15 ways to challenge yourself creatively during Covid-19
Last week, we officially launched our Creative through Covid-19 Photography Project. Make sure you read our last blog post and use #igcw_ctc19 when sharing your images on Instagram & Twitter.
We do love a good photography challenge or competition at Igers C&W. So, we have done some research into other opportunities for you to challenge yourself creatively, improve your photography or social media skills, and potentially win some prizes.
15 ways to challenge yourself creatively:
The Herbert Art Gallery are hosting a photography competition to celebrate their exhibition ‘Quinn: A Journey’. They want to see your landscape images inspired by this exhibition. Share your landscape photos – from local to international using #herbertslandscapes
The competition closes on the 18 May, and the winner will receive a goodie bag worth of £100.
The Duchess of Cambridge launched a community project in collaboration with the @nationalportraitgallery.
You are invited to share your portrait images which capture the spirit, mood, hopes, fears and feelings of the nation as we continue to deal with the Coronavirus outbreak, using #HoldStill2020.
The #holdstill2020 Community project closes on 18th June 2020.
3. Amateur Photographer - Stay at Home Challenge
The Amateur Photographer (AP) have a Stay at Home Challenge - you could win a £100 voucher from CameraWorld or one of five mini tripods.
There are five categories:
People
Pets
Food
Objects
Doors & windows.
Upload your images on Instagram, Twitter, Flickr or Facebook and include the hashtag #apstayathomechallenge. Images must have been taken inside your home your home since 23rd march 2020. The AP challenge closes at midnight on Sunday 31st May 2020. Winners will be announced before the end of June.
Obscura Chromatic have launched a community project in collaboration with Blind spot theatre - #isolatingnotisolated
Each week there is a new theme, and you submit your work to potentially be included in their online digital gallery that will be presented when lockdown lifts.
Blindspot Theatre will also share your photo with another artist in the city, who will then create a piece of work inspired by yours – this may be a sketch, poetry or prose!
Buddy by Regan Thacker @duskyblueskies
If you have a Sony Alpha series or RX series camera, follow @sonyalphauniverse.eu
Upload your pet portraits to Instagram, then add @alphauniversebysony.eu and #AlphaPetUK in the caption.
Three winning images will be chosen and the prizes are:
• 1st Place: Alpha 6600 + E 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS kit OR Alpha 7 III body (winner to choose)
• 2nd Place: FE 85mm f/1.8 lens
• 3rd Place: RX100 V
This competition ends at midnight on 14th June 2020.
6. Home With Olympus
Olympus UK are offering free 1-2-1 training sessions with their Photography Gurus and delivering weekly webinars as part of their #homewitholympus campaign, for more information about these please see their facebook page.
Joanna Noble who is a member of @igersblackcountry, was recently invited to write a blog post for Olympus UK on her photography project - #littlepeopleinabigworld
If you would like your #stayhome images to be considered for an upcoming article in the Olympus Passion Magazine, please submit them via their website.
7. Fuckup Nights - Coventry
Watch the @fuckupnights_coventry quarantine special mini series on Instagram live!
#shareyourstory
#lifewithoutfilters
#safeopenconversations
If you would like to talk about how the Coronavirus has affected your business, community or personal projects, contact FuckUp Nights to discuss further.
8. Lockdown photography competition with UB40
A midlands based lockdown photography competition from Creatives We Are in association with UB40. Further information about the competition can be found here. Winners will have the opportunity to exhibit their work at The Birmingham Contemporary Art Gallery later in the year. This will include a video compilation of the winning entries with music from UB40. The competition closes on 31 May.
9. Covid-19 Diaries
The Covid-19 diaries is a collaborative documentary project capturing our collective experience during the crisis. This is being made by Phoebe Holman Films and Bristol based documentary, Phoebe Holman.
In an aim to create connection in a time of disconnection, across Europe and beyond, people are now recording their experiences and together these will form the basis of our collaborative documentary and a community website.
Anyone can submit their video for inclusion in the Project. This documentary will be a social and historical artefact, charting the human experience of the Covid-19 pandemic and exploring how people are coping during this unprecedented time.
Questions for the Covid-19 Diaries Project
10. Love in lockdown
Captured by Regan Thacker @duskyblueskies
Love In London 2020 is a photography competition which encourages people to share their stories of love, compassion and community on social media to raise funds for the charity - Relate. They have now launched their Love In Lockdown project, and opened this up to the whole of the UK to create and share positive images.
There are four categories:
Love your home
Love your neighbour
Love your pets
Love your local Heroes
11. ICP Concerned
The International Center of Photography have issued an Open Callout for images from their community of artists, educators, and supporters of photography and image making, Share your pandemic images and stories with the ICP by using #ICPConcerned and they’ll share select images on @ICP on Instagram.
12. Format Festival - Mass Isolation
FORMAT have issued an invitation to join their @massisolationFORMAT project, a visual record of the Covid 19 Crisis on Instagram.
”Share your experience of this global pandemic and send us your photographs, drawings, memes, tips and ideas. Become part of this important visual archive at a most extraordinary moment in our history”.
Tag your images using #massisolationFORMAT and @massisolationformat.
12. Place of Pride
Baddesley Clinton by Brett Kowalski @notbrettk
Do you feel an affinity with a certain place in the UK?
If yes, capture it in a photo and upload it on Instagram.
Geotag the location. Tag @ripe_photography_
Enter the hashtag #PlaceofPride in the caption.
Then, explain why you have chosen this image as your place of pride.
The lucky winner of this competition will receive £350 cash, while the runner-up will receive £150 and third place £50.
Ronya Galka will be choosing the winner. She was recently voted one of Britain’s top 10 street photographers by the Interactive Design Institute, and has also previously been nominated for Best Photographer at the Sony World Photography Awards.
Competition closes for entries on May 31st 2020
13. Stay at Home Project
Stay At Home is new initiative which involves engaging in (wordless) photographic conversations with self-isolated photographers all over the world. Photographers are welcome to apply to participate.
14. F-stop Weekly Photo Challenge
F-stop set weekly photo challenges on their contest page. There you will find prize information and submission requirements. New Contests start each Monday.
15. Get the shot podcast
@mrjoshdeakin, @jrewillis & @bfhuk explore everything from Photography to Social Media in fortnightly podcasts. Listen to their candid conversations which unpick the future of visual and social media culture, give you the opportunity to meet the creator, and cover what it means to be a photographer today.
If you would like to be part of their podcast series, please contact them directly.
Do you know about any other creative challenges or competitions?
Share them with us in the comments, we'd love to hear about them!