Ideas for photo activities at home

With the implementation from March 2020 of self-isolation and "social distancing" due to the coronavirus crisis many of us will be spending more time at home. As the Club has suspended the remainder of our season, as a minimum our members will have a couple of hours free most Monday evenings that they will surely wish to devote to photographic activities!

In case it is of any help, here are some ideas that might prompt your own thoughts on how you can pass some time in various photographic ways. (Some arts activities may be included as there can clearly be crossovers that can help your photography.)

The ideas are not in any systematic order, mostly as they came to the minds of our members. Some are specifically for Sevenaoks Camera Club members, others are general

Sevenoaks Camera Club members can select some of their photographs for display in the Our Pictures section of our website. Guidelines on what is needed can be downloaded from the Downloads page.
Take a camera with you and use it on your permitted daily exercise walk, obviously following social distancing rules. Most people will probably use digital equipment, but Sevenoaks member Peter Dillon used an old film camera to good effect.
Photograph everyday objects taken from different angles, either just for an unusual view or maybe for a complete abstract look. Maybe you could produce a panel of such pictures. If Sevenoaks members come up with enough photos perhaps we could organise a group display or friendly competition somehow? NOt sure they would be classed as everyday objects, but have a look at Susan Wilkinson's photos of some minerals.
You have set up an appropriate back-up process for your computerised files, haven't you? If not, now will be a good time to do so to protect your files when there is a hard drive failure.
Free cultural and educational "stuff" on the web at Open Culture. This site has links to a wide range of resources, including free courses from major universities, and books from many respected sources. It has wide subject coverage, it's not just photography and the arts, but it's well worth a dip into to see just what can be found online for free.
Aperture, the not-for-profit photographic publisher, gallery and educator (which I'm sure underplays their role) includes some free educational materials on their website to help spark creativity. Start at this summary page for an idea of what they have, including online videos. There are downloadable lesson plans for their "on Sight" programme, which is about " Teaching Visual Literacy through Photography". Aimed at students, there's nothing to say many of us adults can't do with a bit more imagination in our photography!
Many galleries and museums (public, not-for-profit, or commercial) are digitising parts of their collections and putting resources online that you can browse. Some examples that include photographic content include the National Portrait Gallery, V&A Museum (especially the Royal Photographic Society collection), The Royal Collection, Huxley Parlour Gallery, The Photographers Gallery. Just search for them online, and we have some and more on this page of our site. (I have first hand experience of how easy it is to lose yourself for a couple of hours simply browsing some of these sites! - Webmaster)
Record (obviously within self-isolation/social distancing guidelines) this unique time in our lives. It is a historic period, so feel free to capture images using a documentary approach, don't feel the pictures have to be camera club prizewinners!
FutureLearn, 50% owned by the Open University, offers a number of short (and longer) courses. Many are employment related but there have been photographic and other arts related courses. Again worth a peek to see what is on offer.
Start or improve an indoor photographic subject, such as still life or botanical photos. Whatever you choose, you're bound to be able to find guidance online if you don't have a book on the topic; try searching YouTube for example.
Start or improve a photographic technique indoors. Have you wanted to try macro photography - why not now? Do you feel comfortable that you are (sort of!) competent with flash photography? Have you tried focus stacking, the digital technique used to give photographs of static objects a greater depth of field than is likely in a single exposure? You will be able to find guidance in books or online, including videos on YouTube.
Are you confident that you know your way around your camera to deal with the sort of photos you take: the more instinctive that you can be when using your camera, the more effort you can devote to thinking about your pictures at the taking stage. One idea might be to spend some time each week learning more about a particular control, button, menu item, etc. This may need the use of that old maxim "when all else fails, read the instruction book"! (If you've lost yours, you may be able to find a PDF version on the manufacturer's website.) And again there may be extra guidance online, including videos on YouTube.
If you are feeling a bit rusty on the photo software you are using, search out tutorials online to improve your knowledge. The program developers often have free resources on their own sites. Places like YouTube also have a lot.
Sort out those shoeboxes of family photos that you have been promising to do for years!
Digitise some of your earlier film based photographs by scanning them yourself or preparing them to send to a commercial firm.
Catalogue and add meta tags to your images - it's probably something you always mean to do but always put off. Now may be that "rainy day" to get down to it .
Maybe you could tidy your back-catalogue of photos first! This can range from simply deleting unwanted images up to to more comprehensive filing, key-wording, etc. You may have taken several images of the same subject with different exposure settings and so have lots of unwanted duplicates you could get rid of. Key-wording helps find your favourite image quickly rather than trawling through years of images looking for a single file.
Listen to one or more of the countless photographic podcasts that you can find online. One that you might start with is by local professional photographer Paul Sanders (who has visited the Club a number of times) and colleague Sam Gregory. It's called the Togcast and they are up to No 73 so far! Our Chairman, Derek Griffin, particularly likes Nos 73, 71, 58 & 42 but says there are lots more great ones to listen to, which you can do via your web browser not just phone or tablet.
Have a "virtual" look at the MOMA exhibition "Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures". It's a fascinating mix of visual and audio resources.
Read that photo book on your shelf that you have always told yourself you will find time to read!
Start thinking about photographs you may like to show at the Club whenever we are able to resume.
Start planning photo expeditions for when the situation improves. Some of us do lots of research including, for example, looking at Google Earth, weather forecasts, tide times for the coast, sunrise and set, etc, (the Photographer's Ephemeris is one aid to planning.) Others - our webmaster included - do only basic research then turns up and sees what transpires!
Think about how you could give a short talk at the Club in future about an aspect of your photography that would interest and/or educate other members. This could be anything from a five minute slot upwards, and if you are able to help in this way it would make our Programme Secretary very happy!
Take the plunge and enter your photos into a national/international exhibition or two. Exhibitions are often officially recognised by - and information available from the websites of - British Photographic Exhibition (BPE), the Federation Internationale de l'Art Photographique (FIAP), and the Photographic Society of America (PSA).
How about giving your equipment a spring clean or even sending it off for a deep clean/service (if available at the moment)? Whilst you're going through your bags, maybe think about what equipment you use regularly and what you don't. Perhaps some of it could be sold (online or "real"), or be ready to donate it to the local college that we have helped out before for their photography class. If we hear that our members have a lot of surplus, maybe we could have a bring and buy sale at the club when things return to normal?