Camera Fun

Messing about with photography offers the potential for lots of different kinds of fun. A digital camera means that taking lots of photos needn’t cost the earth, and that seeing what they look like immediately is easy too. Simple image manipulation software comes bundled as standard with most computer operating systems, so the messing around need not stop when the shutter closes.

Recreate a well-known image – from a statue, a film, a painting, an advert, an album cover, a news story. Cast yourself, or your friends, or cardboard cut-outs or…

Make a photo casebook story by assembling pictures you’ve taken into a comic strip, either with real pictures, scissors, and glue, or with a mouse and keyboard. It can be about anything.

Some ideas:
• An moment from your life
• Historical event, (for example, the discovery of chocolate)
• A depiction of the lyrics of a song you love.
• A fable
• Make a photo casebook story and ask someone else to provide the words, or vice versa


Themed photography challenge – decide on three of four (or ten!) loose themes, and then set out to take two good photographs that relate to each of them. Like this. The themes can be as general or as specific as you want: a wide scope and a narrow focus each have merits and flaws. Here are nine ideas for themes:

- helping
- broken
- separate
- trio
- gone
- loud
- tracks
- through
- wind


Far / Near – using a trick of perspective, take a photo that gives the impression of the foreground and background interacting in a fantastic and unusual way.

• ‘park’ a toy car in a real car park

originally uploaded by Steve Brandon.

• integrate a record cover or book cover into the real world


• fit a face to a folded fiver, or tenner


Fake a yeti sighting, alien visitation, dinosaur footprint.