Photo 150 - a yearlong photo challenge

Our emeritus Dyxum moderator dCap came up with an idea for a yearlong Photo challenge that got some input from ADub128 “behind the scenes” and we decided to support it on Dyxum. In the thread where this was initially discussed you can find a lot of information how it came about and some other ideas, so we’ll only give a summary here in this introductory post

The project is called: Photo 150
It is a combination of three open photo topics of your own choosing. Three sets of 50x things spread through the year. The idea is to create one new photo each week per topic throughout 2021. This is similar to a 365 and is about living photography. Take an adventure down a new photo avenue and/or trawl your archive.

Some examples for inspiration, but feel free to come up with other ideas that suit your plans better:
- once a week post from the archive
- once a week macro
- once a week example of photo technique
- once a week studio shot
- once a week still life
- once a week photo walk
- once a week with just a prime
- once a week with just a zoom
- once a week blog post (not photo related, and just posted elsewhere, but linked in your thread)
More examples can be found in this thread: Project 150 - a 365 alt

This starts at the beginning of the first business week of the year, Week 1 Mon 04 Jan to Sun 10 Jan 2021 and runs through to week 52 Mon 27 Dec to Sun 02 Jan 2022. You even get to skip two weeks since there are 52 weeks in the year, similar to the event passes but this time it is a week off. Or you can over deliver!

To keep momentum you should be posting once a week to each of your topics/channels, or combine all three topics into one weekly post. You could treat the once-a-week as a minimum and we advise you to stick to once-a-day as a maximum. Refining and selecting will help you edit/delete weaker images and produce a stronger overall final project portfolio.

Those of you who regularly shoot April Foolishness, Oktoberfest, Day Prime or any other Dyxum challenge can simply combine those challenges if you want to do a Photo 150 and pick your own 'photo of the week' to be part of the Photo 150 without over-committing and going mad!
Anyone also posting to their instagram or twitter are encouraged to use the #Photo150 hashtag.

Participants should create their own thread in the “Open Views” forum here with the title: PHOTO 150 - username.
Then state the three themes you'll be shooting/posting in your first post there. Use your thread to post your three images each week, either with titles or with some background info. And others can join in (with comments only). We will move your thread to the "Dyxum Challenges" forum and make a “linked” index below here so all the threads of the project participants can easily be located.

More information to this project and its background can be found here Project 150 - a 365 alt
Basically the normal image posting rules and guidelines apply. These rules and guidelines also give guidance on posting “non A- or E-mount” photo’s, so occasional posting of those photos is allowed within the limits given there, however it should be clear that most photo’s in your “Photo 150” project should be A- or E-mount.

Optionally, if you are a keen blogger you could drop one of your 50x channels out of the photo part and make 50x blog posts elsewhere. At least one of your channels should, of course, be photo related and captured with an E-mount or A-mount camera. The idea is also that the three topics you choose will stay constant for the year.

So if you want to join all you need to do is
- choose your three project topics
- sign up below
- create your own thread in "Open Views" and explain your three projects (we'll move it to "Dyxum Challenges")
- start taking/selecting your photos and post them in your thread


Edited by pegelli - 04 January 2021 at 20:47

Interesting project. Been reading along on the different proposed 'year commitment-projects'. I like the challenge of this post.

l'll have to think about the 3x50 workingtitles. Not sure I understand right about weeks taking pictures throughout the 50 weeks & posting them somewhat later here on Dyxum. For example if I am out for a weeks holiday?

starts NEXT week

Very curious who will join in

yeah @onsplekkie it's a shooting project as much as a sharing/posting thing

guessing you might take a camera with you on holiday

just like in a 365, sometimes you fall a few days behind (in editing/posting!)
here you'll be 3-6 images behind after your 1-2 week hols
catch up with your week 1-2 editing/posts on return and then drift back to weekly momentum

five players already is a rather good start
let's hope for a few more
looking forward to seeing what topics people pick
I had two of mine already defined but decided the 3rd one today

Phil Wood wrote: I am tempted, but selecting three themes to live with for a year is daunting.

You could play it safe with some of your options.

For instance I could have picked shooting with a prime, but with 7 primes between 15 and 135mm that wasn’t really much of a challenge... But if I wanted one easy shot per week...

Thought about the challenges I like to take on as a project:

1. (short) telephoto - make more use of my two new primes; 75mm & 135mm. Get into the learning curve of this FL and outside my comfortzone/most used/beloved 35mm.

2. Streetshot - Keep up my flow of daily commute scenery. I'll give it my best to get people in the frame, no promises.....

3. Anything creative (inspired by Wetapunga's Novel technique) - Longshutter speeds, multiple shots/stitches, extention tubes, filters, lens-wacking, anything realy that gets the brain working outside the box

Not 100% cemented ideas, but should be close enough to give my commitment for a 150 challenge.

@phil/@ons - daunting is sort of the theme too (if it was easy everyone would do it) ... I'm a forward planner but love how reality is rarely what I was expecting. I've picked a shooting format (21:9) that I've never done before, to be shot on a camera that is still in a camera store. And I'm also a bit rubbish at landscapes. This year I've played with 16:9 but not cropped a single image down to 21:9 (yet). Saving that for next week. I have no idea if this is gonna work or not, I have about 3 shots in mind so far ... so will report back in 50 weeks time on that!

For anyone "stuck at home" a lot or "restricted" in their opportunity to venture far outdoors, this could be a time to focus on and develop some home shooting. Set-up cost can be near zero from household objects to create a mini studio. My first home studio was one empty row of a book shelf which I taped white printer paper to to create a 5-sided box of white.

Kitchen/food photography LOOKS real simple - until you try it and realize it is super difficult to do well. 50x different meals, one a week ... will get you shopping for new food stuff! Or 50x ingredients +/- tools. Your belly might even thank you for this one.

You might be surprized how much you can see in one local walk route - I'm lucky to be so close to a chunk of beach which is where I usually do my daily walk/exercise. But even the 10 min walk to the local food shop has things to shoot en route. This is from a one-camera-one-lens easy-carry perspective though.

@Dena - if you are real short on spare time or short on daylight outdoor camera time then maybe this isn't for you? Have you considered "a blog" (open topic, maybe not even photography). 50x movies I watched. My 50x fave albums.
Wordpress offer a variety of tools from free to paid. Does anyone wish they'd kept a once-a-week covid diary starting Feb/Mar 2020? What we've known, how we've adapted, what old routines have had to change.