It’s time to shift gears and start shooting for week 3. This week we’ll be shooting our shoes. Yup! That’s it, I want to see your shoes. But not just any shoes, and not a variety of shoes. I’m looking for the exact same pair of shoes. Shoot them on your feet. Shoot them on someone else’s feet. Shoot them trying to get away from you. I don’t care, just shoot them!

Ready? Set? Go!

Southbound, PCH

I took this, with my Blackberry Pearl, whilst driving home from work today. I guess I could have dropped my phone if I’d hit a bump. I didn’t.

Get creative! Shoot it with varied lighting. Shoot it from different angles. Shoot it close, shoot it moving, just shoot it!

Go!

Like their father, my sons yearn for every bit of a coke.

Here we see Deanna taking a swig from our new refreshing beverage, a nice cold Coca-Cola, made with cane sugar and not corn syrup.

May Challenge, week 1, day 1, originally uploaded by Me (?).

What do you think? I’ve chosen Coca-Cola as my beverage of choice, for this short week’s object.

Anyway, this challenge also reminded me of how many people really enjoy participating in group projects like this. I think there’s something inside of us that yearns to not only belong to a community, but to be involved in that community. We yearn to belong.

As you saw in my mid-month post, there are a whole lot of people who participated in this challenge. Nearly 700 submissions by over 40 people. That’s great!

One of the most active participants, Jeremy Brooks, took it upon himself to produce a sweet video of his work on the April Challenge. It’s embedded below. Then, below that are some of my faves.

As you know, this challenge has us shooting a new object each week of May. This week is the first week in May, and right now I’m announcing the first object.

beverage

It’s that easy. Select a beverage and shoot it for the next 3 days. If you have speed-lights or strobes, set up a studio and get creative. Get out and shoot it as many different ways as possible. Below I’ve selected a sample beverage, coffee.

Now, let me make it clearer. You need to stick to the same object. So, the samples are geared to get your imagination going. But, what I’m looking for is a constant use of the same object. That doesn’t mean that you have to shoot the same cup of coffee. Just stick with the same identifiable object.

Don’t forget to tag all your submissions correctly; “photochallenge”, “maychallenge, “maychallenge2008″.

Entropy is all over this one! The corrosion is clear.

This one is kinda cool. If you look closely, you’ll see that the crack has its own entropy. (I’ll give you a hint. The crack has a crack.)

So, today I’m announcing the May Challenge. On the last day of April, we’ll shoot and post our last entropy shot. Then, the following morning, we’ll awake to discover the beginning of the May Challenge. What will we shoot? What do you have to look forward to learning and trying that’s new and challenging?

I missed out on Neil Creek’s first Iron Chef Photography project, called “fork”. Neil’s projects are a little more contest like, however we can learn from them. Basically, participants shot a fork, for the purpose of fine art. The results were awesome! I was disappointed to miss out on that project. Neil’s current project is called Share the Love. I’ve already planned a submission for this one.

The Fork project got me thinking. I started considering what a challenge would look like that forced everyone to photograph the same object, but give it their own twist. Then I thought about how we would all grow if we had to photograph that same object multiple times.

Now, don’t freak out. I’m not suggesting that we photograph one object all month. That would become very boring. However, I am telling you that each week, I’ll select a new object of our aim.

Additionally, I won’t let you plan ahead. I’ll announce each week’s object on Sunday, beginning each week. I have already selected 2 of the objects. If you’d like to make any suggestions, please comment below. I’d love to consider your ideas!

The same system will apply to this challenge. We’ll each submit our daily shot, carefully tagging it on Flickr. This time, I’d like to include the year, so pay attention. We’ll tag them all with “maychallenge2008“.