Dream Photography Project

[toni_martin]

<p>I just turned 60 and may not have many more photos left in me. Photographing Thailand was one of the best experiences of my life, even with my film camera. But I am still moved to tears every time I see beautiful photos of the wildlife in Africa or Alaska or even the landscapes of our great national parks. The reality is that I will never make it to Africa, Yellowstone or Alaska. I am shooting digital now and recall one of the happiest days of my photography, when I was sitting on the ground in a field in Cades Cove, Smoky Mountains National Park, with the deer very close around me. I thought that was as good as it gets. I can't even think about the closet of camera gear. I cannot imagine that kind of gear. I just want something that gets the shot and does not fail me. I want a camera with focus that can find the subject. I want to see how long I cry, standing there in front of the great wild yonder before I can see to fire the camera. One dream of mine was to photograph a steeple race. When the dream came true, I cried half of the day, there in the middle of all that beautiful flesh, just because I was there.</p>

[armandventer]

<p>Something that I have been wanting to do is to visit Botswana with my camera equipment packed in a 4x4. I would visit the Central Kalahari National park, Chobe Game reserve and the Okovango Delta. This is for me the utopia of african nature. You can even find nature surrounding you on some of the national roads towards the North. I would take all the equipment that I own, since it is not allot; and head into the velt with a local guide for at least a month. This natural utopia is what dreams; my dreams are made of.</p>

[lisa.hendrawan]

<p>I will visit Indonesian tribes and take pictures of their life, their tradition, their culture, etc.</p>

[cowboy]

<p>So many choices ,I don't live to far from the Polar Bears, so I can go see them anytime, Antartica would be nice, because my wife would like to see the penguins. But I think I would like to go and see the snow Leppards.<br>

Happy dreaming<br>

Jeff</p>

[jpo3136b]

<p>Fly them 1,500 miles in any direction over land and back. If they start or end up on an island, come up with some option to deal with the water.</p>

<p>People will want to go a lot of different places for a lot of different reasons. Sightseers, people wanting to document something of academic or political interest; there could be a lot of motivations for the photos.</p>

<p>Give 'em an airlift and a stack of cash and see what they do. If the photos turn out to be a pile of rejects, get 'em the Big Makeover with some retoucher if they want. The airlift and almost no cash until they get back might be more interesting. Some random flight to noplace might be good fodder.</p>

<p>1,500 miles and 1,500 bucks. You've got up to 15 days to pull it off. Show us what you do when you get back. There'd still be a way to factor in the grand prize. Spice it up with a little challenge, but factor in a chance at discovery and creativity would bewhat I'm trying to send.</p>

[rebecca_gibbons]

<p>There are two things which I would probably combine into one thing. I have always wanted to fight against modern day slavery by using my photography skills... so the hope would be to go to some place like Mumbai deep into the red light district and capture the face of these women and children who are being sold and used and abused... capture their stories and then be a voice for those who till now have had no voice. And the second thing would be to take some of the money and buy some cheap cameras and hold some sort of a photography workshop with the kids of the prostitutes there in the red light district and eventually other places around the world. I would teach them the basics of good photography and then we would go out and take pictures... which I would then compile and try to sell for these children, either in book form large prints. This would be a way for these kids to make some money so that their fate would not be the same as their mothers or their captors. Been wanting to do something like this for quite sometime, just lacking the funds and equipment- the passion and heart is there. Anyway, that is what I would do! </p>

[mandy_emerton]

<p>Oh wow........for me it would be people, anyone from anywhere. People from all around the world. At home, at work , at play. But mostly I would love to go behind the glamour into the places that would normaly be shyed away from........with my husband and myself I would start off at home in South Africa and go into the informal settlements and from there who knows? I would follow the pictures and the camera and let them take me on my life long dream.</p>

[donald_kahn]

<p>after 10 days in china, last summer, where we visited beijing, xi'an, suzhou and shanghai,i would love to go back. 2 leicas and 4 lenses were quite sufficient.the chinese treated us very well,but the air quality in the major cities needs a lot of improvement.i only realized how bad it was when i printed pictures from the top of the television tower in shanghai. don kahn</p>

