INPUT REQUESTED: 2023 Challenges

At the start of the year we would again appreciate some input on which challenges to do in 2023

From our perspective the following are "given" and will be run in 2023 for sure:

- April Foolishness
- Oktoberfest
- Week 50
- Day Prime (thread will be put up today)
- Film

In case anybody wants to do a year long challenge (format photo 150 or different doesn't matter) let me know and I'll create a thread for that in this section (only AMAE team members can start threads here)

Now for the optional extra challenges:

In the past we have done several week long challenges like B&W, Challenge Your Creativity, A-mount retirement party and organise July with 4 "related" weeks where people are free to choose any number of weeks they want to participate in. These were Classical Subjects, Colours, Music, (Classical) Primes. The question is if we repeat one of these or come up with some new concepts.

Last but not least we had two weekend challenges (Helios 44 and Pancakes) but that has been a while ago since we ran them (mostly as a subset from Day Prime).

So pls. post any ideas or input you have on this below, especially what ideas you might have for four "related" weeks in July and some week long (or other time period) challenges we can run inbetween the monthly ones. Should we repeat any specific ones from the past or are there new ideas for these.

We look forward to your ideas to have a complete and interesting challenges year here on Dyxum!

Never heard of the Helios 44 or pancake challenge. Especially the Helios 44 challenge seems a bit elitist (despite it being a cheap lens...).

I am a fan of week challenges as those are easier to join and end. I would like a B&W challenge, "need" to improve my greyscale photography.

Some other ideas:
Week 35 - fits both crop and full frame
Rainbow - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet
Alphabet month - 26 pictures representing 26 letters

I want to do a year long challenge, but the 150 one doesn't inspire me. Still undecided. We'll see.

A few different challenges i can imagine - including the Zoom lenses proposal:

Macro lenses
bellows
filter challenge (fixed lens with changing filters)

I do like the idea of a macro lens challenge, and it could be widened to include anyone who wants to use diopters or extension tubes as well, if they don't have a macro lens. Another possibility might be a panorama challenge...

I've finished my second, year long challenge (Photo 150) and achieved the goal on the second go. I don't think I'm up to another year long challenge, especially as I may be in Nanjing in late October this year for 3-7 weeks.

I have little interest in a film, helios-44 or pancake challenge, mostly because of a lack of gear

My Project 150 petered out this year, I got way behind with scanning old material (and still am) and got way too confused about which primes I'd used and which not - which would have been easy enough to sort out, but I'm afraid I lost the enthusiasm for it. If I do another year longer challenge it will be simpler - pic-a-day being the obvious one. But not this year.

I didn't enter the July challenge in 2022, I don't much like the everyone doing their own thing aspect - the whole thing just seems muddled. I liked the July Prime challenges - a different prime each week with predefined ranges - everyone doing the same range together. In essence they were 4 week long challenges that happen to occur in the same month. You could equally well spread them through the year. We already have week 50 so why not an ultra-wide week (23mm or less), a wide week (24-40), a short tele (60-100) and a long tele (>100) - which also allows the use of a lot of zoom ends.

The July Colours was a nice idea, but I felt the B&W days were all about processing into B&W rather than photographing B&W subjects, the multi-colour days were just take a picture and don't process into B&W, in all the best days were the single colour days. So a colour month with red, blue, green & yellow weeks would be better (IMO).

I'd also join in a week 20, 24, 28, 35 if they were arranged.

Other weeks like B&W, Square, macro, flash, long exposure, night, street, landscape, etc, etc, The DPCs offer a wealth of ideas.

To be honest I quite like the idea of a weekly challenge so there is always one to do if I was so inclined - though I guess it would be difficult to find sufficient volunteers to run them!

I'm less sure about a zoom challenge - one zoom for a week/month I suppose? As someone who used nothing but one zoom for several years I don't see so much challenge in this. But I guess I'd give it a go if one was arranged. That said, there is a preponderance of prime challenges, bearing in mind that any subject oriented challenges would, presumably, be open to any lens it seems sensible to offer some of these.

Final thought (at last) - there is always a DPC running - how about a simultaneous challenge on the same topic? Might generate some extra competition entries too.

See you in March, Maarten!

One challenge option came up in Shapencolours thread: a Rokkor challenge. It is 65 years since Minolta released the SR - I feel there will be enough people with Rokkor lenses for a (small) challenge.

Good luck Maarten.




Macro is very tempting, as well as a B&W week. Zoom and colours are good 2nd places.
The alphabet could also be fun and can be stretched over the year: 26 letters in 52 weeks. Or will it be too challenging?

Filters is not for me.

Maybe, but it may be too challenging as well (or boring) choose a living item (human, animal or plant) and make a picture of it each week or month?

Just my input.