Image courtesy of Cheri Lucas Rowlands

Escape. Depending on your current mood and headspace, or time in your life, this word can evoke different emotions and conjure a variety of images. Maybe the end of your semester is near, and you yearn for vacation and release: the desire to disappear and run away, the need to unplug and shut off. Or perhaps you imagine quite the opposite: Lost in a maze. Stuck in a room, feeling boxed in, with the worst company. Frustrated in your own thoughts, wondering what to do next.

I took this photograph on Cala Tarida, a beach on the island of Ibiza, off the coast of Spain, during a fun afternoon of cliff jumping. Here, I’ve captured a friend just after he took the plunge — it’s one of my favorite images because it captures a sense of both freedom and exhilaration.

In a new post created specifically for this challenge, share a picture that means escape to you.

We look forward to seeing what you come up with!

–Cheri

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New to The Daily Post? Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’re invited to get involved in our Weekly Photo Challenge to help you meet your blogging goals and give you another way to take part in Post a Day / Post a Week. Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.
Here’s how it works:

1. Each week, we’ll provide a theme for creative inspiration. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Friday when the next photo theme will be announced.

2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Weekly Photo Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag.

3. Subscribe to The Daily Post so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements. Sign up via the email subscription link in the sidebar or RSS.

Photo courtesy of Sara Rosso

Pattern. Patterns are everywhere. Patterns are sometimes intentional and sometimes accidental. They can be decorative or merely a result of repetition, and often patterns can be in the eye of the beholder to discover them. I find myself especially mesmerized by patterns in tiles when they’re colorful and beautiful. Thailand had plenty, and this photo has both a decorative pattern as well as the repeating elements surrounding the wat. 

In a new post specifically created for this challenge, share a picture which means PATTERN to you!

I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

- Sara Rosso

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New to The Daily Post? Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’re invited to get involved in our Weekly Photo Challenge to help you meet your blogging goals and give you another way to take part in Post a Day / Post a Week. Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

1. Each week, we’ll provide a theme for creative inspiration. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Friday when the next photo theme will be announced.

2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Weekly Photo Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag.

3. Subscribe to The Daily Post so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements. Sign up via the email subscription link in the sidebar or RSS.

Image courtesy of Sara Rosso

From Above. Change your perspective on something. Share a photo of a subject which you shot from directly above. This plate of cheese from the Langhe region in Italy was interesting when I tried to take a picture of it, but when I took it from above, it became even more clear how the honey laid in a neat pile in the center of this circle of cheese and how each wedge had its own identity. For those interested, you started going clockwise with the cheese at 12, and they were all delicious.

Find a subject and instead of taking a picture from in front of, at an angle, to the side, or from behind, take it directly from above! 

In a new post specifically created for this challenge, share a picture which means FROM ABOVE to you!

I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

- Sara Rosso

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New to The Daily Post? Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’re invited to get involved in our Weekly Photo Challenge to help you meet your blogging goals and give you another way to take part in Post a Day / Post a Week. Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

1. Each week, we’ll provide a theme for creative inspiration. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Friday when the next photo theme will be announced.

2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Weekly Photo Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag.

3. Subscribe to The Daily Post so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements. Sign up via the email subscription link in the sidebar or RSS.

Pouring water on Buddha statues at Shwedagon in Yangon, Myanmar. Photo courtesy of Aaron Joel Santos.

This week’s photo challenge is guest hosted by Aaron Joel Santos.

Culture. Culture is a bit of a loaded word. In a photograph, it can embody everything and nothing. So where do we draw the line? Shopping culture, hippy culture, Asian culture, Thai culture, ancient culture, and on and on. These phrases have different meanings. For me, as a working travel photographer, being able to show culture, in all of its various guises, is crucial to the success of an image.

There are obvious elements that go into making a great photograph: perspective, color, contrast, subject matter, and lighting, to name a few. But for this challenge, go for that little something extra — that piece of the image that makes a viewer want to see more — to delve deeper into the culture you’re photographing. I’ve always said that I want my photographs to make people curious. So that is your assignment here: inspire curiosity with your photography.

More shots to inspire you:

Share a photo that means culture to you!

