And we’ve put together this 365-day calendar so you can start a photo challenge without hassle. Click here to download all 12 calendar months (featured below) as a reference! [ExpertPhotography is supported by readers. Product links on ExpertPhotography are referral links. If you use one of these and buy something, we make a little bit of money. Need more info? See how it all works here.]
What is a 365 Photo Challenge Calendar?
A 365 photo challenge is a project where you capture an image every day for a year. But instead of coming up with topics, our calendar and daily prompts tell you what to look for and shoot. The benefits of this project idea are many. They help to develop your skills by forcing you to look at scenes and objects you usually wouldn’t. This advances your “eye” for exposure, composition, and perspective. As you are given ideas each day, it forces you to rely on your creativity. It gets you to shoot every day and drags you out of your comfort zone.
You’ll also have to learn about post-processing and how to share images on online media platforms. And by participating in this challenge, you’ll become part of a larger photography community. A lot of people around the world join in on this. They share their images and look at others’ photos. So this initiates a lot of conversation between photographers. You can use the #365photochallenge hashtag to make your images accessible to other photographers.
How to Use Our 365 Photo Challenge Calendar?
It is very simple to get started. Look at our monthly calendars below, or download them from our list. You will see a word or a prompt—this is your only clue for what to capture. You may only see a word like “fork,” which leaves you to interpret it in how you shoot your image. It could be a side shot to show the fork abstractly. It could be a simple above shot showing the fork’s lines and curves. Or it could be an image showing only the fork’s shadow. These prompts are open for interpretation, as everyone will come up with something different. And don’t just take one image. Take a few shots and see what they look like after. Then keep the best one for sharing or printing at a later stage.
This is a fantastic way to work on your photography style. You’ll find many different types of photography on our list. And you can use anything from your smartphone to a digital camera. You can even try film photography. Spending time and money on a film camera can be a great way of bringing a twist to this project. You can try shooting only one frame per day. This makes it more exciting. And you can save time because you won’t take hundreds of photos of one topic. Due to this challenge, you’ll have a lot of images of different subjects. This means that you can extend your artistic portfolio. The best thing about these projects is that they will create a body of work. See it through to the end, and you’ll have a range of images you can print as a book. Or you’ll get a kick-ass group of followers! A photo book can even be one of the best photo gifts for friends and family at the end of the year. So start today!
January Photo Challenge
February Photo Challenge
March Photo Challenge
April Photo Challenge
May Photo Challenge
June Photo Challenge
July Photo Challenge
August Photo Challenge
September Photo Challenge
October Photo Challenge
November Photo Challenge
December Photo Challenge
Conclusion
The long and short of it is that you can learn a lot through this challenge. You can learn new technical details and get familiar with different sides and genres of photography. Besides this, you can learn a lot about yourself. Which genre do you prefer? What is the hardest task for you? How persistent are you, etc.? Believe us… at the end of the year, you will be really proud of yourself!
