nature photography assignments

10 Photo Assignments to Inspire and Challenge Your Skills

Liz Masoner is a professional photographer and she shares her tips and techniques on photo editing and how to photograph nature, portraits, and events with film and digital cameras. Liz has over 30 years of experience and she is the author of three books on photography.

The best way to learn photography is to practice, though sometimes you can get stuck in a rut and not know what to shoot. That is why photographers love assignments; they give us a purpose and an idea of what to photograph. 

Why Are Assignments Important?

Self-assignments are key to any photographer's growth. Even professionals with decades of experience will work on personal assignments that they may never get paid for. The goal of any self-assignment is to spur creativity, solve problems, learn new techniques, and challenge yourself.

As you start out in photography, you're probably filled with excitement and ready to shoot anything you can. That being said, sometimes a little direction and guidance are necessary.

Below, you will find ten photography assignments. Each covers a new topic, skill, or concept and they were chosen to help you learn how to see as a photographer. They are meant to be a personal challenge that you can complete at your own pace and with no outside judgment, simply as a means to practice and improve your photography. Hopefully, you will learn something new with each assignment and be able to use that in every photograph you take in the future.

Remember when composing your images to keep in mind the basics: the rule of thirds,  shutter speed , aperture,  depth of field , and  exposure .

Assignment #1: Up Close

This assignment encourages you to get close and personal with your subject. It is an exercise in viewing a common object in a new way and examining its finer details.

• Choose an object that you see or interact with every day.
• Focus on a small part of it, get as close as your camera will allow you to focus, and shoot away.
• Try to capture different angles and unusual lighting to add to the mystery of this tiny world.

From the whiskers of your cat to a fragile Christmas ornament, and even common soap bubbles, there is an entire world that we often overlook because we don't get close enough.

Assignment #2: Motion

Photography is a static medium which means that it doesn't move. Conveying a sense of motion is often crucial to capturing a scene or emotion and it is an essential skill for photographers to practice.

The goal of this exercise is to understand how shutter speeds can be used to convey motion.

• Choose a subject or series of subjects that will allow you to convey motion in your images.
• It can be slow motions, like that of a turtle, or fast motion, like a speeding train.
• Blur it, stop it, or simply suggest that there is motion in the photograph.

Challenge yourself to capture the same motion in different ways. For instance, you might go to a race track and stop the movement of the cars completely in one image, then leave the shutter open and allow them to blur out of the frame in the next. 

Assignment #3: Shadows

Shadows are everywhere and they are vital to photography because this is the art of capturing light. With light comes shadows and when you begin to look at shadows as a photographer, your world will open up.

• Take a look around for shadows and record them with your camera.
• You could show the shadow as the total focus of the image. Perhaps the shadow is incidental to the subject.
• Is the shadow natural or created by flash?

Shadows are integral to creating depth in a two-dimensional medium such as photography. Take some time to seriously explore the "dark side" of the light.

Assignment #4: Water

Water is everywhere in photography and it presents many challenges. There are reflections and movements to work with and in this exercise, you will take a deeper look at water.

• Find water anywhere: lakes, streams, puddles, even the glass on your kitchen table.
• Pay attention to reflections and use them to your advantage in the photographs. Use this opportunity to get familiar with a polarizing filter (a very useful tool in your camera kit) so you can accentuate or eliminate reflections.
• Play with the motion of a stream or the crashing waves. Notice the difference between stopping the flow of water and allowing it to blur to create a real sense of movement.

Be sure to make water the subject and not an accent to the image. Water alone is beautiful and mysterious and your challenge is to explore all of its potential as a subject.

Assignment #5: Leading Lines

A classic assignment in photography schools, 'leading lines ' is a popular and fun subject. The goal of this assignment is to learn how to direct the viewer to your subject using lines.

• Choose a subject then look around for lines in the scene that you can use to 'lead' the viewer to the subject. 
• Find an interesting line then determine what the subject of your photograph is.
• Remember that lines can be man-made or natural. For instance, the yellow line down the middle of the road or a tree branch. Even a person's arm can be a leading line of their face.