We’re looking forward to seeing your interpretation of culture — whether you capture a snapshot from your travels or discover something or some place new and different close to home. (We’re looking for one image for this challenge, but if you want to use a gallery like the one above, we won’t stop you!)

Tip: Don’t be afraid to get close to the people you’re shooting. Honest intentions and a smile go a long way. Showing an interest in people and their cultures is the greatest form of flattery, so don’t be shy. You’ll be surprised at how open and inviting most people are.

Aaron Joel Santos is a freelance photographer living in Hanoi, Vietnam. He works across Southeast Asia for clients such as the International Herald Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia, Ink Publishing, Smithsonian magazine, and more. On his many travels, he’s forgotten to pack nearly everything but his camera. In addition to checking out his website, aaronjoelsantos.com, you can follow him on Twitter @AaronJoelSantos or on Facebook.

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New to The Daily Post? Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’re invited to get involved in our Weekly Photo Challenge to help you meet your blogging goals and give you another way to take part in Post a Day / Post a Week. Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

1. Each week, we’ll provide a theme for creative inspiration. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Friday when the next photo theme will be announced.

2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Weekly Photo Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag.

3. Subscribe to The Daily Post so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements. Sign up via the email subscription link in the sidebar or RSS.

Image courtesy of Sara Rosso

Up. Up can be a direction, an orientation, or even a movement. In this photo, I was laying down and looking up at two buildings surrounding me in a big hug of sorts, and a plane flew by. On the ground, I was surrounded by crowds of people, but looking up, it was just me and the sky.  

In a new post specifically created for this challenge, share a picture which means UP to you!

I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

- Sara Rosso

—-

New to The Daily Post? Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’re invited to get involved in our Weekly Photo Challenge to help you meet your blogging goals and give you another way to take part in Post a Day / Post a Week. Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

1. Each week, we’ll provide a theme for creative inspiration. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Friday when the next photo theme will be announced.

2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Weekly Photo Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag.

3. Subscribe to The Daily Post so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements. Sign up via the email subscription link in the sidebar or RSS.

Of course, for me, it’s not just a photo of a bridge — it means something more.

I took this photo driving over the Ben Franklin Bridge between New Jersey and Pennsylvania as my husband and I headed to Philadelphia for a weekend away, a weekend planned to celebrate our successful navigation of some big life shifts.

When I look at this photo, I don’t think, “Huh, that’s a bridge.” I think, “We did it!”

This week, we want to see photos that represent change. Depending on where in the world you are, this could be a winter landscape blossoming to spring, or vice versa. It could be a picture of a place you’ve left behind and hope never to return to, a photo of a place you hope to reach, or a snapshot of where you currently stand in a journey. Perhaps you’ll capture your child on the cusp of a developmental milestone, or the sun just about to flip the switch between night and day.

As we crossed the bridge, a number of changes took place:

• We changed from being in New Jersey (the king of states) to being in Pennsylvania (the runner-up of states).
• We changed from being in a familiar, comfortable location to a being in a (sort-of) foreign one.
• We changed from being on weekday, work life time to weekend, celebration time.
• We cemented the changes from our old life to the new.

In a new post created for this challenge, share a picture that says CHANGE.

We’re excited to see the purely literal, the totally figurative, and everything in between.

– Michelle

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New to The Daily Post? Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’re invited to get involved in our Weekly Photo Challenge to help you meet your blogging goals and give you another way to take part in Post a Day / Post a Week. Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

1. Each week, we’ll provide a theme for creative inspiration. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Friday when the next photo theme will be announced.

2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Weekly Photo Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag. You can also link to this post to create a pingback here and to encourage more people to participate.

3. Subscribe to The Daily Post so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements. Sign up via the email subscription link in the sidebar or RSS.

Photo by Cheri Lucas

Color. Splashed on the walls of cities, in batches of flowers in gardens, in the doodles of students, and on the palettes of artists, color is everywhere: it may represent our mood, and it can affect our mood. In photography, you can use a spectrum of colors to bring a place to life, or focus on a single shade to make a bold statement. Conversely, you can shoot in black-and-white or remove color in editing mode for a different effect.

