This past program year the Vienna Photographic Society, my camera club, provided our members with a chance to undertake a portfolio project. I took on the challenge with enthusiasm! For those of you that have not done this, it gives you a whole new challenge. Not only do our need to make excellent images, but the images need to relate to a common theme and they need to relate to each other. The constraints for our projects were that they should include 7-12 images and relate to a common theme. We had one session where we critiqued each other’s work and at the end of the year we had a pro come in to give us his feedback. It was not a competition, so no awards were given.
In deciding what I wanted to do I thought I’d go for something on the abstract side. Finally I settled on water. Think about it. Water covers nearly three quarters of the earth’s surface and it is one of the essential building blocks of all life. It is also in a number of my photos. I’m drawn to water!!
But for us photographers water provides a wealth of image making possibilities! The rules I set for myself were that water had to be the subject of each image or at least a very strong part of it. Then I started to think about the different forms water takes – liquid, gas, and solid. Finally I began to realize how water can radically change our view of the world. It can refract, reflect, and invert light and oh yah let’s not forget about that rainbow thing that we all like. BTW I only took one of these photos just for this project. My final image is a reminder of what our world would be like without water.
So what do you think? Ready to take on a portfolio project?
