I have the unexpected pleasure of hosting the second Eye of the Beholder challenge, and would like to thank everybody who participated, and in particular Jeff Walker who devised the challenge in the first place. His idea was a resounding success, attracting nearly 150 entries so I'd like to think that it will become a regular fixture. Jeff made a great job of explaining things, so I'll simply quote his original introduction:
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"
For those of you that don't want to commit to a specific set of words for a month, are intimidated by the thought of being pushed by another 365'er, don't want to be constrained to a specific mundane object, aren't feeling the week's theme, feel you don't have the creativity, time or tools for album and wwyd challenges but still want to face down and conquer a challenge, I have just the challenge for YOU!
(Also, if you enjoy facing all the above challenges and can't get enough of challenges and want to add another challenge to your arsenal, this is for YOU as well!)
Here's the lowdown (and its fairly simple):
Your challenge is to find something most people would not consider to be beautiful, and find a way to capture it that IS beautiful, You can achieve it any way you desire. This challenge will help you with your composition and lighting skills. The way you compose the shot or the way you use light will usually be the way you bring out the beauty. It will also help you look at your surroundings differently. Everything is potentially a beautiful photograph. Its not a matter of finding something to photograph, its a matter of finding a way to photograph something that makes photographing it worthwhile.
There is not specific item you have to photograph for this challenge. And the only rule is that the subject you photograph has to be something that, if people were watching you photograph it, would be wondering what has possessed you to photograph something so plain, bland, boring, ugly, etc. Beauty is where you find it, and it is all around you. Train your eye to see things differently.
The challenge begins now and runs through to Thursday 14th February at midnight GMT. Entries must be taken within this timeframe. I will select and post the 5 images I feel best achieved the goal on the 15th and voting will run from then until Sunday 17th at 9.00pm GMT.
Tag your entries EOTB2
I will announce the winner shortly thereafter and then that person will have the honour of selecting the 5 finalists for Eye of the Beholder 3.
i like this challenge the best.. it forces us to really look at the world around us, not just flowers, birds and beautiful buildings.. so many beautiful entries in the 1st one .. thanks for hosting this !!
I really enjoyed doing it last week and even though my shot wasn't that great, I ended up loving that a traffic cone could be so attractive. This one is fun and I can't wait to see what comes my way (I'll be in Nebraska for this time, so who knows what I'll see and make a fool of myself trying to capture!--That is if I can get my camera bag on the plane with me!).
@darylo I'll step in for Jeff: it's the Popular Page: find it under the browse tab at the top of the page. @brav I'm hoping for another large entry, so thanks for wishing me luck Richard. If shortlisting for the Mundane challenge was anything to go by (25 entries), it'll be a long job!
@automaticslim Thanks for the explanation! I'm new on here, so I'm learning as I go. I love this challenge. Every time I'm out and about, I'm looking for a possible subject. Really helps me when I'm not in the mood to "keep going" every day. :)
@darylo I think Jeff did us all a favour by coming up with this idea - unlike most of the challenges which promote lateral thinking on a set theme this is more about opening one's eyes to the world in general.
@darylo sorry, just got on and saw your question, but @automaticslim took care of the answer... I should probably not use abbreviations with so many new people on here without putting what it stands for... at least not yet. I was in the same boat a year ago, so don't feel bad.
@brav@automaticslim Thank you! I came up with the idea based on how many people would comment on other challenges that the challenges were good, but for various reasons, not for them. I figured there had to be a challenge out there for everyone... and knowing how much I improved when I started looking at my surroundings differently, figured this would not only be something everyone could do, but something we'd all benefit from.
@jsw0109 I think the business of seeing photographic potential in your surroundings takes practice, and if you don't keep it up it's easy enough to get out of condition. That's certainly my experience, and after ten months of 365 I'm getting back to form. The harder I work, the better my luck gets!
B&H put up a video lecture just recently given by Mel DiGiacomo ... it turned into a bit of a bantering session with Jay Meisel, they've obviously been friends for years. Meisel asked him what he hoped for when he went out to take photographs, and DiGiacomo said that he didn't hope to get anything, but he did hope to be aware. I thought that was a perfect answer.
so, first timer here. I tagged my photo for this today. Is that all I need to do? Or do I also have to send it somewhere?. Thanks! Lookiing forward to beign part of htis community!
@secohen That's fine Susan - if you go to the browse tab at the top of the page, select "by tag" and then search for "eotb2" you'll find your entry alongside all the others. Feel free to post images into this thread if you'd like, too, and please remember that multiple entries are welcome.
Here's my first one. Love this challenge--it's fun looking for shots in unexpected places. Today...semi-creepy styrofoam heads at the costume shop, sharing a moment...
A mechanism that holds the shower door in place? Surely nobody would photograph such a thing. But it's functional, and perhaps even a more-than-just-functional bit of beauty. What do you think? An attempt to practice using my 50mm f 1/4 lens more creatively than straight-on shots.
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Great entries for the first run. Was very honored to make the top 5.
Good luck picking for stage 2 of this Challenge Slim @automaticslim
@brav I'm hoping for another large entry, so thanks for wishing me luck Richard. If shortlisting for the Mundane challenge was anything to go by (25 entries), it'll be a long job!
B&H put up a video lecture just recently given by Mel DiGiacomo ... it turned into a bit of a bantering session with Jay Meisel, they've obviously been friends for years. Meisel asked him what he hoped for when he went out to take photographs, and DiGiacomo said that he didn't hope to get anything, but he did hope to be aware. I thought that was a perfect answer.
http://365project.org/tags/eotb2
114 entries now, very gratifying!
I've been jumping all over get pushed, and CSC, why not add another one? xD