I'm entering this photography/essay contest but I can't think of anything to do with the essay. Any creative juices flowing out there?

Well, I could make some suggestions but then it would be my essay. You are doing this voluntarily, right?

Scribble whatever you feel like; then give it a day to settle and edit ruthlessly.

My picks:
9 – Tree with no leaves
My essay would be about “life goes on” .. even when it looks like all is lost

11 – Interesting sand pattern
My essay would be about how our actions leave an imprint for someone else to happen upon.. what left the pattern in the sand?

14 – Driftwood on the shore
My essay would be about purpose..and would likely be a satirical essay about how purposeful this particular piece of driftwood is/was

18 – Prickly cactus
My essay would be about personality types.. often the cactus personality has more to offer than at first perceived. Someone caustic in appearance or attitude can potentially be the best of friends or the mentor of a lifetime.. or something else..

20 – Colorful sunset
My essay would be about diversity.. the different colors of the sunset mirror the different colors of our cultures.. our personalities.. our humanity… and all of them coming together can potentially create something spectacular, marvelous… beautiful

I know some of these are a bit cliche and overdone but… maybe some small piece of it will spark something… meh.. I tried.. XD I guess you would just have to work in the “I am inspired by nature when..” part… wouldn’t be too hard.. XD

You won’t be inspired until you have the picture to inspire it. Get out there and take the picture!

@Judi, you have the correct response. It’s the photo that give the inspiration…

Homeless beauty pageant?

I wouldn’t pick any particular items on the list. They are all pretty restrictive. You aren’t going to get a great picture of a plant growing on a rock unless you live in a rocky area where such features are commonplace, and even then you will need luck to find the perfect specimen for a photo essay. Likewise targeting a prickly cactus would be terribly restrictive unless you have easy access to a desert, and driftwood on the shore would be impossible if you aren’t anywhere near a shore.

Instead, memorize the list, then take camera in hand and go hiking where you are. The one connecting thread is all the subjects have to do with nature. Pick the 5 you find on your hike that give you stunning subject matter to photograph. Take tons of pictures. Then look for a common thread within some of them. What might unify the 5 separate subjects into one overarching theme. Maybe it’s nature recovering from environmental damage or the persistent force of new life springing up from the decay of the previous generations.

Let the photographs inspire the prose. Don’t start by focusing on doing just 1,000 characters. Write freely once inspired. Then put on your editor’s hat and ruthlessly slice out what fails to tell your story. Reword so one sentence captures a whole paragraph. Yeah, I know. I took WAY more than 1,000 characters just to tell you this. :-)

Finally, allow more time for editing than for the original writing. Remember what one of the great masters of American prose once said. When pressed by an anxious editor.who needed a short story overnight, Mark Twain sent this telegram,
“NO CAN DO 2 PAGES TWO DAYS.
CAN DO 30 PAGES 2 DAYS.
NEED 30 DAYS TO DO 2 PAGES.”

@ETpro – Thanks. I was planning to do something like that, but didn’t really know how. I own 10 acres of pretty-near wilderness and most of it is marshy stuff. I should be able to get some awesome stuff.

I don’t like a lot of their choices. @ETpro is right that they’re restrictive, and they strike me as the kind of inane nature photography that ends up on motivational posters. It might be easier to pick some of these if you put them into groups by their similarities. Then instead of just taking random photos, you can use these pictures to tell a story or show a mood. These ones seemed most similar to me, but you might come up with something different.

Close ups:
1. Bird
2. Seed or pinecone
3. Spider or spiderweb
6. Detail of a snowflake

7. Animal tracks in the snow
8. Interesting icicle
6. Detail of a snowflake
9. Tree with no leaves
These ones are my least favorite, because they give you the least leeway to do something creative.

Winter/ Early spring
9. Tree with no leaves
7. Animal tracks in the snow
10. Plant peeking through the leaves
4. Bud on a tree branch
19. Plant growing on a rock
You might be able to make these into an actual nature walk. They remind me of things you might see if you went into any woods in late February or early march, and I imagine it having a moody, solitary tone.

11. Interesting sand pattern
12. Seashell
13. Kelp or seaweed
14. Driftwood on the shore
15. Creature in a shell
16. Rock or sand pattern

16. Rock or sand pattern
17. Interesting rock or rock formation
18. Prickly cactus
19. Plant growing on a rock

20. Colorful sunset
5. Something that looks like a letter of the alphabet
These last two don’t really fit into any one category. You can pretty much come up with anything here.

The first line of the essay also kind of sucks, but once you have your photos you should just write about your thought process in choosing the subjects and what you are trying to convey. If it were my project, I would choose the second group and go out in late afternoon or dusk, and I would write an essay on nature being inspiring when it is dormant, because it is full of potential. Or something like that. Just take your photos, and think about an adjective you would use to describe all of them. Then use that as the theme for your essay.

@ChocolateReigns Sounds like you are off and running. Good luck.
@Haleth Great idea to organize them into groups. But you still have to go with what you can actually find that is photo worthy.

@Haleth They were orignally put into groups of 5 (meaning, from 1–5, 6–10, 11–15 and 16–20) because it’s a national contest and they were organized by what you could find in your part of the country.

In all fairness, either give out the information on how we can enter the contest or use your own creativity and hard work.

I and other fluthers are glad to be helpful but I doubt many of us want to see you take our essay ideas and then claim them as your own.

It’s not fair to others in the same contest and it robs you of taking credit should your entry win.

Get out there with you camera and take pictures, letting your camera be your mind’s eye. Then review your pictures and they should evoke the emotions you need to write the essay.

Trust your own skills to carry you through!

@Dr_Lawrence Good point….I felt kinda guilty that I wasn’t. It’s a contest that American Girl is doing. To enter go to this site. They still haven’t updated it yet, but that’s where they’ll have the info when they have it up.

Since I am neither American nor a girl and I’m somewhat :-} older than 20, I will not enter the contest. I have granddaughters who qualify on all counts!

LOL I’m 13 and american. I had a feeling people would say that and that’s why I wasn’t reluctant to give the info. :)

I quite like the creature in the shell, which could be a play on how nature mimics society and our lives. You could even take the photo in black and white, and make it a bit brooding, about how we protect ourselves everyday from real or imagined danger. Or hide our true selves. But find it hard to blend in and vanish like a creature in a shell can.

The tree with no leaves can be sad, but then open up into something very new a new begining a surprise, a rebirth as life is all about new beginings.

I wish I could find the spell check on here by the way!!!

I would write about being inspired by nature when I realize that I am part of all that lives, and it is part of me.