IMTP Photography Challenge

Hi Everyone, a while ago I entered a photography contest hosted by DigitalRev called: Internet’s Most Talented Photographer (IMTP). I’ve always enjoyed the sense of humor DigitalRev puts into their camera review videos. That’s why I figured what the heck, why not. I personally wouldn’t call this a “serious” photography contest; its approach is more humorous, light hearted and fun (totally my style) than a typical dry photography contest. Out of 200+ entries I was selected to be one of the 16 finalists! That was pretty cool in itself. Generally, we were given a topic every 2 weeks. Once we receive the task, we are given just 1 week to produce a photo and a descriptive video explaining our thought process.

Anyhow, I wanted to create this page so those who are interested can see the actual photos and videos I submitted. To see the actual episode videos of this competition, you can visit their Facebook page.

NOTE: As of Nov. 11, 2011… the competition is STILL going. But I have been eliminated. Bummer huh?

Challenge #1: Photobooth

The Task: To submit a photo with our interpretation of the meaning of photobooth.
My Interpretation: I wanted to take a typical indoor photobooth and transport it to the great outdoors. The outdoor is where I prefer to take photos… so it was a natural idea for me.

Challenge #2: Silence is Golden

The Task: To encapsulate all the beautiful charm of a peaceful scene with hardly a soul to been seen.
My Interpretation: I wanted to capture the peaceful silence of the church. It’s always been a sanctuary for me. In addition, I wanted to play off the “hardly a soul to be seen” with a slow shutter capture to blur out my subject a bit.

Challenge #3: Erotica

The Task: To capture a photo of Erotica (not porn).
My Interpretation: I wanted to play off the bondage theme, yet still give it the pretty look and feel that I prefer.

Challenge #4: Reportage

The Task: Basically, you’ve got to get in a photojournalistic frame of mind and shoot a photo that tells us a story, whether it be a social document or breaking news story. The ideal photo would speak out to the viewer, invoking a response, making them want to know more about the subject.
My Interpretation: Instead of getting out there and taking photos of homeless people, I wanted to take a social documentary approach. My theme was: Freedom comes at a steep price, something we take for granted today.

Challenge #5: Bottle of Water

The Task: Take a boring bottle of water and create a Print Ad type of photo from it.
My Interpretation: I wanted to capture a bottle of water in it’s natural element, then create a print ad from the photo that would convey to the target audience: natural, fresh, clean drinking water. So with that interpretation, I went ahead and created my own fictional brand: Glacier Water. Of course, the whole Eskimo bit was just a way to inject my odd sense of humor ;p

Challenge #6: Outside the Box

The Task: To capture a photograph that is outside the box, whether it is the photo or the technique.
My Interpretation: I wanted to create a photograph with a light source that I had never used before. Photography at its core is all about lighting. So this was definitely a fun learning experience for me.

Challenge #7: Bresson quote

The Task: We were just given a quote: “What reinforces the content of a photograph is the sense of rhythm – the relationship between shapes and values.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
My Interpretation: I didn’t want to imitate a typical “Bresson” type black and white photo. I wanted to experiment more with shapes and forms. But in the end, the judges and I had different interpretations of this challenge. Unfortunately I was eliminated with this challenge. Still not too bad? To get to top 6 from over 200+ contestants.

So how was the whole experience?

When looking back, I can honestly say that the competition was a bit long winded. Early on, you can feel the total excitement from each and every contestant. However, as the weeks turned to months, you could see the toll of everything outside of the competition (everyday life, job, free time) had on each contestant. With the rules changing each week, it made it even more challenging as well.

With all this said though, it was still a very worthwhile experience. For myself, it is always invaluable to here and see what professional judges have to say about my photos. The only thing I would have hoped for was for the judges to have their interpretation of each challenge a little less narrow. I felt the narrow minded strict interpretation really took a lot of creativity away from a lot of the contestants.

Anyhow, thanks everyone for all your love and support. It was very encouraging to read each and every supporting comment of yours on Facebook and Youtube. You can be assured that I will keep on snapping .