JPG Magazine: Open Themes

Transformations (In Issue 23)

If there's one rule of life, it's that everything changes. Post your photo of something going through a change.

Nostalgia (In Issue 23)

Photos that remind you of days gone by. Not old photos, just photos that are reminiscent of the past.

Decay (In Issue 23)

Decay is the process of decline or destruction. Physical decay of people, places and things can be observed every day. Moral, spiritual, and other, less tangible, forms of decay may be more difficult to observe, but are equally present in our lives. Submit a photograph that captures the decay in your field of view.

Photo Challenge: Consumerism

As the current recession approaches the holiday season, many people are reconsidering their spending habits. This time of year is also a strong indicator of the economy and consumer confidence. For this photo challenge capture what consumerism is today and its affects on our culture and lives. This challenge will close on Thursday, December 17th.

Inspired by a Song

The soundtrack of our life often inspires our art. For this theme create an image that’s inspired by a song you love.You must include the song information (title, artist, and lyrics) in photo’s title or description to enter this theme! Speaking of inspiration…this theme was inspired by a story on JPG where over a dozen JPGers brought their favorite songs to life with photography. Fantastic idea guys!

Photo Challenge: Bedtime Stories

People spend about 1/3 of their lifetime sleeping, so lets visually explore this everyday event! You might photograph of the funky mask your wife puts on before bed or create an image that’s inspired by a dream. Capture where, when, or how people sleep for this Photo Challenge, it says a lot about their personality! This challenge will close on Thursday, December 10th.

Photo Challenge: Forgotten

There are so many objects, people, and events in this world it’s inevitable that some things will eventually be forgotten. For this photo challenge rediscover something that someone has left behind. It might be an activity you used to love but haven’t thought about in ages, or an object someone stowed away. Regardless of what you rediscover, bring new life to something that has been forgotten by photographing it! This challenge will close on Thursday, December 3rd.

Economics

Lets explore the economics of families, countries, or groups through a collection of our photographs. Show us images of the wealth or poverty in your community, or what is looks like to be middle class. Capture the impact of the current financial crisis. The local library in disrepair or the Cadillac dealer going out of business. This is your social commentary!

Ripple Effect

The combination of water and light in photographs can oftentimes produce fantastic and jaw-dropping results. So show us your best image of a ripple effect, and let everyone enjoy the magic of this seemingly mundane combination!

Anticipation

JPG is filled with anticipation, so we wanted to launch a theme in honor of that intense emotion. Does one of your images exude the emotion of anticipation? If so, submit it here--and let everyone else enjoy the emotional intensity of your creative eye.

Member-inspired: Shoot Your Pet!

Though pictures of puppy dogs, kitty cats and sunsets tend to overwhelm most social photo sites, we still wanted to give our members an opportunity to submit the most intriguing photos of their beloved pets. So be creative! And show us a fun image of your furry, scaly or feathery best friend.

Bloom

The air is getting warmer, days are getting longer, and there's a dash of dander in the air. Which means Spring is here! We've launched the "bloom" theme to celebrate the incredible natural transformation that occurs this time each year.So show us your best photos of spring in full bloom--or maybe the first signs of fall, if you're in the southern hemisphere. :)

Juxtaposition

–noun 1. an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, esp. for comparison or contrast. 2. the state of being close together or side by side. With those definitions as your guide, give us your best juxtaposition photo! p.s. NO DIPTYCHS PLEASE! The true challenge of this theme is to achieve juxtaposition in a SINGLE photo. Thanks!

Day 1/365

We all know photography is an excellent method of documentation. So, imagine documenting a full year of self-portraits -- your year -- in photos. Inspired by Stephen Poff's 365 project, we wanted to have a place for people to share a photo diary of their year in self-portraits. Take a photo each day (or take more, but select your daily favorite), number it (example: 23/365), and add it to your photo stream. The result? A collection of images fully representative of your life. Submit your favorite to this theme, with its accompanying number in the title, and share your year's journey with other JPG members!

