do you like the most?
If anyone is interested in origami, please check out my brother's first contest that he is hosting: @ivan-g/3d-origami-contest
Image souce @ivan-g contest.