Use this assignment as an excuse to take an afternoon photo excursion. Walk downtown or in the woods and look around you for interesting lines that lead the eye to a subject. There is an amazing assortment of lines out there in the world and once you begin to see them, you won't be able to stop. 

Assignment #6: Perspective

How do you normally stand when you shoot? If your answer is straight up like a 5-foot-something human being then this assignment is for you. The perspective assignment challenges you to view the world from an entirely new perspective, which in turn gives the viewer a new look at the ordinary.

• Take another afternoon or evening for a photo excursion wherever you like.
• This time, every time you find something to photograph, stop!
• Ask yourself: How would a squirrel see that tree? How would a robin view that birdbath? How would a snake view that log?
• Take your photographs from very high or very low angles. Get on your belly or stand on a chair, whatever you have to (safely) do to get the 'right' angle on your subject.

If you pay attention to professional photographs, many of the images that have the WOW factor are photographed from extreme angles. People enjoy these photos because they've never seen an object from that viewpoint. It is new and unique, and you can train yourself to shoot with this in mind.

Assignment #7: Texture

You may have captured a few textural details in the 'Up Close' assignment, but this assignment takes that to the next level. The goal in this one is to study textures and forget about the object itself: the texture becomes the subject. You will also begin to realize how light affects the appearance of texture.

• Find a few objects that have very detailed textures like trees or rocks, even knit sweaters or woven rugs.
• Photograph them as close as your lens will allow.
• Use different angles and capture the same texture as the light changes. Notice how the different lighting directions and camera angles can change how much texture appears.

Textures are all around us and many of the best photographs in the world play up the textural element. This assignment should teach you how to recognize and accentuate those elements in your photos.

Assignment #8: Color Harmony

Color is important to photography because the world is full of color. This exercise requires a bit of study in color theory, which you will then put into practice in your photographs.

Do you remember art class in elementary school? You may have learned that yellow and blue make green, but color theory goes beyond that. There are cool and warm colors, complementary and contrasting colors, neutral colors, and bold colors.

It can get quite complicated, and photographers should have a basic understanding of color so you can use that when composing photographs. You don't have to study color like a painter would but can use tricks used by interior designers to influence your color decisions.

• Once you have an idea of color theory, take another photo excursion and put what you've learned into practice.
• Capture photographs with the primary or tertiary colors.
• Look for complementary colors then contrasting colors to photograph.
• Try finding a scene to photograph that is filled with neutral colors, then one that uses a bold color to 'pop' from the scene.

This is an advanced lesson, but one that any photographer working with color images will find useful. As you practice working with colors, it will become second nature and you will know how to work with color to change the feel of your images.

Assignment #9: Emotions

Take a photo of a person smiling or scowling, right? Not so. The intent of this assignment is to convey emotion in photographs  without  a face.

• Take photographs that express each of the basic emotions: happy, sad, and mad.
• How would you express the feeling of anger with no person? What about happiness? Sadness?

This is a purely conceptual assignment, but it is important to be able to relay emotion in your photographs and you might not always have a person available to do that with. Challenge yourself to think deeper about this one.

Assignment #10: Don't Look!

Are you ready to put your photography skills to the test? In today's world of digital cameras and the ability to see image captures right there on the LCD screen, photographers are losing some of the skills needed to visualize a photograph.

In this assignment, your challenge is to shoot as if you were using a film camera. That means that you will not look at the photographs you've taken until they are downloaded on your computer. Instead of relying on the camera's screen to see if you 'got the shot' you will rely on your instinct and knowledge, just like photographers did before digital photography. Can you do it?

• Plan a photo excursion to a particular location and permit yourself to photograph only 36 images (a roll of 35mm film).
• Turn off your camera's LCD screen so it does not show you the image after you have taken it.
• If you cannot turn off the camera's screen, cut a piece of thick paper and tape it over the screen. Use masking or painter's tape so you don't leave a residue on the back of your camera.
• Go out and shoot your 36 frames, thinking carefully about each image because you don't have an endless number of shots. Bonus points if you turn your camera to completely manual settings for focus and exposure.
• Don't peek at your photos until you get home and download them.

How did you do? Were you able to get good exposures on your own? How did it feel to be 'blind' and not know how your image turned out right away? 

