Baker’s Dozen: July Photo Challenge
“July, with its days of blue skies and time that seemingly stands still, holds a special place in my heart.”
Daisaku Ikeda
Welcome to the month of July! Whether your days are temperate and lovely or sweltering hot (like mine in Texas) there’s a whole host of things to celebrate this month… and that means plenty of photo-taking opportunities. Here at the Sweet Shoppe, we’re spending each month with a Baker’s Dozen of photo prompts to ensure we’re being purposeful about recording this sweet life we live. So here are thirteen new prompts to inspire your photography in the coming month.
July’s Photo Prompts:
A Little Inspiration…
Here’s a few ideas from my camera to help you get started.
Hot
It was a miserably hot day at the Ft. Worth Zoo and it was clear the humans weren’t the only ones sweltering. I caught this shot of a gorilla lazing about in the shade, doing its best to cool off.
Picnic or BBQ
Cooking and eating outdoors is a summertime staple. Make sure you snap some shots of the food and games!
Blue
I’ve never seen a blue quite so vibrant as out on the ocean. Where will you and your camera find this cooling, serene hue this month?
Feet
One of my favorite ways to photograph the action around me as I laze about in the sunshine is to frame the shot between my bare feet. In a single image, I’ve not only recorded “this is what was happening” but also “here’s what I was doing at the time”.
Leading lines
In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, “Leading lines refer to lines that lead the viewer’s eye from one part of a composition to another. Usually, these lines start at the bottom of the frame and guide the eye upward, from the foreground of the image to the background.” (Digital Photography School) When you start looking for ways to use leading lines in your shots, you’ll find your photography becomes more dynamic and your images more interesting.
Flag
Whether you’re in the United States – where we celebrate Independence Day on July 4th – or elsewhere in the world in a country participating in the Olympic Games (which begin on July 26th) this month provides lots of opportunities to photograph flags. You’ll find them flying in the air, printed on clothing, and displayed in the unlikeliest of places. Which will you photograph this month?
Splash
Water can make for some truly dynamic photographs! Whether it’s a child jumping in a swimming pool, someone waterskiing or tubing behind a boat, or even just a vehicle driving through a puddle, pull out your camera and capture a splash this month.
Bubbles
There’s lots of ways to interpret the prompt “bubbles” but my very favorite involves soapy water and a wand to blow them. Why not create a photo op this month by picking up a bottle of bubble solution and taking your favorite people to the park?
Cloud
We spend so much of our time looking down, it’s important to remember to also look up when you have your camera in hand. Find an interesting cloud this month and capture an image to remember the beauty of the world around us.
Join us (you could win a free kit!)
I hope you’ll play along with this month’s Baker’s Dozen of photo challenges. Remember, it’s all about being more purposeful about our photography and capturing more images in 2024. As always, I encourage you to share them where you feel comfortable doing so. If you post them on social media, use the hashtag #ssdphotochallenge – and when you scrapbook them, be sure to share your completed layout with us in the Gallery.
We’ve also set up a thread in the SSD Challenges forum for everyone to share their images – and as a bonus, for each photo you post, your name will go in a drawing and one person will win their choice of a kit or template trio or quad from the Shoppe! Congratulations to meterr, our winner for the month of June. Who will be next to win their choice of goodie from the Shoppe? It could be you when you join us in the forum in this thread for July and start sharing your Baker’s Dozen images now.
I’ll see you there!
