Monthly Theme January 2021 - Rule of Thirds

by bilbaroo on Jan 2nd 2021

As we welcome 2021, we'd like to say a massive thank you to everyone who's submitted photos to our monthly themes in 2020 - you guys rock!

Every month we LOVE reviewing your entries, discovering the stories behind the shots and reading lovely comments from the community. This year we're excited to do it all over again and hope it'll help provide some inspiration and challenge for your project!

Last month we received some amazing entries for December's “Holidays” theme. As always, we loved looking through all of your photos before the tricky task of choosing some finalists. Scroll down to view the six contenders and vote for a winner! (Remember, you can also check out all of December's entries here.)

But first, it's time to introduce January's theme....

As we ease into a fresh new year, we like our first monthly theme to focus on something that every 365er can have fun with!

In 365 tradition, we're revisiting one of the most simple, yet effective, ways improve your photography skills - “Rule of Thirds”. Whether you’re focusing on portraits, landscapes, macro or everything in between, mastering a simple composition technique is perfect for almost any subject and style of photography!

While it might seem intuitive to center your image, off-centring can often be more pleasing to the eye. It allows us to use negative space to emphasize a subject or break down an image in a way that a viewer's eyes will be lead through different focal points.

To get started you simply need to imagine an even 9-cell grid over your photo - some cameras and smartphones will have this feature already - aiming to line up the focal point of your shot with one of the four points where the central grid lines cross.

How to enter January’s theme

When uploading your photos use the tag section (on the edit/organise screen) and insert this week's theme tag: theme-thirds

Entry Guidelines: Photos must be your own and must have been taken and uploaded between Friday January 1st and Sunday January 31st. 6 finalists will be chosen in the first couple days of February, then you'll get to vote for the winner!

p.s. Don't worry if you spot tagged photos from a previous theme, when choosing our six finalists we'll use a filter to only view images from January 2021.

365 Inspiration - Rule of Thirds

To demonstrate how versatile the rule of thirds is, we’ve revisited our favourite examples from your photos on 365 Project:

@emrob has kicked off their 2019 365 project with their furry friend Maggie - see how they’ve lined up her nose in the bottom right corner, with her eyes either side of the top right corner.

@koalagardens captured this sweet little bird with classic composition - note how the bird is also facing towards the negative space!

@cathrinemitch really emphasizes how isolated this old wooden barn is. As it sits among the cornfields, we can’t help but wonder if anything lurks in there.

@dmcoile has captured the magic, and majestic size, of golden autumn woodlands with this simple but well-composed shot.

Even in a busier scene, @jborrases has worked with the pop of colour in the woman's cardigan to anchor our attention on the people, making us wonder about what they can see up above.

For similar themes in the past, we’ve also shared this super helpful post by, Photography Mad. If you're still getting to grips with some of the basics they have some great examples of different subjects to give you extra inspiration.

Finally - have fun! We can't wait to see your entries!

Vote for a Winner of December's "Holidays" Theme

We loved checking out last month's entries for the “Holidays” theme. It really helped us get into the festive spirit, even though the holidays were a little different, and a lot quieter, for many of us!

We eventually managed to choose just 6 finalists so now it's over to you to vote for the winner of the Holidays theme. To cast your vote, just reply to this blog post with the number (in digit form) of the photo you would like to see win, before January 14th. We’ll announce the winner in a separate post shortly after!