This is similar to what it is like to shoot with film and it does require you to think harder about every image you take. Next time you shoot, slow down and pay attention, pretend that the screen is not there and rely on your own skills to create a great image. You will be a better photographer in the end.

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52 Assignments: Nature Photography Hardcover – March 1, 2021

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52 Assignments: Nature Photography is a mission brief, a portfolio of photographic workshops, a personalized journal, and an inspirational guide to putting the creativity back into your craft.

Small enough to fit into your rucksack, it is filled with a year's worth of weekly commissions and concepts for composing and creating eye-catching nature photography in all its forms. Whether it's building a blind, setting up a feeding station, shooting macro masterpieces, creating beautiful animal silhouettes, capturing birds in flight, or focusing on natural textures, all the assignments in this book have been written to inspire you to be more creative, explore the natural world around you, push your photography to its limits, and discover your wild side.

• Part of series 52 Assignments
• Print length 128 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Ammonite Press
• Publication date March 1, 2021
• Dimensions 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.25 inches
• ISBN-10 1781454051
• ISBN-13 978-1781454053
• See all details

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ammonite Press (March 1, 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1781454051
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1781454053
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.25 inches
• #303 in Photography Reference (Books)
• #421 in Plant & Animal Photography

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About the author

Ross hoddinott.

Ross Hoddinott is one of the UK’s leading natural history and landscape photographers. He has been working as a full time professional since 1997, supplying imagery and undertaking commissions for a wide range of publications and clients Worldwide. Based in the South West of England, Ross is best known for his intimate close-up images of nature, and for evocative landscape photographs. He is a regular contributor to a number of photography magazines, including 'Amateur Photographer', 'Digital SLR Photography' and 'Practical Photography'. Ross is the author of several photography books and also a multi award winner in 'Wildlife Photographer of the Year', 'Take-a-View: Landscape Photographer of the Year', 'British Wildlife Photography Awards' and 'The International Garden Photographer of the Year' competitions. He co-runs Dawn 2 Dusk Photography and is an ambassador for Nikon UK (2013-15) and Manfrotto. Visit: www.rosshoddinott.co.uk

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5.0 out of 5 stars Filled with great ideas to take your photography to a higher level.

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Top reviews from other countries, 5.0 out of 5 stars weekly photography assignments, 5.0 out of 5 stars if you want to improve your wildlife photography get this book.

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British Wildlife

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Conservation Land Management

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52 Assignments: Nature Photography

About this book

52 Assignments: Nature Photography is a mission brief, a portfolio of photographic workshops, a personalised journal and an inspirational guide to putting the creativity back into your craft. Small enough to fit into your rucksack, it is filled with a year's worth of weekly commissions and concepts for composing and creating eye-catching nature photography in all its forms. Whether it's building a blind, setting up a feeding station, shooting macro masterpieces, creating beautiful animal silhouettes, capturing birds in flight or focusing on natural textures, all the assignments in this book have been written to inspire you to be more creative, explore the natural world around you, push your photography to its limits and discover your wild side.

Customer Reviews

Ben Hall 's spectacular images have earned him numerous international awards including more than 20 prizes in the British Wildlife Photography Awards (including a double category win in 2009), Geographical Photographer of the Year, and a category win in Bird Photographer of the Year. Ben is a regular photographic and editorial contributor to photography and wildlife magazines around the world, and has appeared on TV and radio programs including BBC's Walk on the Wild Side , The One Show , and Countryfile . Ben also runs regular wildlife photography workshops. Ross Hoddinott is an award-winning wildlife and landscape photographer, the author of several photography books, and a regular contributor to the photo press. Based in North Cornwall, England, Ross is best known for his beautiful macro and close-up images, and for evocative landscape photographs. He co-runs the photography workshop company Dawn2Dusk Photography and also provides bespoke 1-2-1 tuition. As well as judging major nature photography competitions, Ross has been a brand ambassador for leading photography equipment brands including Nikon UK, Manfrotto, and F-stop Gear.

12 Exciting Photography Assignments to Challenge and Inspire

Everyone likes a good photo challenge. But photography assignments can also be very discouraging if they’re approached the wrong way. A good photography challenge will strengthen your photo skills and inspire you in multiple ways. A bad one will leave you wondering why you even tried photography in the first place.

