Do you remember the television gameshow hosted by comedian Jeff Foxworthy called Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? If not, the premise was pretty simple: answer questions from elementary school textbooks, with the most difficult questions taken from the fifth grade. Actual fifth grade students were on hand to offer help if the contestants should need it (and they always did). It turns out that most adults don’t remember the things they learned in elementary school—only two people ever won the million dollar grand prize. Those who lost had to admit on camera that they were not smarter than a fifth grader.

My 12-year-old son, Jon, is taking an art class in school, and one unit of this class is on photography. A project that he had to complete for this was to capture 10 photographs, each using a different and specific element of art. I let Jon use my Fujifilm X-E4 with a Fujinon 27mm f/2.8 lens attached. I did this same project right along side him, and I used a Fujifilm X-T30 with a Fujinon 35mm f/2 lens attached. Were my pictures going to be better than a middle schooler’s? How about you—are your pictures better than a middle schooler’s?

Let’s do this challenge together! There’s no prize, but it will be fun.

Note: this was a Creative Collective article, but now it’s available to everyone.

The “Are You A Better Photographer Than A Middle Schooler?” photography challenge is this:
– Capture 10 pictures
– Each picture needs to incorporate a different element of art
– The 10 “elements of art” for this project are:
1. Balance
2. Color
3. Contrast
4. Framing
5. Line
6. Movement
7. Pattern
8. Shape
9. Space
10. Texture

For this challenge, Jonathan and I went to a small downtown in Bountiful, Utah. The location for this project doesn’t matter, but I chose this spot for us because I thought we’d encounter a good variety of subjects that might make things a bit easier. We spent maybe an hour doing this, all during the “golden hour” because that’s when good light is most commonly plentiful, and good light is often a prerequisite to good photographs. If you are looking for advice to improve your photography, let me offer this: concentrate capturing pictures during the hour immediately following sunrise and the hour immediately before sunset. I programmed the Fujicolor Superia 1600 recipe into the X-E4 because that’s what Jon chose (via the Fuji X Weekly App). I used my Porto 200 and Cross Process recipes on my X-T30.

Now, to the pictures!

Element of Art: Balance

Jon’s photo:

My photo:

This was a more challenging “element of art” to capture photographically than I expected. Maybe my creative mind wasn’t running on all cylinders for this particular image, or perhaps there just wasn’t a lot of opportunities for a “balance” picture. For my image, I was trying to find where the bench balanced between the vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines. I don’t think I was particularly successful. This image would have worked better in black-and-white, and definitely if there had been a person sitting on the bench. Jon said of his picture, “I was balancing the door with the trashcans.”

Element of Art: Color

Jon’s photo:

My photo:

Color was a much more obvious and easier element of art to incorporate. Jon found a vibrant jacket in a store to photograph, while I used the Cross Process recipe to make the colors in my image stand out.

Element of Art: Contrast

Jon’s photo:

My photo:

Contrast can be tackled a number of different ways—I took it more literally. The building (which was partly in the sun and partly not) was reflected in the car window, which made it appear more contrasty, and the Cross Process recipe helped accentuate that. Jon said of his picture, “I saw the white sign with black writing on a black pole.”

Element of Art: Framing

Jon’s photo:

My photo:

Jon framed his subject (the monument) with flowers. I framed my subject (the words “Studio 10” twice) with a window frame. Framing is easy, framing effectively isn’t always easy. My picture for Color was probably a better example of framing, but I was thinking of color and not framing when I captured it.

Element of Art: Line

Jon’s photo:

My photo:

I used the stair’s railing as leading lines to the door. Jon said of his picture, “I used the lines on the sidewalk to take you to the vertical lines of the poles.” Having lines run from the corners of the picture to the subject is an effective way to guide the viewer through an image.

Element of Art: Movement

Jon’s photo:

My photo:

Jon did some panning with a slow shutter speed to incorporate this element of art into his photograph. I used a slow shutter speed, too, but kept the camera still and let the moving objects blur as they passed through the frame.

Element of Art: Pattern

Jon’s photo:

My photo:

What drew my attention to this photo opportunity was the Albert Einstein quote in the window situated above the trashcans, and I thought of the potential commentary of it. How does the picture fulfill the Pattern element? Obviously the bricks are a repeated pattern, but what I saw was the trashcans and the electrical box with a similar shape. Perhaps this picture is a stretch for this element. The natural patterns in Jon’s picture are a little more obvious.

Element of Art: Shape

Jon’s photo:

My photo:

Jon and I both photographed circles, although much differently. I think there’s a lot of opportunity with this element for creativity, but we didn’t do much to explore it. Mine was captured near the very beginning of our outing (before the creative juices were flowing), and Jon’s at the very end (when he was looking for anything to fulfill the Shape element).

Element of Art: Space

Jon’s picture:

My pictures:

For this element of art, Jon photographed a large empty room that looked even bigger because of a mirror running across the back wall. The small streak of light leads to a barely visible stool, and perhaps a ballet shoe sits on the floor. I photographed a largely empty room for this element, too, although not nearly as spacious-looking. Jon makes an appearance in both pictures. I think this element would be easier in a rural environment.

Element of Art: Texture

Jon’s photo:

My photo:

Jon was really unsure of how to capture Texture, so I suggested to him that we do some double-exposure photography for this. It worked out pretty well, although this is certainly not the only way to tackle this element of the challenge.

Conclusion

This challenge was actually more difficult than I thought it was going to be. It’s not necessarily hard to photograph these 10 elements of art by happenstance throughout time, but to purposefully seek these things out and create an interesting photograph of them is a whole different story. It’s definitely something that I want to try again!

Doing challenges like this are good because they keep you in photographic shape. Musicians constantly practice. Athletes constantly train. Photographers need to continuously practice their art, but it’s easy to get in a rut. Challenges like this help you to get out of your rut and stay in photographic shape, even if none of your images from this challenge are particularly compelling.

How do you think that I did? Am I a better photographer than a middle schooler? Or do I need to say that I’m not? Let me know in the comments who did better with each Element of Art! I think Jon beat me in at least a few of them.

This challenge is for you, too! Below is a Word document that you can download—print it and take it with you! I had the 10 elements of art typed out on a note on my phone, and that worked well enough. Whatever helps you to remember the elements and keep track of what you’ve captured is what you should do. The Word document may or may not be helpful, but it is available to you if you want it, and I’m hoping that at least a few of you find it useful.

I hope that you try this challenge. If you do, let me know! Even better, try it with a friend. If you post the pictures somewhere on the web, leave a link to it in the comments, because I’d love to see them.