Part 1: Every beginning is difficult …
After waiting eagerly for the issue of the topic sheet and then finally holding it in your hand, the big awakening often comes: No idea how to implement such a topic. The more you think about it, your head becomes emptier. And now others are already starting to take pictures. From one corner you can hear someone shouting: “I already have the first photo.”
So that you can face this situation calmly, here are a few tips:
- Remain calm and serene. You have time. Even if others are already taking pictures, that doesn’t mean they already have the perfect idea. First, order a coffee and make a plan.
- Brainstorming: Take a piece of paper and write down everything you can think of about the generic term and the individual topics. You will definitely have a full slip of paper after a few minutes and you can set off with motivation.
- The internet is your friend. Are you lacking ideas? Can’t you do anything with a term? Then take the smartphone out and put it in the search engine.
- Concentrate on a part of town / district. If you want across the city just for one photo, it costs a lot of time.
- Think about which style of photographing you want to implement. You are not allowed to edit the photos later. You have to take them directly in .jpg format (exception: editing is allowed in the online marathon in 2021) For this reason you have to set your camera accordingly before taking a picture. When in doubt, photograph several styles. For example, take each photo in black and white and colour. You can delete still later.
- Do you have a lot of ideas and can’t make up your mind? That’s no problem at all. You can first take several photos on each topic. Just make sure that you work through the topics in order. At the end you delete all photos from your memory card that you do not want to submit. Often, several ideas for a series come to mind at the beginning, but they cannot be finished in the end. So you can pursue the idea that suits you best during the day. Simply discard the others. The important thing is: There must be one photo for each topic at the end. It is advisable to take several photos on each topic anyway. So at the end of the day you can decide for the best photo.
- Before taking the first photo, familiarize yourself with the rules again. Does everything have to be photographed in landscape format? Is the aspect ratio of my camera set correctly? Is the time and date set correctly? Familiarize yourself with the operating instructions for your camera. We are always ready to help and try to solve all technical problems, but unfortunately we are not familiar with every camera model.
Most of the time, you have banned the first photos on your memory card very quickly. And if things just don’t go that well, that’s not bad at all. Even participants who had not taken the first photo at lunch break managed it to have a whole series at the end of the day.