Photo 150 - a yearlong photo challenge

And I am not the only one who has problems with these rules. Several people remarked in this thread.

addy landzaat wrote: But all the rules about three different topics a week makes it really hard. The tradition on Dyxum is of inclusive challenges, the challenge is not from Dyxum to you. You challenge yourself! The objectives are: (1) to get you out shooting more pictures; (2) to develop your photographic skills; (3) to enjoy photography; (4) to get to know the other photographers and fellow Dyxumers in the challenge and comment on their photo's. This challenge has a huge barrier to entry imho. I hope you guys enjoy yourself. I really do. I just wonder how many of you really keep to the three topics you decide on now for 50 weeks in 2021. I could not do that. If it was just a straight 3/week, that would already be better. I think it is your personal challenge, that some people want to join - but that is really hard to join for a lot of people.

Addy, we're an inclusive website and all challanges are open to all members, only restriction is using A- or E-mount (except week 50 which allows all brands/mounts). In order to attract participants with differing time constraints we have up to now "Day Prime", "July prime weeks", "week 50", and the two prime month ("April Foolishness" and "Oktoberfest") to which we now add this "Photo 150" challenge. The fact some members think this one is too much of a time commitment doesn't make it any less "inclusive" in my mind. There's plenty of members for which a month prime or even week prime is too much but I don't think we should stop these longer challenges because of that. We understand that not every challenge is for everybody, which is exactly the reason we have such a variety in order to be able to cater to members with a large spread of time availability needed to complete a challenge.    

Edited by pegelli - 01 January 2021 at 15:46

Long time since I did any posting shots here.
My challenge will be 15 years of digital photo, my archive with digital goes back to 2005 and I joined Dyxum in nov 2005.
It’s about time I had a look at what I have and share it here :)

Phil Wood wrote: Looking back in the archives I see that challenges were more varied in the past, not just based on focal length. I regret not being more involved back then. I particularly like one that challenged participants to try new techniques for a month (July 2014) and a week long challenge to photograph the same subject daily, and there were other subject based challenges. I guess these sort of challenges are not around today because they were not popular enough?

I'm sure we can drum up sufficient interest for a week long mini challenge, perhaps in February?   I certainly enjoyed the week long 'challenge your creativity' challenges, with a single subject.   The other good one was the week long 'music challenge' where you post 7 pics inspired by a particular artist or album.

Wētāpunga wrote: The only thing I might suggest modifying the challenge with, is making the start-week a little more flexible. While I’m certainly keen to start on the 4th, I can also appreciate some people might want to join the challenge later in January without sacrificing their two week absence option. I don’t see this challenge as quite as onerous as others as you can adopt very loose rules for your own challenge. As I’ve pointed out earlier, if I set myself a “shoot with a prime challenge” then with my lens lineup it would be business as usual. The fact we can dig into our archives also means that unlike most challenges, some pics can be posted without ever leaving the house.

I agree, this is what I said a few pages back on "flexibility":

pegelli wrote: With such a long challenge we need to be a bit flexible. I'm always more interested in the intent of the rules rather than the exact letter of the rules.

The phylosophy in all the Dyxum challenges is that you challenge yourself, it's not a competition or training course that Dyxum "dictates"

off-topic (related) ::: I'd happily throw in a few one-line ideas into a thread of weekly challenges thoughts/options ... perhaps we could compile a list of classic photo topics for people to come and select at any one-week time that suits them. Like a 'Macro week' and a 'mono week' (you do it during any Mon-Sun you want to, 7 days on one topic). Then you pop back in and pick-up 'Pets' a few weeks later (whenever your diary suits). Some players might chose 5 weekly topics in the year, some might select 27 of them.

You would still have the buddy element if someone else is doing their 'Landscape' or 'Cars' week while you are doing 'macro'.

As for start time (Photo 150) - my mind is always wrapped around 1st of the month. And 1st of the year especially. But I know people who've 365'd from their birthday to birthday. I (personally) view a weekly or monthly topic as one sort of challenge. And they are a challenge and very rewarding. I'm looking forward to Oktoberfest already. But they have a short end point. Not saying they are easy. 365s are tough, they feel never ending, they are truly daunting, and they put pressure on - it changes how you think. They are not for everyone. A lot of people fail them. This was created as a viable alternative.

The middle ground would be a quarterly project - calendar Q1 [Jan/Feb/Mar] and then a re-boot for Q2 [Apr/May/Jun]. Swap your topics in/out if you want. I was tempted to add or suggest a Quarterly option to spin your topic out for something else. I doubt I'll be finished on my archive channel by this time next year, so that one will continue as a stand alone.

I'm possibly going to change my project topics next week - partly dependent on the change/upgrade in our UK "stay at home" rules which might come in next week. Before I posted this here it was a Project 150 (not just photo related). And I may revert to that original plan and concentrate on a new blog (1/3 photography). Really good to see it upgraded to forum wide challenge - if I can find a logical way for this to sync my blog plans then I will. I might also switch to smartphone or pocket compact on my permitted daily exercise walks. So, it is quite likely that I'll not be updating my thread here.