::The Thematorium::!

Currently there are 165 Themembers in the flickr group ::The Thematorium::, yet participation in the contests averages around 10 entries per theme. There have been some really challenging themes, such as Zeal (which was a tricky one, and I didn’t find the time to enter), as well as my own contribution of You which had a ban on faces and self portraits.

This time round I won the Grounded theme. Again, not a complicated theme but not particularly well participated in. I could totally understand if it was just a one off, but almost every theme? Come on people, check your group activity page!

So I wanted to choose a theme that nobody could have an excuse for. This time round the theme is Let there be light! The main idea is that everybody in the group takes a photo involving light. Hang on! I hear you say, isn’t photography just about using light in the first place!? Exactly! Theoretically we should have 164 entries (I don’t like entering my own themes), but I’d settle for over 10

The only guidelines are that the shot must have been taken after the contest has been announced, and it must have some sort of artistic merit. The last part is completely subjective, but mainly the idea is that snapshots aren’t really suitable, so a random shot of the ground probably isn’t going to win, but it still counts as it still involves light

For those that like a little more direction, you could interpret the theme literally and take a photo of an actual light, or the sun etc. Or even just an object that has some nice lighting effects, such as back lighting, or rim lighting. Even just a well exposed subject – after all, it still involves light. Even if the main light is what’s captured by the camera on the sensor/film!

So yeah, you get the idea. It’s basically a free for all with some guidelines. Such an open theme means that if you come across a shot that you think has artistic merit, and is taken within the time frame but they aren’t a member of ::The Thematorium:: then you should send them that way!