12 Exciting Photography Assignments

Here are 12 exciting photography assignments to help you find the right one.

1. Shoot With a Limited Amount of Equipment

Whether you’re a full-time photographer , a hobbyist , or a beginner , you’re probably itching to invest in all kinds of equipment to take your photos to the next level. But here’s a challenge. Make the most of what you already have first. Limit yourself to one camera body and lens. This challenge isn’t linked to a specific period of time. So feel free to create a plan that fits your schedule. But I recommend doing this for at least a week. If you work with the same equipment every day, you’ll become artistically (and maybe physically!) flexible. For example, if you only use a zoom lens , you’ll have to be extra creative when you shoot indoors . If you only use a wide-angle lens , you’ll have to improve your cropping and distortion-fixing skills.

2. Take a Photo Every Day for a Year

This daily photo challenge not only gives you an excuse to be creative every day. But it also teaches you how to find beauty in the details. A 365-day challenge is simple. Take a photo every day for a year. Some photographers challenge themselves even further. They come up with specific themes every week or month. Others also embrace a more spontaneous approach. Either way, taking photos daily inspires you to make time for photography. Be open to failure, and get out of your comfort zone. Treating this project like a fun assignment will help you take your work to the next level!

3. Limit Yourself to X Photos a Day

4. Take Photos With Your Smartphone Camera Only

Modern smartphones are ideal for budding photographers who want to learn more about the technical side of photography. Take photos using only your smartphone camera for a week. Invest in a great camera app , and familiarize yourself with all its settings. This will help you get stunning images. If you’re up for an extra photography challenge, try to recreate some of your portfolio photos with your smartphone camera. This challenge will give you a break from your camera. And it lets you appreciate all the challenges of professional photography. It might also inspire you to get into smartphone photography ! Check out our Urban Smartphone Minimalism e-book for creative ways to start taking pictures with your camera phone.

5. Experiment With a Completely Different Genre

There’s a wide variety of photography genres out there. There’s underwater, glamour , smartphone , landscape , and portrait , to name a few. Trying something new can help you fall in love with photography all over again. So take a temporary break from your main photo genre. If you’re a portrait photographer , take panoramic photos of your neighborhood. If you spend lots of time photographing animals, improve your self-portrait photography skills. When you expose yourself to different genres, you’ll learn many valuable lessons. And they will be useful long after the photography assignments end.

6. Photograph the Same Person or Object Every Day

If you often get tired of photography, take photos of the same person or thing every day for a week or month. This could help make photography fun again . Like the smartphone photo challenge, this also helps you appreciate the freedom to photograph whatever you want. Photographing the same object will also improve your lighting knowledge . To make your daily photos look exciting, you’ll have to experiment with different angles, types of lighting, and editing. These more focused photography assignments will make you an incredible still-life photographer . If you’re feeling extra creative, take photos of simple objects you wouldn’t usually photograph. And find ways to make them look like paintings.

7. Quit Social Media Temporarily

8. Create a Stop-Motion Video Using Photos

Stop-motion films, like Isle of Dogs and Corpse Bride , are made of thousands of photos. These are neatly organized to make it look like they were filmed. You can use the same stop-motion technique to create your own puppets. Or you can cleverly use everyday objects in surreal compositions . If you need a quick boost of inspiration, check out this Academy Award nominated film by PES .

9. Take Creative Self-Portraits With a Friend

10. Crop or Rotate All Your Photos in a Specific Way

It’s normal to have a comfortable artistic routine. But it’s important to get out of that comfort zone once in a while. If you take the same kinds of photos all the time, it’s time to turn your world upside down. Literally. Crop or rotate your next 50 to 100 photos the same way. You can experiment with square photos and rotate every photo 180 degrees. Or do something even more unusual than that. This forced perspective will compel you to look at the world from a different angle and get creative.

11. Include the Same Object in Every Photo

12. Invest in a Photo Book and Complete Every Assignment in It

Conclusion: Exciting Photography Assignments

You don’t need to travel the world or break the bank to improve as a photographer. A single assignment that lasts at least a week can teach you many lessons. And it’ll help you become a better photographer. All you have to do is find photography assignments that work for you. Then, dedicate some time to it, and watch your photo skills strengthen!

