52 Assignments

52 Assignments: Experimental Photography is filled with prompts and projects, nudges and sparks, innovations and inspirations, and--most importantly--experiments in shooting, processing, and printing, to help you kick your photographic habits, step out of your comfort zone and create your own collection of experimental work. You will be briefed to tackle modern uses for traditional film (hacking vintage film cameras, making pinholes, playing with plastic, collecting the filters that inspired Instagram) and traditional uses for digital (multiple exposures, extreme speeds, timed challenges, focus tricks), as well as lo-tech and hi-tech ways to manipulate your prints (staining prints with water, digital effects, photocopy prints, burning photos, printing on flexible surfaces). The rest of the journal's pages are styled for you to add your own thoughts, notes, lists, Top 10s, technical specifications, quotes, and even sketches and doodles, creating a record of your own 52 photographic assignments. These may be completed weekend by weekend over the course of a year, or dipped into every time you need to bring a new edge or experimental approach to your photography.

52 Assignments: Landscape Photography is a mission brief, a portfolio of photographic workshops, a personalized journal, and an inspirational guide to putting the creativity back into your craft. Small enough to fit in your camera bag, it is filled with a year's worth of weekly commissions and concepts for composing and creating eye-catching landscape photography in all its forms. From adding movement to the land to freezing the motion of seascapes; from playing with snow to capturing a starburst; from bird's-eye views to worm's-eye views, this is the quickest and most enjoyable way to shake off old habits and discover new approaches that will throw a whole new light on your landscape photography.

Wicked Arts Assignments are bold, unusual, contrary, funny, poetical, inspiring, socially committed, or otherwise challenging. Everyone who teaches art knows them: the assignment that is seemingly simple but which challenges participants, students and pupils to the max. Many artists and arts teachers have that singular, personal, often-used assignment in which everything comes together: their artistic vision, their pedagogical approach and their love for certain techniques or methods.00The almost hundred arts assignments collected here connect to the visual arts, performance, theatre, music and design, but more importantly: they encourage cross-disciplinarity. They reflect themes and ways of working in contemporary arts, offering opportunities to learn about ourselves, the arts and the world.00The first part of this book provides a theoretical view on arts assignments from historical, artistic and educational perspectives, complemented by interviews with experts in contemporary arts and education. The second part consists of the actual wicked arts assignments. These can be carried out in various contexts: from primary schools to higher education, from home to the (online) community, and from Bogotá to Istanbul. They are meant to spark the imagination of both teachers and students, contributing to new, topical educational and artistic practices.

Learn to train your eye and improve your timing in order to capture the decisive moment!

Whether it’s due to social media or the introduction of great rangefinder-style digital cameras over a decade ago, street photography has experienced a remarkable resurgence in recent years. You can be roaming the streets of a classic urban environment (New York, Paris, Tokyo) or on a simple photo walk around a quiet neighborhood—it has never been more popular to pursue the art of capturing those candid, fleeting moments that happen throughout the day, of freezing a moment in time and transforming the ordinary into an extraordinary photograph.

But learning to see light and moment, to make quick decisions, and to nail a photographic composition are all crucial skills you must master in order to become a good street photographer. Photographer, instructor, and author Valerie Jardin has been teaching photographers how to take better photographs for years, and in Street Photography Assignments: 75 Reasons to Hit the Streets and Learn, she provides dozens of prompts for you to practice in order to refine and improve your craft.

These activities focus on themes such as:

 • Street portraits
 • Gesture
 • Shadows
 • Silhouettes
 • Rim light
 • Humor
 • Abstract
 • Tension
 • Motion
 • Reflections
 • Leading lines
 • Creative framing
 • Juxtapositions
 • Double exposures
 • And much, much more!

Each assignment includes a description of the technique, various tips and tricks to practice, technical and compositional considerations, and an example photo that Jardin has captured when practicing the same exercise. Whether you have 30 minutes or 3 hours, each assignment is an opportunity for you to take your camera and hit the streets. No more excuses!

Inspired by a real-life incident, this riveting novel explores the dangerous impact discrimination and antisemitism have on one community when a school assignment goes terribly wrong. Would you defend the indefensible? That's what seniors Logan March and Cade Crawford are asked to do when a favorite teacher instructs a group of students to argue for the Final Solution--the Nazi plan for the genocide of the Jewish people. Logan and Cade decide they must take a stand, and soon their actions draw the attention of the student body, the administration, and the community at large. But not everyone feels as Logan and Cade do--after all, isn't a school debate just a school debate? It's not long before the situation explodes, and acrimony and anger result. Based on true events, The Assignment asks: What does it take for tolerance, justice, and love to prevail? "An important look at a critical moment in history through a modern lens showcasing the power of student activism." --SLJ

A powerful portfolio involves so much more than just a strong grasp of the technical aspects of photography–it’s a complex mix of style, techniques, and intriguing ideas. Many photographers struggle to achieve a high-impactportfolio, feeling that they lack the creative spark to invigorate them andmove their work forward. Creative 52 is that spark–and your guide to a new and more creative portfolio in just one year! A remedy for that “average” portfolio, this collection of innovative projects will help portrait, wedding, and fashion photographers build a portfolio that draws the attention of editors and clients–leaving the competition behind. While other how-to books often use bland imagery simply to prove a technical point, and many fine art books are filled with beautiful imagery but contain minimal (if any) educational insights to help working photographers, this book blends both: inspiration and knowledge that you can use to create images that attract potential clients. Divided into three parts–concept, technique, and post-processing–author Lindsay Adler’s 52 challenges each contain a description of the project, potential inspiration and suggestions of other artists to check out, and her own unique solution to the challenge–all to push you beyond your comfort zone to explore new ideas and approaches to your work. Includes a year’s worth of weekly projects that motivate you to experiment with new concepts, techniques, and software tools like Adobe Photoshop to achieve more eye-catching images Offers the cure for “expected” imagery, showing how to produce memorable photographs that are distinct from the competition, enabling you to reach new clients Empowers you with the encouragement and expertise necessary to create spectacular images

This is a collection of inspirational Insta missions, challenges, and ideas illustrated by the work of leading Instagram photographers. It is filled with a years worth of weekly commissions for capturing and posting images that will get followers flocking to your Feed: from pet portraits with personality to flawless food photography; from stylish selfies to fabulous fashion shoots. If you feel your Instagram needs a creative shot in the arm, here is everything you need to transform the images on your smartphone into miniature works of art.