2019 Photography Challenge

I take a lot of photos every day, whatever catches my eye. In 2018 I felt I needed a little more purpose behind the random point and shoot: some kind of big project that would still be easy to fit into my life – as I would be using my phone, not my DSLR – but also provide some kind of challenge or even require deliberate planning.

At the same time, I was seeing a lot of monthly photo challenges floating around, particularly on Instagram and Pinterest. However, I didn’t see any sets that I loved wholly, and determined it would be more to the point to write my own. I came up with a list of 30 subjects, many of which had more than one meaning and would offer enough scope to keep me interested for 365 days; I enjoyed the challenge of thinking laterally each day.

I also decided that I would use my beloved Hipstamatic app, and each month would feature its own set of equipment: lens, film and flash. For nearly all of them, I settled upon a random combination. (The app has a randomiser function, and just before I was due to switch, I began experimenting to see what caught my fancy for the following month.)

For an extra degree of difficulty, I added an overall ‘fashion’ theme to the month of November, which turned out to be very enjoyable.

View the individual monthly galleries below.