#293 ASSIGNMENT: SEAN TUCKER #2

It’s assignment day where our special guest, Sean Tucker sets a photography challenge for the next week. It’s a challenge for everybody, whatever interests you have, whatever camera you hold, film, larger format, DSLR, mirrorless, compact or smartphone – it’s all about the picture you see. Listen to the show to hear the assignment and find pictures that match the challenge below.

I would love to share the pictures you make for this challenge here, so please send them in to studio@photographydaily.show - 2000 pixels wide, any orientation you prefer; square, portrait or landscape.

My thanks to our wonderful patrons and MPB.com who sponsor this show; the number one company in the UK, the US and Europe when it comes to buying, selling and trading used camera kit online – it’s a safe place to do business, with guarantees upon what you buy.

BY ANDREW HARDACRE

I knew exactly what I wanted for this. I keep an album called Urban Ephemera. Inspired by Michael Wolf’s work, Informal Solutions. Taken in one of Hong Kong’s grimiest back alleyways the pink gloves just leapt out at me. The light behind is the window to a restaurant kitchen. Shot on an M10R / Noctilux f0.95 at f1.7; ISO800 and 1/250s for the technical buffs.

BY JIM SOLLOWS

I was walking through the village here where I live (Fort Langley British Columbia Canada) with 293 - The Assignment with Sean Tucker in my earphones. I was walking down a walkway along the river as Sean described the latest assignment. Beside me was a wrought iron fence that I walk past every day. The light through the overhead trees illuminated the pickets. I snapped this shot on my Nikon FM with Ilford XP2 film. It was shot at f1.4 to focus on the picket in the middle where light was hitting. I’ve attached it at 2000px long side.

BY ROB MERKESTIJN

I hope all is well on your side of the currently quite uncharacteristically not-so-cold and grey North Sea. Although I do very much appreciate the idea of the photo assignment and have undertaken attempts at the previous challenges, this is my first entry to date since I have found myself in somewhat of a photographic lull (rut, thankfully, seems too strong a term for the situation) of late. Nonetheless, I did come home today with the image attached, from a brief walk during my lunch break. I headed out without anything resembling a preconceived plan but with Sean's words in mind. Just happy to be outside and away from the computer screen for a while. The manner in which the light enters the street where this image was taken in late morning/early afternoon made me decide to change my direction at the crossroad and have a look. Whilst walking down the street this scene on the other side of the canal caught my eye, although certainly not the epitome of a Dutch canal view, I reckoned it might fit in with the assignment though.

BY EWAN McNEILL

An unassuming every day object of its time for this week’s assignment. Complete with cobwebs on the light fitting.

BY DARREN GOODGER

After listening to all the shows I’ve really enjoyed the idea of the assignments, and thought I’d join in and even submit an image! This is taken in local woodland that comes alive this time of year, and whilst it’s not private, it’s not somewhere people flock to and is enjoyed by us villagers mainly walking our dogs, but it often feels like our own private space.

In amongst the swathes of bluebells that appear I noticed a slight abnormality hidden amongst them. Thinking surely everyone would have seen them I pointed them out to my wife walking with me who was completely oblivious to their presence, and I thought it fit perfectly, the details you notice that others don’t.

BY JOHN MILLAR

Great assignment this week, had me thinking long and hard, probably thought too deeply, then this morning my light bulb moment, a small round orange subject was staring at me! We have a fruit bowl on the dining table, its usual contents will be apples, oranges, and bananas The bright orange stood out whilst I was sat eating breakfast. The fruit bowl, with its contents, is something I see every day. The orange seemed something quite ordinary but studying it, quite beautiful. Vibrant in colour with an interesting texture. I shot with window light coming in from the left, with the orange on a sheet of white paper. I exposed to the right for something high key. The edit was straightforward, I wanted it to be bright and bold.

BY SUSAN LARSSON

Well, yesterday we were out on our photowalk, my husband the photography mentor, and ClairetheBorderCollie (yes, she has a name), and we thought we were going on a spring walk, but indeed - it snowed on us! But I digress. We were looking for subjects for Sean’s assignment, and found many - but I have narrowed it down. As I mentioned before, we have bears here in the Methow Valley in USA-land, and they leave their claw marks on the aspen trees. However, we never saw the face of a bear on one of these trees before, and indeed, there is a face amidst the claw marks! I know we have walked past this very tree on many previous occasions, but never did we notice the bear’s face!

BY ANNE GRIEVES

My friend and I went to Nottingham today and I was on the lookout for something out of the ordinary. The light on the yellow bucket was quite intense and caught my eye, as well as the staircase. 

BY JOHN GRINDLE

This was taken last weekend in the grounds of Mapperton House during their annual plant sale. It is a glorious manor house in the heart of deepest Dorset-Land, the gardens, with ponds and waterfalls are a photographers dream. But it was this the light in this little corner of the garden, tucked behind a plant stall, a beautiful sandstone wall, bathed in equally beautiful light.

BY CHRIS CANHAM

The beautiful and ordinary; details others walk past. The side of a black fridge made a great backdrop as a shaft of sunlight from a sky light crept across the room and illuminated Debra’s leaves (right) as my better half slaved over a hot stove. And although a new housing development has spread its ugliness across a once serene meadow surprisingly even here little stand out details catch the eye such as the red brake caliper peeking out from the side of the house (right).

