I recently spent 5 days at the Saltwater Retreat in Virginia Beach and it was amazing. Jennifer Carr puts on a great retreat with so much love and fun packed in. It was five days of photography, nature, and meeting new friends. We were given BINGO cards of different creative photos to try and it really sparked my creativity. That’s why I’m challenging you to try them as well!
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18 Creative Photos to Try Today
Long Exposure
First up is long exposure. I really knew very little about how to get this done right before the retreat but now I know. It means using my enemy the tripod (never met one I like- sorry) but it’s worth it.
Sunburst
This was a fun little thing I learned at the retreat that I’m already obsessed with. It’s so simple and adds such an impact making it a super creative photo. I love playing around with it.
Intentional Camera Movement (ICM)
I spend a lot of time making sure photos are tack sharp. However, this Intentional camera movement is a new way to make a creative photo and I love how it looks like a watercolor painting.
Backlight
Each morning we went to watch the sunrise over the beach and I loved how it back lit the fishing pier and the people already up and fishing.
Reflection
I love a good reflection when it comes to creative photos taken on the water and our last sunset was so amazing.
Frozen Motion
There’s nothing that shows the power of waves more than freezing them. The frozen motion was something I loved doing when photographing the waves.
Wabi-Sabi
This was a term that I had honestly never heard before the retreat but I quickly learned it’s something I take photos of a lot. I love to photograph the over-looked details when I travel. The “boring” things that are actually a big part of the story. For instance, this sign below is keeping people off the dunes as they are an important part of the beach and protecting the houses nearby.
Negative Space
I love using negative space in travel photographs. I especially love to use it near water or wildlife. I’m not a huge fan of birds but I do love how this turned out.
5 Senses in 5 Photos
5 senses in 5 photos was a challenge for me. I feel like it’s something that can be interpreted in many ways. I’ve compiled a combination of images below that speak to my five senses but you may see it differently! I’d love to know which one triggers which sense for you. Tell me in the comments!
Shadows
As primarily a family photographer, I try to avoid showing shadows in photos. I work hard to keep the harsh shadows off faces and evenly paint the light. However, this task allowed me to see beauty in the shadows and let them tell a story. The shadows that these chairs created are so beautiful and I would see them every day while I was there.
Shoot Through Something
During the retreat I realized how much I love “shooting through something”. It’s one of my favorite ways to make a photo more interesting. Then there’s times when you don’t have a lot of choice like this photo of the frog below.
Double Exposure
Double exposure isn’t something I had ever tried before and I learned there’s an app for that! It’s so simple to use and I love playing with it. If you want to try it out, download snapseed.
Atmosphere
Atmosphere is often your friend in landscape photography because it makes photos so much more interesting. I love the rain drops on this grass.
Close Up
I was on a mission this trip to get a close up photo of the foam in the waves. This proved to be a harder task than I thought mostly because I didn’t want to get water on my camera!
One Subject- Three Ways
One of the days we spent wandering around the botanical gardens and there were so many lovely things to photograph! This challenge was one subject in three ways and this rose was the perfect subject to photograph in multiple ways. When you put them together it makes creative photos all together.
Silhouette
One of my favorite activities we did was a sunset boat ride. There were plenty of opportunities for silhouettes when the sun was setting over the water and trees. This was one of my favorites.
The Saltwater Retreat Creative Photos
Finally, the last challenge was to capture an image that represented the retreat. This was the hardest of all. For me, the retreat was so wonderful not only because of the beautiful location and ability to spend 5 days taking creative photos but because of the people I met.
I had to include them in the image in some way so I wrote everyone’s initials in the sand. Then I combined it with the last sunset we had to create this creative photo below!
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