100 Photos

Practice Challenge

Objective

Do you have time to take 100 really good photos in a week? Probably not, and that’s the point. This week’s challenge is to take at least 100 pictures, not because they will all be great but because but because every skill, whether it’s photography, filmmaking, writing, or playing a sport, takes time and practice. A slightly absurd goal or limit is a great way to force that practice. You don’t become an artist by painting one perfect painting. You become one by painting again and again… and by taking pictures again and again.

Video Guide

Please let me know if there are specific questions you have or ideas for making the video and PDF guides more helpful.

Warm-Up Prompts

To warm up our thinking, consider these prompts. You don’t have to answer them all, but read them over and try to find the one that sparks something in your brain.

1. Remembering: How many photos are we aiming for this week, and how can you show the class your whole set without posting every single one?

2. Understanding: In your own words, why could taking 100 photos make you a better photographer, even if most of them aren’t good?

3. Applying: Without a camera, go do one ordinary chore or errand. Count how many moments you could have snapped a quick photo without slowing yourself down.

4. Analyzing: Look at two photos of the same subject in the Examples. What changed between them: where the photographer stood, the lens, the focus, or the light?

5. Evaluating: “Taking 100 photos is a waste of time if most of them are bad.” Do you agree or disagree, and why?

Guide

• Photograph your day, not an outing. Keep your camera or phone close while you do your normal chores, errands or walks. Any time your hands are free, snap a couple of photos, then get back to what you were doing. It shouldn’t add any time to your day.

• Share the set, not just the winners. You probably can’t post 100 photos, so take a screenshot of all of them (the grid view in your photo app works) and then pick your favorites to share.

• Try every lens. Take pictures at all of the different lens settings on your camera or phone. What changes about the same scene when you switch?

• Move the focus. On a touchscreen, tap different parts of the scene to move the autofocus. If you have an SLR or mirrorless camera, move your autofocus point, or turn autofocus off and take some manual photos. What was sharp before, and what is sharp now?

• Don’t just hold down the button. Standing in one spot and firing off a burst of 100 doesn’t count. The point is to pull photography into what you do every day.

Process

1. Decide on your personal goal. Will you photograph the chores and routines of your day, one place you pass every day, or a mix of both?

2. Prepare to take photos:

   • Keep your camera or phone where you can reach it for at least an hour each day this week.

   • Test your lens settings and focus controls, and write down which is which.

   • Pick a few moments in your normal day when your hands are free.

3. Capture way more photos than you think you need. Experiment. Play. Most of them might be failures. That’s part of the process.

4. Ask yourself this week’s Guiding Questions while you shoot. Let them push you to see things differently.

5. Make every photo unique. Move your feet, change your lens, tap a new focus point. Fifty copies of the same shot isn’t practice.

6. Make sure you’ve met the objective to the best of your ability.

7. Take a screenshot of your whole set, then pick four favorites to share with our classroom.

8. Try to provide the f-stop, shutter speed, and ISO. If you changed your lens setting or your focus, tell us about that too!

Guiding Questions

1. When did your best photo happen?
   Look at your favorites. Did they come early, in the middle, or near the end of your 100? What does that tell you about when to keep shooting and when to stop?

2. What was almost deleted?
   Which photo did you almost delete? What made you keep it, or finally cut it?

3. What separates twins?
   Pick two photos that look almost the same. What one thing (a step to the side, a tilt, a different lens, a new focus point) makes them feel different?

4. Where was the photo hiding in your day?
   Which chore, errand or ordinary moment turned out to be a better photo than you expected? What made you reach for the camera?

5. What did you try at the end that you wouldn’t have tried at the start?
   By photo 90, what were you willing to do that you wouldn’t have done by photo 10?

6. What changed when you moved the focus?
   Compare a photo where you tapped (or turned on manual focus) with one where you didn’t. What did your viewer look at first in each?

Self Assessment Checklist and Rubric

To get the most out of photography club, ask yourself these questions and aim for High Quality (3) in all of your photos. Remember that it’s ok to share Low Quality photos, especially if you have questions about how to improve them.

• ▢ Posted multiple photos.

• ▢ Commented on other’s photos.

• ▢ Participated in discussion.

• ▢ Shared a screenshot of my whole set.