© 2009 Brett Morrison

Tulsa Zoo Photo Scavenger Hunt

The Tulsa Digital Photography Meetup Group was held at the Tulsa Zoo on June 13th. The event this time was a Photography Scavenger Hunt. At a zoo, you might wonder if that means trying to capture a list of photos of animals. However, the goal was to use a long list of photography techniques. Marty Colman (The Napkin Dad) gave each person the following list and a few minutes of instruction before sending us out in small groups to try to capture the list:

  • Framing – Creating a focal point by framing with other objects
  • Leading Lines – Foreground lines that pull the eye into the image
  • High Key – Images that concentrate on the paler tones using flat lighting to avoid shadows
  • Low Key – Images where the details are in shadows
  • Shadows – Images depicting the shapely absence of light
  • Frozen Action – Images where the action is stopped
  • Movement Blur – Showing the presence or illusion of motion
  • Abstract – Images are based strongly on lines, shapes, colors and form
  • Silhouettes – Using backlighting to leave the subject blacked out
  • Partial Portrait – Show only part of your subject and still convey a sense of their personality
  • Negative Space – Accentuate your subject by using empty or monotonous space
  • Fill the Frame – Fill the complete frame of your image with your subject.
  • Ground Level – Gaining perspective from the ground up
  • Monochromatic – Color on color, tone on tone without being black & white
  • Reflections – The beauty of reflective surfaces
  • Depth of Field – Only a distinct slice of your scene is in-focus, while the rest is blurred out
  • Hyperfocal Distance – Foreground & distance in sharp focus
  • Strong Diagonal – Using diagonal lines to pull the eye through an image
  • Wide Angle – Using low focal length for increasing perspective
  • Macro – Either your macro setting or to crop your image to get in close to your subject
  • Repeating Elements – Two or more of the same object

I did not cover the entire list, but I did shoot a reasonable number of photos using those techniques. I plan to keep this list and use it again — possibly for a photowalk.

Here are some of my photos from the event:
Macro and Shallow Depth of Field
A Flower

Repeating Elements
tulsa-zoo-IMG_0426

Monochromatic
Green Grass on Green Background

Framing
Bird Crossing

More photo from the meetup:
[flickr-gallery mode="photoset" photoset="72157619712249940"]

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