I snapped this close-up of an old door in the Alfama district of Lisbon, Portugal. The Alfama is a hilly, labyrinthine neighborhood of alleyways and historic buildings with white walls and orange rooftops, so when I turned a corner and saw this bright blue door, I couldn’t help but admire it.

In a new post created specifically for this challenge, share a picture in which color takes center stage.

You can post a single photograph featuring your favorite color or many colors, or take one of your images and experiment with color effects in a photo app or online photo editor (which we introduced in some of last month’s posts). For those of you up for a multi-photo challenge, play around with this theme in a gallery. A few ideas:

• A gallery of contrasting colors
• A gallery of objects focused on one color
• A macro photography collection of flowers
• A set of bold street art from your travels

Yellow is my favorite color, so here’s an example of a multi-photo submission:

* * *

As always, we look forward to your submissions!

– Cheri
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New to The Daily Post? Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’re invited to get involved in our Weekly Photo Challenge to help you meet your blogging goals and give you another way to take part in Post a Day / Post a Week. Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

1. Each week, we’ll provide a theme for creative inspiration. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Friday when the next photo theme will be announced.

2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Weekly Photo Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag.

3. Subscribe to The Daily Post so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements. Sign up via the email subscription link in the sidebar or RSS.

Image via Dunga Brook Diary.

Some of you have embraced the idea of using your phone as your everyday camera — we’ve come upon a number of blogs dedicated to phoneography, like m — mobile moments and Mi-iPhoneograph, while some WordPressers run their own challenges, like Sally at Lens and Pens by Sally. Some of you always have your phones handy, as you never know when you’ll capture a moment — or, in photographer Vicki’s case, a self-portrait while on the go (see the iPhone shot taken from the mirror of a car on the left).

In March, we offered various phoneography tips, from embedding Instagram images on your blog to installing photo editor apps to enhance your images. We’re impressed by the phoneography experimentation we’ve stumbled upon — Edith Levy’s iPhone snapshots of the grounds at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, for example, show how you can have fun with effects and filters:

March’s phoneography challenges

Our photo challenges are so popular, week after week, and we thought to share some standouts from March’s camera phone submissions.

Your stomping grounds

Becky at Woven Decor introduces her iPhone 4 gallery for the “My Neighborhood” challenge:

Since the closest neighbor is over a mile away, our neighborhood is our ranch which consists of a barn, old abandoned buildings, sheds and lots of beautiful landscape.

We love her thumbnail grid of Instagram images — she compiles a variety of shots from landscapes to close-ups, offering a slice of life on her ranch in Wyoming. Here are selections from her gallery:

Macy, the blogger at The Islander Girl, wowed us with her shots of paradise from the Philippines. Wanderlust stirs within us as we gaze at shots of her neighborhood: Bacuit Bay in El Nido, Palawan. We love her establishing shot from Matinloc Island, taken with her iPhone 4s in panorama mode:

Image via http://www.theislandergirl.com.

Continuing our tour of neighborhoods around the world, let’s hop from island to city and take a peek at Dan’s cool, creative photographs from Boston, Massachusetts, at The Adventures of DR. His angles and compositions are pretty inspiring — here’s a sampling:

Your delicious snapshots

We made it a point not to browse your “Lunchtime” submissions on an empty stomach! We drooled over many shots from your meals, like Linda and Nicoletta’s iPhone 5 pictures at Le CuGine d’America and a mouth-watering shot of tapas in Glasgow, courtesy of Travel with Intent. We especially liked the miniature meal served up on the blog of artist Jennifer Nichole Wells:

Image via http://jennifernicholewells.com.

Your “future tense” interpretations

The  ”Future Tense” challenge produced some interesting images, and many of you experimented with subject matter as well as effects and filters, creating shots that comment on time as well as evoke nostalgia. Some highlights:

These shots can be found in the “Future Tense” submissions from Lys Bleu Designs, Orthographies, Kirsten H. Whyte, and Lens and Pens by Sally.

A day in the life of . . .

Finally, your “A Day in My Life” posts made us smile. These galleries offered glimpses into your day — some were quite warm and welcoming, and we enjoyed how you took advantage of the gallery feature to create a story and reveal more about yourself, your life, and what surrounds you each day. Some of you thought your shots were “ordinary,” but we think these moments are intimate and human — and show sides of a person we may not normally see in a blog post.

