#311 ASSIGNMENT: ALEX KILBEE
Monday means assignment day where my special guest, photographer and YouTuber Alex Kilbee sets a photography challenge or a way to think about your picture-making for the next week. It’s a challenge for everybody, whatever interests you have and today, we're asking you to think about the every day; the mundane!
Send your pictures in to studio@photographydaily.show - 2000 pixels wide, any orientation you prefer; square, portrait or landscape.
My thanks to our wonderful Patrons and MPB.com who sponsor this show; the number one company in the UK, the US and Europe when it comes to buying, selling and trading used camera kit online – it’s a safe place to do business, with guarantees upon what you buy and pertinently, sustainability and the circular economy are essential values and beliefs of their company.
BY BOB DEMERS
Same morning coffee, same emptied plate of biscotti. (My addiction, as you with your Garibaldis, I presume?)
BY JASON FOLEY (above and below)
I enjoyed this assignment. While out for my usual walk, it was fun to look at things through a different lens so to speak. I looked for random objects, subtle details often overlooked. I'm hoping that my photos captured the mundane.
BY KIM COFIELD
I was inspired by the Mundane assignment - it’s a practice I have in my photography toolkit, to look closer at what might not be noticed and see if I can make an ok image of it. Instead of mundane, I refer to this practice as noticing small moments of everyday beauty. The photo I’m sending you is of a section of tin on my back verandah roof. I love the abstractness of it, and it proves my theory that beauty is everywhere if you look for it. I also wanted to thank you for your discussions about mental health and photography. Photography helps ease my anxiety, I find I can slip into the flow of photography and my anxiety takes a back seat. It is not the cure, but rather a tool in my belt to help me live with anxiety.
BY JOSHUA SIDWELL
BY CRAIG WILSON
I wonder if this is the kind of thing he means by mundane, a dimly lit relic from past these days but it caught my eye and I liked the scene.
BY JOHN MILLAR
An interesting assignment this week from Alex, and I had inspiration quite quickly this afternoon when I returned home from work. My wife and I were treating ourselves to a mid-afternoon cup of tea and some biscuits. I can't remember the name of the particular biscuits that are in the image attached, I always call them "heart biscuits."
They were on a side plate on the dining table and it occurred to me the design on the plate was a not too different to the shape of the biscuits. Also, the shade of the biscuits was close to that of the table. The blueish colour of the plate nicely broke up the beige of the hearts and the table.
I turned the plate so the heart design was at the bottom and lined up two heart biscuits above it. I liked the various shapes within the frame, the hearts, the circular plate all within a 4x3 rectangle (native Micro Four Thirds aspect ratio). I've been shooting quite a bit with my Lumix GX80 and my recently acquired (from MPB of course) 20mm f17 Lumix lens. I had this camera to hand when I took this shot, and did the job nicely!
BY HELEN FENNELL
I hope all is well at your end. Life here potters on, with no help from South Western Railways… the strike has played havoc with my ability to listen to podcasts, my commute being prime podcast time. I was making breakfast this morning and catching up with the Assignment podcast from Alex Kilbee. As he was talking about shooting the mundane I turned around and found the most wonderful light on some eggs on the worktop. A quick dash to grab my camera and I had a nice 10 mins shooting the scene before starting work. I am really enjoying the assignment episodes (actually I enjoy all the episodes!). I am on holiday in a couple of weeks, so am hoping for a week of intensive photography joy :)
BY ERIK JACOBY PETERSEN (four pictures above)
As I commute by bus every day the bus stop is my mundane world. Yesterday (first pic) there was a lot of moisture on the glass that makes up the back of the bus stop. Looking through it I noticed the path I use to walk to the bus. Off to one side, someone had set their bike against the fence. As the summer holidays begin there are not many on board today, although they ought to be used to me using my camera phone from time to time. The spaces (second pic) between the seats have always intrigued me. The electronic check-in/out eye (third pic). Listening to Alex Frederickson’s interview on episode 312, here are my feet.
BY MIKE MILLER (above and below)
These were along the Main Street of town and all of the images made were of historical landmarks. Each has their own story to tell.
While on one of my (almost) daily walks, (again, almost) always with the X100V in hand, I was looking for interesting compositions in the mundane around me. All thanks to you and Alex. Wonderful to see what the surroundings present to you -- if you're looking!