Feature: The Ones We Love

Here at JPG, we've come across an amazing photography project called The Ones We Love. For this project, the wonderful Lindley Warren asked photographers to share six photographs of the person most important to them in a natural or outdoor setting. The photos, combined with text describing the person, is so beautiful and inspirational. There were a few JPG members amongst the group, and more of the photographers from that site have started sharing their stories here on JPG. We want to see your take too! For this feature, write a story describing your loved one and include six photos of them. Then, submit one of your favorites from the six to The Ones We Love theme.

Feature: Gadgets Galore

We know all you techie-obsessed photographers are out there. Those of you who shrieked with glee over the GPS enabled bicycle cameras. And cried out over the new Canon 5D Mark II, the highly anticipated camera that shoots HD video. And were awestruck over the Eye-Fi, that amazing memory card that uploads pictures from inside your camera when you're in a Wi-Fi zone. There are loads of new shiny gizmos out there and we want to hear all about them! For our next issue we will be publishing your most exciting finds. We prefer the latest in camera technology, but we want to know about any gadgets that are knocking your socks off! For this theme, descriptions are required and we'd love for you to include a short review. If you have a longer review or example photos, please write a My Precious article.

Great Outdoors

Mountains, streams, cliffs, and canyons. We know that after a summer full of weekend getaways and cross-continental excursions you are chock-full of photos that reflect some of the most gorgeous terrain our planet has to offer. For this new theme we want your most breathtaking photos, whether they're from your nearest national park, or halfway across the world. Show us what you love most about the great outdoors.

Fabulous

Marvelous! Supreme! Fabulous! Sometimes, one word says it all. Show us your most fabulous photos, the joyful takes that are so over-the-top incredible, they can only be described as Fabulous. Fabulous was a theme in the JPG Early Issues, and you can check out all the amazing photos that captured the people and details that make life fabulous (starting on page 67). We're excited to start bringing back some closed themes so all our JPG members can show their stuff, and what better theme to start with than Fabulous?

Ant's Eye View

For this theme we want you to get down - literally. We want to see your ant's eye view, meaning your photos must be taken with your camera ON THE GROUND. The idea is to capture the looming, intimidating nature of subjects from that low-down perspective.

Heroes

You know who your hero is - that person you look up to, admire, and respect. The word hero may evoke a classic image of a caped crusader, or could be someone in your own life that serves as the ultimate role model. Whatever a hero means to you, we want to see your pictures capturing them. Be sure to add a description that describes why the person pictured is your personal hero.

Title Me!

Theme suggested by Rob Roy and Joven Delacruz. We all know not to judge a book by its cover, or in JPG world, to judge a photo by its title. However, a title really can say a great deal; in fact, it's the best way to convey what you want your photograph to say. For this theme, we want you JPGers to work together to come up with the best titles for your photos. Here's how it works: upload an untitled photo to the theme. Look through other photos, and suggest what you think would be the perfect title in the comments section. After a week when the theme closes, go through your comments, pick your favorite title, and edit your photo description, adding your shiny new title. We'll pick our favorite image-title combination. Get creative, get collaborative, and get your title-making skills on. This was originally a one week photo challenge that closed on September 4, 2008, but we had so much fun with it that we've reopened it as a theme.

Recurring Theme: Book Report

We know when you're perusing your friend's book collection or leafing through magazines at the doctor's office you flip straight to the photo sections. And we know you have favorite visually-compelling books in your own libraries. So we want you to hit up your bookshelves and find a book that pleases your photography-loving mind that you think the JPG community should know about! We'd like you to set up a tripod and photograph yourself with a book, likely one that's photography-related, that would be of interest to the JPG community. Then post and add a review--what makes it special? We'll be selecting reviews/images for the next issue! **Note, to submit to this theme, the photo must have a description with your review of the book, and you must also be visible in the frame of the photograph.**

Recurring Theme: Items We Carry

Photograph the items you carry with you every day - the essentials without which you'd be helpless. So, that means JUST the items in your pockets or purses (no bags otherwise!) shot from above, as specified by Naz Hamid, creator of the Flickr group The Items We Carry. We'll be including this recurring theme in future issues of JPG Magazine. The Items We Carry v2 by Naz Hamid This theme is a continuation of a great photo challenge that ran the week of July 30, 2008. Judged by Naz himself, we saw some amazing photos of JPGers' pockets and purses. Visit the Items We Carry downloads page to see the selections from the photo challenge.

