Alphabet photography, in its simplest form, is finding letters of the alphabet in the world around you and photographing them. You’ll be amazed at what you can find in ordinary everyday objects when you look hard enough. Then you put all the photographed letters together to create an alphabet. 

Alphabet photography is a popular exercise because it challenges you to think creatively and notice details you might otherwise overlook. It’s also a great way to spark inspiration when you're feeling stuck. Every photographer experiences creative blocks, much like a writer facing a blank page. The next time that happens, grab your camera and start searching for hidden letters in everyday objects. You’ll be surprised at how this simple activity reawakens your creativity and gets you capturing great shots again!

Here is a great example of images that represent different sports: Baseball A-Z

Here is a webstite where you can make your own words and create a sign (a great example of how you can make money with your photography) : Alphabet photography

Good examples:

Poor examples:

Now go create your own!

Assignment:

Try to spell out your name using photographs of everyday objects.  Try to find objects that look like each letter in your name, don't take photographs of actual letters (like ones found on signs, keyboards, textbooks, etc.).  This trains your "creative eye" to look at the world around you in a different, more creative way.  Take several photos for each letter, that way you'll have more options and can choose the best, clearest photograph to use in your final design.

Tips:

Need help finding letters?

• look for shadows on the ground

• notice cracks in the sidewalk

• look in the tree branches

• arrange several objects together (sticks, paintbrushes, etc.) to form a letter

• if a certain object doesn't at first look like it could resemble a letter, look at it from a different point of view (from the side, upside down, from above, etc.) and you might see something completely new!

Important when "framing" your shots...

Tomorrow we will make some basic edits to our images, including cropping.  We will crop all of our images to the same dimensions so all of our letters look "unified" when presented together.  When taking your photographs, leave some extra space around your "letter," this way, we will have room to crop the photo tomorrow without chopping part of your letter off!