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Photo Challenge Assignment: Shooting Through

August 15, 2016 By Editor filed under Uncategorized .

Everyone knows you should get a clear view of your subject when making a photograph, right? Well, sometimes the clearest view isn’t always the best view. Instead, try “shooting through” objects to frame your shot and get a stronger composition. This can be a fun technique to work with – you might find yourself in some interesting positions like lying on the ground or climbing trees to get the perfect shot. Anything you can do to get that ideal composition!

In your next assignment for the Outdoor Photography Guide Photo Challenge , you’re going to explore shooting through elements in nature to capture a unique and interesting shot. What those elements are is only limited by your imagination! Read through this post for specific tips and creative ideas for shooting through, and make sure to check out the inspiration gallery below.

But first, watch this video for some words of advice on shooting through from this week’s guest expert, Greg Basco:

Remember to join the Photo Challenge Facebook Group to share your shots from this week’s assignment!

Tips for shooting through

One of my favorite “shooting through” strategies is to get really close to a clump of colorful leaves, find a small gap in the foliage, and shoot a subject through the gap with a telephoto lens set to its widest aperture. This will render the surrounding foliage as a pleasingly out-of-focus abstract blur of color. Care must be taken to ensure that the subject is (more or less) free from obstruction. Also, it is important to have the blurred foliage frame the subject in an interesting way. I used this technique for a female moose lying on the forest floor; here, shooting through transformed an otherwise dull subject into something colorful and eye-catching. This strategy works best with longer lenses; with wide angle lenses you have more depth of field, making it difficult to render the nearby foliage as pleasingly blurred. Photo by Ian Plant. Grand Teton National Park, USA. Canon 5DIII, 70mm, ISO 200, f/2.8, 1/640 second.

Here, I emphasized a distant dead tree by shooting it through a frame created by the branches of a nearby tree. In this case, I stopped down for depth of field in order to render all parts of the scene as sharp. Photo by Ian Plant. Namib-Naukflut National Park, Namibia. Canon 5DIII, 123mm, ISO 100, f/22, 1/6 second.

For this photo I crept into some old ruins, finding an opening in the stone looking out at two women overlooking the valley below. I didn’t even try to retain focus in the framing stone, setting my focus on the women instead and using a small aperture to minimize depth of field. Photo by Ian Plant. Fes, Morocco. Canon 70D, 46mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/1250 second.

For this photo I used the dark archway to frame the couple walking through the alley. I waited for the perfect moment when they were juxtaposed against the bright background, rendering the couple in a silhouette. Photo by Ian Plant. Sale, Morocco. Canon 70D, 66mm, ISO 100, f/9, 1/20 second.

This great egret was perched in a chaotic forest, so I shot the bird through a small gap between two tree trunks, only inches apart. The result simplified the composition, putting visual emphasis on my main subject. Photo by Ian Plant. Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, USA. Canon 5DIII, 200mm, ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/4000 second.

I decided I liked these sun-bleached roots of a dead tree more than my subject, an old lighthouse on the shore of Lake Superior. So I framed the lighthouse just as an accent to the overall composition. It was difficult finding an angle that allowed me to include both the lighthouse and the sun, but it was worth the effort and the final result is far more interesting than either a photo of the lighthouse or of the roots alone. Photo by Ian Plant. Crisp Point Lighthouse, USA. Canon 5DIII, 15mm, ISO 100, f/13, 1/40 second.

Inspiration gallery by Greg Basco

Meet this week’s guest expert

Greg Basco is a professional nature photographer and environmentalist who specializes in photographing the rainforests of Costa Rica, where he lives with his family. It was the Peace Corps that first brought Greg to Costa Rica, but it was a love for the unique environment and the specific photographic challenges it offers that kept bringing him back. Greg now leads photography tours throughout Latin America. VISIT WEBSITE >>

Ready for your next assignment? Here’s what’s coming up next:

• Bad Weather
• Shooting Through
• Reflections
• Artistic Selfies

Not signed up yet for the Outdoor Photography Guide Photo Challenge? LEARN MORE HERE >>

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