Community · May 02, 2021

Photo Clubs: May Edition

We have 5 Photo Clubs running this month with a range of topics that are perfect for people who would like to help fill some Library gaps or learn a new skill.

Images can be submitted via the Topics section on Unsplash.

Reading about Photo Clubs for the first time? We've added a brief overview at the bottom of this article 👍

Themes for May

Frame, within a frame

Get creative and use something in your scene to frame and draw focus to the main subject, creating a frame within a frame.

View Micheile's Inspiration Board on Pinterest

Helpful article

For useful tips or to chat + exchange ideas with others taking part in this group, join our Slack channel 👉 #photoclub-micheile

Key Words - Mental Health

This theme is to help fill harder-to-capture Library gaps for very specific key words - by spelling or writing them as words.
Choose one or more from this list to join in:
Abuse, addiction, anger, Anorexia, anxiety, autism, antidepressants, antipsychotics,
Bereavement, bipolar, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, bulimia,
Child psychiatrist, conduct disorder, crisis services, crisis management
Depressed, depression, diagnosis, DBT, dialectical behaviour therapy, dissociation, dissociative disorder
Eating disorder, eating problems, ECT, electroconvulsive therapy
Hearing voices, hoarding, hopelessness
Learning disability, learning disabilities, lonely, loneliness
Mania, Manic depression, maternal mental health, mental health, mental health awareness, mental health matters, mental health services, mental illness
Panic attacks, paranoia, psychiatrist, post-natal depression, perinatal depression, perinatal mental health, PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, postpartum psychosis, psychosis, psychotherapy, psychotherapist, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, PMDD
OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder
Schizophrenia, schizophrenic, seasonal affective disorder, SAD, self-esteem, self-harm, substance abuse, substance dependence, suicidal, suicide, suicide prevention
Therapy, therapist, trauma

Ideas for creating words: Handwriting, scrabble letters, scrapbook style arranging letters, fridge magnet letters, typewriting, text messaging, using your finger to draw the words in sand.

Please join our Slack channel 👉 #photoclub-annie to share ideas and chat about this theme.

Levitating Objects

Bring the feeling of magic to your images by trying levitation photography.

Helpful articles

Please join our Slack channel 👉 #photoclub-toa, to share ideas and chat about this theme.

Motion Blur

Motion blur is the purposeful streaking or blurring of an object in motion in a photo for visual effect. It's a great technique for capturing movement in a still image - it might seem difficult but it’s actually pretty easy!

Helpful articles

If you'd like to talk and exchange ideas with others taking part in this group, join our Slack channel 👉 #photoclub-claudio

Paint clouds

Pawel's Tips

The container
I use a small fish tank which is 30x20x10 cm (12x8x10 inches) and it takes about 5L (1 gallon) of water for a session. A fish tank made of glass and with the walls connected with glue is just fantastic for that. And something smaller or bigger will work as well. I think good alternatives might be containers made of plastic and as cubic as possible such as plastic fish containers, plastic fish nurseries or plastic food storage containers.

If you want to join the challenge, you can take a look at your garage, check if someone from your friends or family has one (quite likely they do and will be relieved to give it away).

Making the colourful liquid
1. Acrylic paint. My choice. You need to mix it with water in the proportions of 1 paint by 10-15 water. Small paper cups and popsicle sticks are the best for it. Acrylic paint often comes in packs of like 12 colours in small tubes. They are inexpensive and easily available. You can use metallic acrylic paint for some nice details and textures. Silver metallic paint is usually easy to get and it can be mixed with any other colour for a more detailed result.

2. Food colouring or ink. I saw that paint pour them straight into the water which might end up interesting results. if you'd like them to look more cloudy (like acrylic paint), you just need to mix them with 18% table cream. I haven't tried with milk but I'm pretty sure it would work as well.

Pouring the liquid
If just one cloud works for you, any container will work: a cup, or spoon or something like that. It's good to get as close to the surface of the water as possible - to avoid air bubbles and too much turbulence.

From what I've seen online, syringes and syringes with (thick) needles are very popular for this technique. From my experience, they are not necessary and are more difficult to control. If you squirt the liquid from the syringe very quickly, again you want to expect air bubbles.

Multiple colour clouds.
It's something inspired by microstock photography. They have tons of rainbow-coloured clouds where it's usually just one cloud and photoshopped with a gradient layer and a hue shift. So I thought why not try it with some real deal colours. A ruler + a couple of small containers of any kind + super glue and you're ready to go. Such tools are very easy to control the pouring.

Helpful video:

Pawel has shared a 'How to' in his Slack channel 👉 #photoclub-pawel

What are Unsplash Photo Clubs?

Unsplash Photo Clubs are community-led, Unsplash supported groups for contributors to connect with other contributors to get inspired by monthly photo prompts.

Benefits of Photo Club include:

🌟 Access to monthly creative inspiration.
🙌 Benefit from advice, tips and tricks shared by the groups.
👋 Make new friends and embrace online community
📸 Challenge yourself to learn new skills and try different styles.
📊 Photos submitted to monthly themes get power tags boosting visibility
👀 Submit via group Topics allowing you to view what your fellow group-mates are creating
🔍 Gain insights into gaps in the Unsplash Library

How to Join a Photo Club

This month there are 5 Photo Club groups, each with a different theme. You can join as many of these groups as you like, taking part with what excites and interests you personally. To join in the conversation, simply click the slack channel links above, images can be submitted via the Topics section on Unsplash.