Since October 2015 I’ve been challenging myself, and others, to post 10 photos on the 10th of the month on Instagram: the #Tenonthe10th challenge.

We usually have a good group playing along, but one of the questions I get asked a lot is “How do you manage to take 10 photos in a day?”

My off-the-cuff answer is that I love photography, Instagram and documenting my life, so it’s almost a no-brainer to me to do this. But the truth is, unlike back in the day when my son was home on Wednesdays and I did pretty much nothing but post our weekly adventures, these days I do need to plan ahead in order to get those 10 photos in.

So I thought I’d share some of the things I do to make sure I take and post 10 photos on the 10th of each month.

Overview Your Day

A few days before the challenge, I take a look at my calendar to have an idea of what the 10th holds. Is it a day when I’ll be at home all day, working on my computer? Or do I have appointments and errands I’ll be running?

If it’s the weekend: do we have anything special planned, or is it just a day of weekly chores and hanging out?

This already gives me an idea of some of the photos I can take, and I make a mental note of this.

Spread it Out

The key to getting 10 photos posted is to start as soon as possible in the morning and spread the photos out over the day. I aim to post one photo an hour for 10 hours. This is less likely to annoy your followers as well, they won’t be seeing five or six photos in a row from the same person in their feed.

I make sure this happens for me by setting a reminder.

Set a Reminder

I make sure to set a reminder on my phone so that I start taking photos after I wake up in the morning.

I send out two e-mail reminders to the challenge players, one on the 8th, and one on the 10th so they can get ready.

You can sign up below to receive those reminders. The first one goes out tomorrow!

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Take Lots of Photos

This may seem crazy, but I usually take way more than 10 photos during the day of the challenge. I make a conscious effort to stop and notice things and take photos of whatever catches my eye. I especially do this in the moments when I am actively doing something: out running an errand, or working on a craft project, or cooking for example, so that if later on I suddenly realise I’ve spent two hours at my desk and no photos were taken, I still have a stock that I can pull from to post.

Choose a Theme

I tend to post photos of what’s happening in my life on that particular day, because it gives me a great snapshot of our life at that moment. But another approach if you don’t want to do this is to choose a theme for the day. For example: photos of flowers, your favourite books, or anything that you’re passionate about at the moment.

So what do you think? Are you up to the challenge? it’s really fun, and even if you don’t make it to 10, I promise you’ll still have a blast challenging your self.

Sign up below to get the monthly reminders!

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Looking forward to seeing you on Instagram on the 10th! Remember to use the challenge hashtag #Tenonthe10th when posting your photos.

 

 

 

P.S. Know anyone who would enjoy this challenge? Tweet it out or use one of the share buttons below.