At Home Photography Class for Two?

August 26, 2010 9:55 AM

My boyfriend and I would like to improve our photography skills. I'd like to get a list going of daily/weekly assignments or friendly competitions we can give ourselves to have some fun with this. Any ideas? Does something self-directed like this already exist elsewhere on the internets?

I have quite a bit more experience than he does, so things that apply with a wide range of skill levels would be nice.

We'd also like to work on digital workflow/editing/post-processing so anything in those areas are appreciated too!

posted by logic vs love to media & arts (15 answers total)

My mother really enjoys the projects and the community around the Utata group. It's a Flickr group that also has its own website. They have projects that include photography and writing. There are a lot of talented people there, and they are also welcoming to newbies. It's sort of giant, but there are a lot of smaller approachable parts I think. On a smaller scale MeFi spinoff site MetaChat does a photo friday where there's a loose topic and people share pictures. There are a lot of in-betweens as well. You can get a free account on Flickr to start with and ramp up to a paid account if it turns out to be something you like.
posted by jessamyn at 10:00 AM on August 26, 2010

Set up a wordpress photo blog, pick a random word from the dictionary every week and use it as the basis for that week's assignment, with the pressure to complete the assignment coming from the onus to publish the result in the blog.
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 10:06 AM on August 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Use Twitter? The Daily Shoot is good.
posted by Gucky at 10:08 AM on August 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

I quite like Digital Photography School
posted by sodium lights the horizon at 10:22 AM on August 26, 2010

Ephotozine has a photo of the day competition and runs a bunch of other competitions.
posted by MuffinMan at 10:23 AM on August 26, 2010

Digital Photography school has weekly assigments and is a pretty helpful blog as well.
posted by Gortuk at 10:23 AM on August 26, 2010

Big fan of Utata.
posted by micawber at 10:32 AM on August 26, 2010

Awesome question! Maybe this will help? I bet you can get it at your local library if you'd rather not buy it: 50 Photo Projects: Ideas To Kickstart Your Photography.
posted by 2oh1 at 10:44 AM on August 26, 2010

DP Challenge as well.
posted by getmetoSF at 11:01 AM on August 26, 2010

Lens Day
posted by kindall at 11:02 AM on August 26, 2010

dGrin runs a bi-weekly challenge. Good group of folks, who are always happy to help out and help you learn.
posted by pyro979 at 11:03 AM on August 26, 2010

http://www.fredmiranda.com/ Has a weekly assignment board, and the quality of images I generally find to be higher than on other sites, and quite inspiring.
posted by kenbennedy at 11:39 AM on August 26, 2010

Alexandre Buisse is teaching an intro-level photo class online here. He has daily lessons and assignments, and answers questions, all for free.
posted by rajbot at 1:55 PM on August 26, 2010

I Heart Faces is one.
posted by pyjammy at 1:57 PM on August 26, 2010

I'll second DGrin but the right forum is under Techniques in the Assignments section. It is actively monitored and mentored and is currently up to assignment 146. The complete list can be found here.
posted by michswiss at 7:50 PM on August 26, 2010