Monthly Theme June 2022 - Plants

We're almost halfway through 2022 already and the mid-year solstice is just weeks away! How did that happen?!

Before we rush into June's theme, we'd like to take a moment to thank everyone for taking part in last month's theme. We loved looking at your entries and have picked six finalists, which you can review below. (You can also check out all of the Long Exposure theme entries here.)

With all the daylight we're getting in the northern hemisphere we can't help but notice that our surroundings have transformed into a green paradise, with a full schedule of blooms and the early signs of fruit and vegetables growing. And so, it feels like the perfect time of year to focus on the theme: "Plants".

We know how much our 365 community loves capturing and sharing photos of beautiful flowers and plants, and we hope our friends in the southern hemisphere, will treat us to some autumnal and wintery shots too!

There are so many ways to take brilliant photographs of plants. Every day the site has dozens of gorgeous new floral photographs uploaded! Instead of sharing technical tips we've brought back some fun ideas from previous floral themes:

1. Capture Change

In the world of plants, a lot can happen in a month! We love seeing plant journals, created by photographing the same plants/flowers each day!

Maybe you’ll start with seeds, like @helstor365, and watch something grow!

Perhaps you could document a bouquet of fresh flowers transition from tight buds, to bursting blooms and to wilting stalks.

Or, maybe you'll catch the transition of autumn leaves into winter branches, like @merrelyn.

2. Play with Perspective

Like the great masters of painting, you can use flowers as a subject to develop your photography skills and techniques by using one subject over and over again. Perhaps each week you could use a different flower/bouquet to practice a variety of shots, from macro to wide-angle, and from black and white to low-key. We love this bold, top-down shot from @novab!

Have fun and see how many perspectives you can come up with - in 2020 @sunnygirl completed a whole month of beautiful, bright floral photos like the poppy capture below, and a whole month of blossom photos - amazing!

3. Run through the Alphabet

This one is for the green-fingered folk that know their Azaleas (below, by @marlboromaam) from their Alstroemeria, and their Zenobias from their Zinnias (below, by @k9photo). Simply challenge yourself to tick off as many letters in the floral alphabet throughout June!

4. Make a Rainbow

Inspired by 365’s very own community-run "Rainbow Challenge", this will make for a stunning monthly snapshot in your project!

Simply set a colour for each day of the week and focus on taking a plant-based photo to fit your rainbow each day. (e.g. Monday = Red, Tuesday = Orange, Wednesday = Yellow, Thursday = Green, Friday = Blue, Saturday = Purple and Sunday = Pink).

We love this example from @sheilaw's project from March 2019:

5. Play with Plant-Based Food

Another exciting movement around the world is the development and growing popularity of eating plant-based food! So why not put an interesting twist on our 'plants' theme and celebrate a plate of plants too?!

We love these cookbook-worthy photos by @wakelys, and @adi314

Whether you decide to take on extra challenges or not, we hope you have a lot of floral fun this month. Whether it's in our garden or out on a daily walk, we can’t wait to see your entries!

How to enter the June theme

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

Entry Guidelines: Photos must be your own and must have been taken and uploaded between Wednesday, June 1st and Thursday, June 30th. 6 finalists will be chosen in the first couple of days of July, 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 June 2022.

Vote for a Winner of May's "Long Exposure" Theme

We had some spectacular entries for this tricky theme, so thank you to everyone who took on the challenge of the "Long Exposure” theme!

We've selected 6 finalists so now it's over to you to vote for the winner of May's Long Exposure 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 June 14th. We’ll announce the winner in a separate post shortly after!