[rick_long1]

<p>I would embark on seeing every state in my country, the United States, and seek to photograph the vast diversity of the people it holds dear to our culture. I would take the time to photograph many cultures and put together a book that honors the cultural, ethnic, and racial differences of our people, regardless of their gender. I would create a work that shows the passion and presence of every culture I could find to photograph, a presentation that would help Americans learn about each other through the way I see the world. Every photograph would strive to show not only the diversity of each culture, but the differences that make America the great melting pot that it is. This would be a dream come true. A dream to help Americans understand each other on a level that shares photos and stories, passions, and dream. A work that reaches to the heart of the viewer and shows everyone that even though we each have our diversity, we also each value many of the same things; a work that embodies and respects our differences. This would be a dream that is vastly huge, and its reach may be beyond the scale of this contest, but it is a dream worth investing every penny of time and attention to the people who matter most, the people who make up our culture. </p>

[paul_sloot]

<p>I'd know what i'd do!<br>

I have been thinking about a tree project for a long time. It would be awesome to go worldwide and capture images of "worlds greatest trees" To seek out the most beautiful species on the globe, and make the best possible (somtimes even abstract) images, see how everywhere on the world light would be filtered, air would be filtered by the finest representators of the world! </p>

[paul_sloot]

<p>I'd know what i'd do!<br>

I have been thinking about a tree project for a long time. It would be awesome to go worldwide and capture images of "worlds greatest trees" To seek out the most beautiful species on the globe, and make the best possible (somtimes even abstract) images, see how everywhere on the world light would be filtered, air would be filtered by the finest representators of the world! </p><div></div>

[seba_d70s]

<p>If I really could make a trip to collect my emotions with a camera using the $10,000 prize I think I will buy a professional 35mm film camera (may be a Nikon F5 o F6), some prime good lenses, some zooms and a better digital body than mine (it may be D700 plus a teleconverter) and I'll travel along Europe spending the less I could to save the more money I could to extendmy trip.<br>

Spain, the Southen Italy (my country), England, Ireland, Germany, .. Poland, Czech Republic ..<br>

All I would like to collect would be the natural places around small towns where people usually live ..<br>

P.S. Can I really trust "dreams come true sometimes"? ;)</p>

[trevhadfield]

<p>I would grab a Nikon and a long lens and go follow the Mountain bike Downhill World championship. capturing the thrills and spills and documenting the the behind the scenes life of the riders mechanics and the rest of the teams that put this fabulous and dangerous show on.</p>

[les_farnham]

<p><strong>Les Farnham, Jan 20th 2010: 1930hrs</strong><br>

<br /> <strong>I have reached an age where my thinking can get very deep, and there are many ideas that come to mind, one of them is to try and capture images that show unconditional LOVE. </strong><br>

<strong>Destination, that is a hard one, as I have not been out of Austraila. I would have to take the time to talk to others that could guide me in the direction that I hope to go.</strong><br>

<strong>It's nice to day dream sometimes, and it's good to read the dreams of others.</strong><br>

<strong>Thanks for sharing<br /> </strong></p>

 

[les_farnham]

<p><strong>Les Farnham, Jan 20th 2010: 1930hrs</strong><br>

<br /> <strong>I have reached an age where my thinking can get very deep, and there are many ideas that come to mind, one of them is to try and capture images that show unconditional LOVE. </strong><br>

<strong>Destination, that is a hard one, as I have not been out of Australia. I would have to take the time to talk to others that could guide me in the direction that I hope to go.</strong><br>

<strong>It's nice to day dream sometimes, and it's good to read the dreams of others.</strong><br>

<strong>Thanks for sharing<br /> </strong></p>

 

[summer_kozisek]

<p>I'd pack up a Canon 7D and housing, and head for my dream location, South Africa. It's all about Great White sharks breaching the water. I've dreamed about photographing them for years, and have every intention of making it there some day. Me in the water, cage in the water, shark in the water, oh yeah!</p>

[tony_martyr]

