Most of us will admit to setting a goal to ‘do more photography’ as one of our New Year’s Resolutions.  But often it falls by the wayside because we don’t have anything to help us focus on the task.

This year I am issuing members of “Ian’s Studio Facebook Group” with a fun photography challenge – that I am calling “Ian’s Photo Bingo Challenge”

The primary aim of the challenge is to encourage you to go out with your camera and to get shooting and you can take as long as you wish to finish your bingo card.   The primary challenge is to complete the card before the end of 2021.

But I am also going to issue prizes for being the first to complete your card and for various sub-challenges.   There will be more info on these challenges and the prizes at the end of this blog post.

This blog post has the full details but you can also hear me talk about it on last Sunday’s live stream – https://youtu.be/XBRF81ol4-8?t=4005 (starts at the right point in the stream).

How it works

Each person will receive a randomly generated ‘bingo card’ of photographic subjects.  The card will consist of five rows of five columns with a different photographic theme in each square.  The themes will be randomly generated from over 50 different topics.

Each card should be unique and it is purely by chance whether you will get an easy card or a hard one.

To cross off a square on your card you much make a photograph on the theme of that particular square and you must post the image to the Facebook group stating what theme the image is for.  For some themes, you may wish to apply a little bit of lateral thinking.

Some additional rules

All photographs must be taken in 2021. – In other words, you can’t use images from your back catalogue of shots.

For an image to be counted it must be posted in the Facebook group in its own thread.  The time of posting in the FB group will be used to determine who has completed a challenge first.

Every photo for the bingo game must be created on a different day.  You can’t just blitz the challenge by going out on 1 Jan and photographing every topic on your card.  If there is any doubt over when an image was made Ian may request to see the original file and the EXIF shooting data.

The photos don’t have to be created on consecutive days – if work gets in the way and you can’t do any photography, that fine just pick up your camera again as soon as you can.

Ian’s decision is final as to whether an image meets a particular theme or not.

Challenges & prizes

For each challenge you complete you will receive one or more “Ian’s Studio Prize Credits” which you can then “cash in” for one or more prizes from the current prize list – these “Prize Credits” do not expire and you can save them up until you have sufficient credits to get the prize you want.

Future challenges in the Facebook group will also offer the chance to earn prize credits.  You choose when you want to cash in your credits.   (No you can’t redeem them for money, nor can they be transferred to anyone else).

Ian’s Photo Bingo Challenges and their credits

  • First person to get all four corners – 4 Prize Credits
  • First person to get the middle row – 5 Prize Credits
  • First person to get the middle column – 5 Prize Credits
  • First person to get both diagonals – 9 Prize Credits
  • First person to get both the top row and the bottom row – 10 Prize Credits
  • First person to complete the whole card – 18 Prize Credits
  • Anyone who completes their card on or before 31 January 2021 – 5 Prize Credits
  • Anyone who completes their card on or before 28 February 2021 – 2 Prize Credits
  • Anyone who completes their card on or before 31 March 2021 – 1 Prize Credit

Prizes

  • 5 image review – 6 prize credits
  • 10 image review – 10 prize credits
  • 20 image review – 18 prize credits
  • 30min 1-to-1 mentoring call – 20 prize credits
  • 2 x 30min 1-to-1 mentoring calls – 35 prize credits
  • 2hr Studio Hire* – 30 prize credits
  • 3hr Mentored Studio Hire* – 50 prize credits
  • 3hr Shoot alongside Ian** – 45 prize credits

* – does not include the cost of any models
** – subject to availability and conditions

How to enter

  1. Make sure you are a member of my FB group.
  2. Find the Ian’s Photo Bingo Challenge post
  3. Look which card numbers have not yet been taken.
  4. Reply to the post selecting a number from 1-30 that has not yet been taken

Posting your photos

Photos must be posted to the FB group – if you cannot use FB for any reason let me know ASAP and we can discuss possible alternative ways for you to post your images.

When you post a photo to the FB group please label it BINGO/<title> (Eg.  BINGO/Selfie or BINGO/Car Parts).

If you believe you have completed your card or a sub-challenge you must say so in the post – I will then check your posts and the card and confirm if you are correct.

I look forward to seeing your images in the Facebook Group and hope the challenge helps improve your photography.

Until next time, keep making great photos,

Ian.