BY SUE SAYER

I love the new Monday assignment but this is the first chance I’ve had to take part. This is a letter plate in Topsham, Devon. I stopped there en route to Cornwall. I don’t know anyone else who likes these or even door knockers, but I do! In the three or so years that this project has been occupying me, this particular door has been 3 different colours, now it is what I would call pigeon grey and I’m pleased to see they have carefully painted around the brass plate which tells me they must like it too. I’m glad the owner doesn’t ‘Brasso’ it, it’s beautiful just as it is.

BY ROBERT WEIGEL

I delved into the macro world and found the inner beauty of a tulip.

BY COLIN CUNNINGHAM

This one was taken on my morning walk along the waterfront in Greenock, Scotland, which takes me past some docks and a boatyard.

BY MATTHEW HADDOW

The assignments have given me an opportunity to decompress from work challenges. I came across this in a backstreet, sat there going unnoticed. Liked the defiance in some ways.

BY MIKE MILLER

I was out on the street in the historical downtown area of Milton last evening. The second scene that I came upon was this one. I liked the way that the tree and the sky reflected in this giant Easter egg that a restaurant had placed in a planter outside their entrance. I spent some time trying not to be in the image and managed to get below the packing material that the egg was sitting on.

BY KEVIN BEACHAM

I’m not sure why but I always notice something new when walking around Tuffleyville, in Gloucestershire. Hardly the metropolis of photography, it motivates me to look for images when for so long I thought there were none.

BY GERT JAN KOLE

I’ve named this picture beauty is the eye of the beholder - in this case, in the characteristic eye of a grey poplar we passed during a photowalk earlier this evening. I love how the weekly assignment manages to change the way you look around.

BY ANDY FISHER

BY GERALD MURPHY

I was revisiting the route of my School Lane walk when I noticed this old, rusting, agricultural implement. I assume that it was something that used to be pulled by a tractor. Despite the rust, the tyres didn't look very old. It was possibly the angle of sunlight that drew my attention to the device. An interesting and challenging assignment.

BY PETER TURNBULL

This was shot at my favourite beach on the border of Queensland and New South Wales on the east coast of Australia. We have had some wild weather lately with big swells and large tides, resulting in some incredible driftwood landing on the beaches. This was in a little cove around a very popular and famous surf break. I saw a number of people walking over, sitting on and all but ignoring the logs on the beach. None took the time to actually look at the grain in the wood, how it twisted, the shapes it made. My issue was finding the best way to showcase all of that in one image.

BY ERIK JACOBY PETERSEN

I just had to put in some images for this assignment. A book that is inspiring for this type of task is the book TTP by Hayahisa Tomiyasu. I can highly recommend it. All the images are taken from his window down on to a ping pong table standing on a playground.

BY KERRY ADAMS

I was in Lincoln to visit the cathedral at night and I headed out earlier to walk some of the streets to see if anything would catch my eye. I tend to wander off down the back streets and that's when I spotted this red garage door with the red ‘No Entry’ sign reflecting on it. That's what I love about photography, seeing things that people would usually walk past without noticing. I often get people to turn around to see what it is I’m actually taking a photo of. There's never a dull moment when you're a photographer.

BY KEVIN PRITCHARD

This is a simple cover in the ground with a brass number riveted next to it.  It is obviously very important to someone but to me, it just made an interesting image.  The V8 engine is iconic in Australia and up until a few years ago, “Real Men” would only drive a car with a V8… then the reality of fuel process kicked in!

BY CRAIG WILSON

There’s a pub on the seafront in South Shields where my good lady and I always call in for a pint as we finish our walk. I’ve seen the subject before but never had light on the table until this day. I hope this matches the brief. Thanks, Craig from Sunderland-land.

BY CHUCK CUNNINGHAM

I tend to walk more in alleys and behind buildings. Went out with a newly acquired fisheye lens and found this stack of corrugated boxes behind the local co-op food store, something most people would ignore I suspect.

BY LEON DROBY

We had the bricks installed about twenty years ago. Almost immediately, two of them imploded. I never had them replaced. Since that time, hundreds if not thousands of people walked on, over and next to these two bricks. But they never noticed them. On the other hand, I can’t help but notice them. And have photographed them dozens of times over the years.

BY KAMIL

This is a picture that came straight away in my head listening to Sean. Just a brown, wet leaf, kinda imprinted in a dead tree. No bold forest color, just a beautiful woodland detail that probably only catches a photographer’s eye.

BY PAUL CASHMAN

A car park staircase in the centre of Norwich-land. I have passed this spot hundreds of times thinking I must return when the light is right. Then, when I least expected it, I had to run back to my car to retrieve the 100V to grab this picture.

BY COLIN MAYER

Every day temporary fences are used around construction sites. Most people hate them, but I like the simplicity of them.

BY NEALE JAMES

Sean talks of finding the “beautiful in the very ordinary” and perhaps most people wouldn’t find this to be with the example I reference within the show, above. But I was drawn by the light and by the simple fact I couldn’t find a reason or channel that made this grate a feature of where I was walking. But the light found it and so I photographed it. There’s something magical to finding detail that most folk would walk on by.

Neale James

Creator, podcaster, photographer and film maker

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#294 PHOTOWALK: CHANGING LIFE PLANS FOR PHOTOGRAPHY

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#292 PHOTOWALK: FINDING YOU AND YOUR PHOTOGRAPHIC VOICE