This picture, "Crevasse", is taken at a block of flats maybe 200m away from my home, where there has been a construction site for the past few months. Hence, it's turned into the mundane and I generally, to be honest, avoid the area, simply because I don't expect to see anything of interest there. This past Thursday, I decided to pass by the area and lo and behold this little stream of LED lights going up the building, matching perfectly with the sunlight still striking the top of the building, creating an interesting effect and feel to the image (I think).
BY GERALD MURPHY
I didn't get round to listening to last Monday's broadcast until this morning. Shortly afterwards, my wife gave me a haircut at the dining room table: something she's done for me since our marriage almost 22 years ago. Something routine, mundane, but Margaret is my second wife: we were both widowed, and, to me everything that she does for me or that we do together is special. The more so as our health deteriorates. Anyway, back to the assignment.
When I was a child, my dad's brother - a professional barber - used to cut my hair and I still remember the forest of dark clippings scattered around his barber's chair. These days, my hair is no longer black and the clippings are sparse. While Margaret is cutting my hair she passes me clippings, as she progresses, to put on the table. As I looked at them this morning - those mundane hair clippings - they seemed to shine in the morning light and become, with your podcast in mind, less mundane. My assignment photograph was taken less than ten minutes after my wife passed me the dubbers to put away.
BY ROBERT WEIGEL
This is my entry for the Alex Kilbee assignment. I think a fire hydrant would be classified as fairy mundane until you need it of course. I liked the color contrast.
BY SAMANTHA SCHMALFUSS
I wasn't expecting to hear Alex Kilbee in my ear when I listened to the podcast but was delighted by the challenge. I enjoy Alex's YouTube channel. Cool that my channels come together for a challenge. I had just listened to your podcast when I came home to my wife changing the strings of her guitar. In our home, her guitars are ordinary items that hang on the walls or are played at the home. Only once in a while getting to see the inner workings of these machines. Together they tell a story but, hopefully, separately, they show how interesting and complex instruments are.
BY ROB SPICER
I start my day the same mundane way every day. It's still a thing of beauty to me. Especially on those cold Canadian mornings.
BY GRAHAM GOODWIN
My contribution to this challenge. I was sitting outside a cafe having a coffee when I noticed this pattern on the chair next to me.
BY FRED LAKE
Everyday when the sun is shining, a beam of light filters through my blinds and hits my kitchen floor. I’ve seen this almost daily for nearly 30 years. A bit of ‘crushed darks’ and the mundane becomes, to me, a bit more interesting.
A discarded bottle on the District Line at Ealing Broadway, London.
Here's my submission for this week's assignment. I posted an image on my Instagram profile which I was going to use for this assignment, but then I saw this when I was in my living room watching Saturday afternoon Glastonbury.
BY GEOFF DUNHAM
This is my regular view. Today’s is especially mundane as I was close enough to hear the joyful noise from Glastonbury Festival earlier but I’m not bitter!
BY COLIN MAYER
I saw the Fakebook post about the assignment and just jumped in and listened. The assignments are usually much more interesting than the work I'm supposed to be doing - budget variance explanations. Load of rubbish. Alex Kilbee describes what I often do, without taking any conscious knowledge that I'm doing it. Take my walk along the beach at the weekend for example, PD podcast on, camera in hand took several shots that made me happy. What was the final shot I took, four bins - very mundane. When I look back through my catalogue in Lightroom, I can see a similar pattern... a few shots I enjoyed taking, followed by one or two mundane shots. Like I said, it's not a conscious thing, it might just be my transition out of mindfulness and back to the reality of daily life. Who knows?
BY KELLY MITCHELL
Thought?? :)
When does the Mundane, every day become nostalgic? So when I heard about this assignment, that was my first thought. Maybe I have considered the facts about capturing/creating images of things/people/events that one day won’t be there anymore. Just like your typewriter :)
Or am I thinking a bit too hard (oh dear!!!) Now my Mundane photo is something you don’t see much anymore.
BY NEALE JAMES
Photographed with my iPhone, and referenced in this week’s Photowalk show (episode 312) - the act each day of meeting this very ordinary piece of plastic.
An example of Alex’s YouTube work.
