3 Instagram photo challenges to start the year with
Instagram is an excellent tool for keeping up with your photography, getting inspired by others – experienced and otherwise – and for promoting your own beautiful images.
Today on the blog we are looking at some Instagram photo challenges that will allow you to test your creativity and maintain a steady flow of images to your account. Seeing what others taking part in photo challenges are snapping too. Here are three of the most popular challenges to get you started. Though many of these projects and hashtags are far from new, they are still hugely popular among photography enthusiasts, so they're a great way to become involved in the Insta community.
2. Photo a Day Challenge
This Instagram photo challenge requires you to make a list of prompts that cover a month-long period. Things like:
- Favourite colour
- Something red
- Music
- Flowers
- Nature
- Animals
Each day is a new prompt to focus your lens on. After the month is over, you can look back over your creations and choose your favourites photos to put on canvas. The hashtag will also allow you to follow other people’s progress. And, if you get stuck, you can take inspiration from other people’s daily challenge prompts. Why not give this a go in February?
Hashtags: #photooftheday #photoaday
2. 365 Project
The 365 Project is an oldie but a goodie. It involves sharing one photo a day on your Instagram account for a full year, usually as part of a theme. It could be how you look every day over the year, taking selfies each day no matter what is going on.
Or, how about taking a snap of your favourite meal of the day? You can visually chronicle your gastronomic journey over 365 days! Get some hints and tips from the best food photographers on Instagram by following the best accounts – we have a guide to who to follow here.
Another option, is to photograph your everyday life, choosing just one image to represent to the best part of your day. Although quite the undertaking, the end product will be worth the effort.
Hashtags: #project365 #365project #365photochallenge #365challenge #365
3. Weekend Hashtag Project
This hashtag was created by the Community Team of Instagram itself, who, each Friday, come up with a theme and related hashtag to go alongside the #whp hashtag. These encourage users to explore certain themes, subjects and to master new techniques too. Each Monday, the team showcases some of its favourite submissions from the project – one of them could be you! What a great way to get your work seen by a wider audience!
Some of the popular hashtags include:
- #whpmirrormirror – playing with reflection amongst different textures and landscapes.
- #whplightandshadow – a project that invites people to get creative with light and shadow in whatever way comes to mind.
- #whpsignsoftheseason – images as part of this project include nature-focused shots, the different colours of the sky and items that symbolise the season.
- #whpthroughthetrees – this project has quite the fairy tale theme to it, with images looking up through the trees, from within the forest and peeking through the shrubbery.
Hashtags: #whp #whylightandshadow #whpsignsoftheseason #whpthroughthetrees #whpmirrormirror
Be sure to look at our 3 photography goals for 2017 for other inspiration on your photography journey this year.