Photo Challenge – Me and Monet

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Before the camera there was canvas, paint, and brush.  Today our sensor is the brush, your SD card is the canvas and light is your paint.  If you think taking a great photograph is a challenge, try painting one (no that’s not the challenge).  The photo above immediately reminded me of Claude Monet’s many Water Lily paintings (use your imagination) and is easily one of my favorite photographs I’ve shot.  That’s where the challenge come in.

Monet_Water_Lilies_1916

Challenge

Review some famous paintings (Google Images is a great place to start if you don’t have a book of paintings laying about).  Whether or not you decide to try this challenge I would still strongly recommend you review some of these paintings, Picasso and Monet are particularly inspirational to me and you would do yourself a great disservice if you didn’t at least peruse the greats (I am willing to bet you walk away inspired).

After you’ve reviewed some of the famous artwork go back through some of your old photographs and try to pinpoint some photos that remind you of the paintings you just looked at.  This will help you look at your own photography from a new perspective, you may find some great shots that you didn’t notice before.  If you don’t find anything in your collection it’s time to pick up your camera and get to work.

Think about which paintings stood out to you and what it was about them that caught your attention.  If it was the bright colors you may want to look around a garden, if it was dark colors you may want to photograph at night.  Bokeh is your friend (the art of creatively blurring the background of a photograph) when you’re working on this challenge, you can read up on how to accomplish this here.

Good Luck!  If you would like to share your results then submit them to PhotolisticLife and we will feature them in the Photo Journal Challenge.

Submit Your Picture Here!


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