<p>My answer is that after 47 years of travel and photograph I do not have an answer. Such beautiful images appear on forum like this that I feel defeated and intent only of preserving images of the skills that are dying with my generation who were born in the 2nd world war. In sheds around the world their are craftsmen making clocks, wooden toys, small steam locomotives and engines on machine tools and craftswomen (mostly) in spare bedrooms using dress making skills or in kitchens making unnecessarily beautiful food - I would like to capture that tradition before the world become Tescopolis (Wallmartopolis for Americans). I would give the $10,000 as a scholarship prize for a photographic student. </p>

[matteosponza]

<p>Hi all<br>

Probably i would choosea to go to India shooting rituals and festivity. A whirl of colours, music and people.</p>

[arthur_kerns]

<p> I am a NAUI certified DiveMaster, and I live in the middle of a desert. I have traveled to several wonderful locations, and shot many pictures. My gear was some of the best I could afford but when it came to low light and depths below 100 feet, my slave strobe backscattered and housings leaked. I missed macro shots that were thrilling, tiny creatures most people don't see, and shots of animals that are so rarely seen and misunderstood. I know the names and can spot these animals when others are inches away and when I point they still can't see past the camouflage.It wasn't my ability to dive that stopped me it was my gear. I drool at the new waterproof digital cameras and wish I could afford them. I would travel back to the Channel Islands of California and shoot the endangered species as well as those like the angel shark, I swam with one at one hundred and thirty feet deep only an arms length away and was helpless to take its' picture. A shot missed and kept only in my minds eye.</p>

[alastair]

<p>Visit various under-privileged areas of the world, take a load of reasonable, small, but good quality digital cameras and ask the local children to take photos from their viewpoint. Then mount an international travelling exhibition and associated website with the results.</p><div></div>

[lynn_p1]

<p>Wow! The list is lengthy but off the top of my head, I'd love to photograph old world architecture. Behind that, I'd like to become part of another person's dream. A family member, who is a veterinarian, wants to open a pachyderm center. I'd like to document his work with rescued elephants and their rehabilitation. I'd also like to explore the world of circus elephants leading up to retirement or abandonment.</p>

[teresa_moore]

<p>Oh my, to be able to dream about what I would do with $10K for photography. I guess that really wouldn't be too hard to figure out... I would take a road trip with my Mother (she is 73 now) and we would travel together on a road trip, and see the west coast this year. We would start in Oregon and visit the beautifu waterfalls, and fields of flower. Then across California and discover its beauty, taking our time and enjoy each special moment together. I would save enough money to do the east coast next year. That would be my dream.</p>

[nadia_diakun_thibault]

<p>Vietnam... a photographic essay on Vietnam 45 years after the end of the Vietnam War - April 30, 1975.<br>

My father served in Vietnam with French forces before the United States became involved.<br>

My classmates and friends served and died in Vietnam in the 1960s.<br>

Both conflicts have left an enduring mark on the landscape and the people.</p>

<p> </p>

[theartofsusanna]

<p>It would be amazing to travel round the coast of Africa or Madagascar (on a small boat, maybe?) with my underwater photographic gear, taking pics of the local children living in the coastal villages. I would have the children make 'landscape art pieces' with all the 'treasures' the ocean has washed up on the shore (driftwood, plastic, shells, old fishing gear, lost shoes etc etc). The children would then find a way to 'display' these artworks and pose with them in the shallows of their own little local piece of ocean, and viola! Pics underwater of the children . . . and their extraordinary imaginations! Making them (and us!) aware of how much we Westerners pollute, and how even that can be re-used in the creation of beautiful art. I am not a scuba diver and will be taking shots in the shallows (both me and the kids hold our breath and go under for the shot). I can also teach those children who might show an interest the basics of photography, by having them take pics of their own works using a small 'point and shoot' underwater camera. We will exhibit the photographs internationally (with the help/guidance of you guys of course), and pick a winner, who will win a prize of some underwater photographic gear and a course in how to use it all. I trust that this may empower someone somewhere and give them the chance to share what they have learned ...</p>

[ramoncandido]

<p>I will volunteer to document any activities such as wedding, birthdays, town fiesta in order to fully know the people and its culture.</p>