Choosing photography subjects can be difficult if you don’t think outside of the box, that is why I came up with Photo Challenges. You can use the Photo Challenge as an excuse to pick up your camera and give your shutter finger a workout. If you complete a photo challenge and would like to show us how awesome you are you can submit your results to PhotolisticLife by hitting the Submit an Article link.
Photographing stairs may seem like a relatively boring photo challenge until you look at it as just that, a challenge. Turning something so ordinary as steps into something worth looking at is a challenge in and of itself. If you really spend some time on this you could really get some dynamic shots. This is a challenge you can do right around your neighborhood or while traveling abroad.
Experiment with flipping your camera onto its side in portrait mode, if the stairs are tall you capture more of them and if not the stairs will act as a leading line pulling the viewers eyes in and then up.
Alternatively, if the sky is bright and where you are shooting is in the shade can shoot in landscape mode to eliminate the hassle of metering for both the sky and the stairs (hint: it’s impossible without a graduated ND filter or else image stacking/HDR).
Shooting in portrait mode (camera on its side) to capture the height of the stairs, the light about half way through the frame was interesting enough to warrant its inclusion. The lighting in this photo is warmer as well because it was shot during the golden hour (the hour before sunset).
Though the stairs were the focus of this challenge they didn’t have to be front and center, the flowers here contrasted with the grey stairs and created an interesting image.
This is one of my favorite stairs photos. The little old woman walking down the stairs was going SO SLOW. She contrasted in a way with the really long set of stairs… she was not the person I would have expected to be making that trip.
When taking any kind of photo we look for things that are interesting and unique. This was the first time I saw anything like this and the bright colors contrasting with the stairs made for an interesting photo.
Noticing a trend? The bright colors of his shirt really contrasted with the colors of his surroundings. He also stood out because he was the only person on the stairs and subsequently photo bombing my shot.
Another one of my favorite shots (would have been my favorite if that green trash can wasn’t sitting there). The stairs going off under the arch lead to the unknown and give the viewer the sense of mystery. I also liked how the green tree formed it’s own archway over where you would walk.
Lastly, another shot taken during the infamous golden hour. The sun setting casts a nice warm color on the wall next to the stairs making this photo feel welcoming to me.
If you’re wondering what the golden hour is you can Wikipedia it or read this article where I go into a little detail on what a golden hour actually is.
Did you like this challenge? Well, just pretend you did and hit the like, tweet, stumble, or whatever other great social sharing button you’d like and you’ll have good luck all day. If you’ve got an idea you’d like to share or something you’d like to see contact us and we will try to make it happen. We aren’t the Make a Wish Foundation so please don’t ask for unrealistic things like “ride a dolphin” or “go on an African Safari.”