Some selections:

• A Friday in the life of the blogger at Northwest Frame of Mind, who lives in a small town in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
• A colorful gallery of food, foliage, and city shots from Michael at My Life Afterglow.
• An interesting look at the life of an English teacher in Oman over the course of 24 hours (Friday evening to Saturday evening).
• A lovely, leisurely day with Seonaid, the blogger at breath of green air, in the Scottish Highland village of Plockton.
• A Sunday of exploration with Josette in Pohang, South Korea.

Did you discover some great phoneographs this month? Feel free to share links to your favorites in the comments.

What does your day look like? Here’s your chance to share with everyone a day in your life! Here are some suggestions to get started: snap a picture once an hour and share what your day was like, walk us through a typical day for you, or even just what happened today!

Pick the best pictures which give your readers a sense of a day in your life and share them!

Here’s what a day in my life looks like – most of these are actually from last Friday when I tried to take one picture an hour and I was preparing for this post, and I added a few more typical scenes from a day in my life.

{A Day in My Life Gallery: I head outside to get some fresh air. It’s a clear day; An espresso in the morning with a side of chocolate egg (Hey! Easter’s coming up); I resist buying all of the other brightly wrapped chocolate eggs. Resist!; Work, work, work in the morning. I really do love it; After more work, I head to the gym. Trams are a big part of Milan, and I cross tram tracks every day; Health is important to me, so I make time to stay fit. Like my WP water bottle?; I love getting mail, and sometimes that requires going to pick up a package. I had no idea what was in this one; Surprise tea shipment from an awesome colleague! Yeah; I drink herbal tea while working at home – I tried one of the new flavors I just got in the mail; In the evening I usually want to get outside before the sun disappears and enjoy more fresh air; If I’m lucky, I’ll have an aperitivo, a pre-dinner drink & snack, with friends; }

I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

- Sara Rosso

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New to The Daily Post? Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’re invited to get involved in our Weekly Photo Challenge to help you meet your blogging goals and give you another way to take part in Post a Day / Post a Week. Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

1. Each week, we’ll provide a theme for creative inspiration. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Friday when the next photo theme will be announced.

2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Weekly Photo Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag.

3. Subscribe to The Daily Post so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements. Sign up via the email subscription link in the sidebar or RSS.

Japanese Ema, wishes and prayers made manifest and hung in the grounds of a Shinto shrine.

This is a photo I took in Sapporo, Japan of Ema, the prayers and wishes penned and hung in the grounds of Shinto shrines. From heartfelt hopes about exam results, or being noticed by that oblivious boy in your class, to wishes for a prosperous or healthy future, you can think of them as prayers and hopes  made manifest and left in public. In today’s challenge we want you to grab an image from your world that holds the promise or portent of the future. It could be:

• As everyday as the experience of waiting for a bus or train.
• As abstract as something that symbolizes  your ambitions or hopes for the future.
• A note, prayer or promise jotted on a napkin or cross-stitched with exquisite tenderness.
• The promise or portent of spring, sunrise, or storm in nature.
• A street candid of someone nervously waiting on their date to arrive.
• A piano falling from a third storey flat into the oncoming path of an adorable kitten. Or any other action about to take place.
• Anything that involves the present and a hint of the future all in one frame.

We spend so much of our lives thinking back, or looking ahead, and even though a photo captures only one moment in time, with a bit of thought it can freeze the process of moving forward, or the promise of things to come. Your challenge this week is to seal one such moment in amber.

In a new post created for this challenge, share a picture that says FUTURE TENSE.

I’m looking forward to seeing your visions of the future, daydreams, and wishes frozen in time.

– Pick

_________________________________________

New to The Daily Post? Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’re invited to get involved in our Weekly Photo Challenge to help you meet your blogging goals and give you another way to take part in Post a Day / Post a Week. Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

1. Each week, we’ll provide a theme for creative inspiration. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Friday when the next photo theme will be announced.

2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Weekly Photo Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag. You can also link to this post to create a pingback here and to encourage more people to participate.

3. Subscribe to The Daily Post so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements. Sign up via the email subscription link in the sidebar or RSS.