I started a photography exercise of photographing a subject thirty-six times with pre-fixed constraints and from different angles, composition, and camera settings. Thirty-six because this is how many shots a roll of film usually had.
It’s an exercise in mindfulness and presence. You might enjoy this too. Here’s the pattern.
36 Frames Challenge
- Pick a single subject/location. (e.g., a café corner, a stairwell, a street intersection, your kitchen sink at noon.)
- Set constraints.
- One lens/focal length.
- No burst mode. No “chimping” (don’t check the screen).
- Meter once, then adjust only when the light changes.
- Warm‑up (frames 1–6). Explore angles: high/low, near/far, front/backlight.
- Light study (frames 7–18). Track how light shapes form: side‑light for texture, backlight for rim/flare, open shade for skin.
- Composition study (frames 19–30). Work one idea at a time: leading lines, layers, frames‑within‑frames, negative space, symmetry/asymmetry.
- Decisive moments (frames 31–36). Wait for timing: gestures, overlaps separating, clean backgrounds.
Edit immediately
- Import, hide filenames, and star only 5. No ties.
- For each keeper, write one sentence: “Side‑light revealed texture on the brick; foreground blur added depth; subject isolated against shadow.”
Settings shorthand (use as a start, then adjust)
- Daylight street: f/5.6, 1/500s, ISO 200.
- Indoors window light: f/2–f/2.8, 1/125s, ISO 400–800.
- Night city: f/1.8–f/2.8, 1/60s (brace), ISO 1600–3200.
Variations for different goals
- People skills: same subject, three distances (full/half/close), one expression per frame.
- Monochrome study: shoot B&W only; look for shape/contrast.
- Geometry day: only leading lines and negative space.
- Color hunt: anchor each frame on one dominant color + a counterpoint.
As much as I love photography, it’s a shame photos are shared on Instagram where one can’t really see and experience them fully.
Enjoy. 🙂
Aaron Fulkerson 