Frenzy

This theme is maniacal! It might be angry bees chasing after an intruder or obsessive teeny boppers screaming after a boy band. Frenzy is all about overwhelming excitement, tension, and emotion. Show us the madness!

Growing Up

Show us photos having to do with age, whether your subject is two years old or 80 years young.

Paradise

Paradise, while centered on one idea, means so many things. It is always bliss, nirvana, perfection. But its realization is different for everyone. Show us your version of euphoria. An ideal day, a secret getaway, a moment with loved ones, a favorite pastime.

Inspired by a JPG Member

We've noticed a lot of folks shooting images in tribute to another image that they have seen on the site. Have you been inspired by a fellow JPGer's image and shot something similar? Maybe you want to shoot a tribute to one of your friends, or even a complete stranger, because he impressed you so much that you want to give him recognition. Don't forget to add a link to the image that you were inspired by, either in the description or by using the "Add A Link" button in the comments field.

Recurring Theme: JPG Events and Meet-Ups

Share your photos of meet-ups, events, gallery shows, and other photography-related events that involve JPG members. We'll run this theme in every issue, so don't forget to include a good description if you'd like to be featured! Please note that this theme isn't for recent photos you've taken, but instead just for those great shots that show photo events and occasions! If it's not clear from the photo, please include a description of the event to make sure we don't remove your photo by mistake.

Prank

Happy April! Seen some great gags? Whether you were the fool, the fooler, or just a bystander, put your best practical joke photo here.

Recurring Theme: WTF

Every so often you come across something so weird that you just can't describe it in words. We'll be featuring a WTF image in every issue!

Transportation

Planes, trains, automobiles, highways, airports; let's see some photos of how we get around.

Where I'm At

No one knows the place you're from better than you: the nuances, the beauty, the secrets, the people. Give us your photos and stories that tell us about where you live.

Fluid

Flowing, shape changing, liquid and mutable, let's see your interpretation of Fluid.

Teeny Tiny

Add your favorite photo of something teeny tiny, or something that looks itty bitty from your vantage.

Reflections

The world is full of shiny things. Capture a moment of beauty reflected in something shiny.

Loneliness

When do you feel alone?

Photo Challenge: The Rasterbator

Ever heard of The Rasterbator? It's an awesome online tool where you can upload a photo and it will spit back a half-toned PDF version that you can print on many sheets of paper and hang on your wall to make one huge image. We ran an interview with The Rasterbator's creator, Matias Arje, in Issue 7, so we made this challenge: send one of your photos to the The Rasterbator and make a cool, multi-page, PDF. Then print it out and hang it up somewhere. Finally, take a new photo of the result and add it to this theme! The only rules are: You had to take the original photo (used for the Rasterbation) and you had to take the photo you uploaded to JPG. And, as always, be creative! Try shooting the original photo and the Rasterbated version together. Or shoot yourself with it to show perspective. Have fun!

Through the Window

We've all been there. Bored, looking out the car / airplane / train window, when something catches your eye and you reach for the camera. Post your favorite out-the-window photo here.

Zoom

Crank up the stereo, go as fast as possible, and let the shutter fly! Post your favorite photos that show motion. Just don't get a speeding ticket.

Urban

Cities can be crowded, dirty, overwhelming places. Ain't it great? Post your favorite photo of a gritty, urban experience.

Creepy

The world can be a scary place. Has one of your photos ever sent chills down your spine?

Out of Place

Sometimes something just jumps out. For this theme, we're looking for photos where one thing looks out of place, like it doesn't belong.

Recurring Theme: Nice to Meet You

Go meet someone you don't know and ask to take their photo. Be prepared: Have a shot in mind. Their first question will probably be "why?" Be sure to have a good answer. Ask them to tell you a little bit about themselves. Tape record their answer or write it down. To complete this challenge, post the photo, the person's first name, and a sentence or two quote from them about who they are. Remember, this person should be a stranger to you! Use this challenge as an excuse to introduce yourself to that nice guy or girl at the local coffee shop.

JPG Sightings

Got a copy of JPG Magazine in your hot little hands? Let's see it! Go someplace scenic and take a photo with the magazine in it somewhere and add it here. Note: Photos in this theme must contain a JPG Magazine!