createIntermediate3-4 hours

Take a Photo Series Like a Working Photographer

Maps to: Photographer · Photo Editor · Art Director · Visual Storyteller · Photojournalist

You're going to write a short plan for a photo series (photographers call it a brief), take the photos on your phone, then do the part photographers say they're really paid for: cut the perfectly-fine photos that don't fit the brief and put the good ones in an order that tells a story. The real skill is the picking: deciding which photos, in which order, carry the idea, so a stranger can see the intent at a glance. That's what separates a photographer from someone who takes nice photos. You'll have turned a pile of photos into something that reads as one idea.

You're done when: An 8 to 12 photo series you put online, taken to a brief you wrote, where a stranger can see the one idea, and you can say why you kept each photo and why they're in that order. Choosing is the work: not 'I posted some nice photos,' but 'what I kept, and the order, carry the idea.'

How this shows up on a resume or college app

I shot an 8-12 image photo series to a creative brief and made the editorial selection myself, cutting technically-fine frames that didn't serve the concept and sequencing the rest to tell a story. I learned that the photographer's real skill isn't taking one nice photo, it's the selection: deciding which images, in which order, carry the idea.

When you finish, BuildMe drafts your Common App activity description from what you actually built.

Not sure yet? Play 5 minutes as a photographer first and see how the work feels.

The plan

1
Step 1
Chase the picture in your head
Start with the picture you already want to take: 'loneliness in a crowd,' 'one color, one street,' a real thing you want to photograph honestly, a photo everyone takes that you'd take your own way. Name it, then write the brief around it: what it is, the one rule you'll keep in every photo, and the feeling every photo has to carry. That brief decides every photo you keep. An AI chat is a good partner for talking it through, but the idea is yours.
2
Step 1-2
Take the photos on purpose
Go make the photos, on your phone, no fancy gear needed. Take more than you'll use, and take every one for a reason: every photo should be trying to say what the brief says. You're not snapping randomly, you're looking for the photos that say it.
3
Step 2-3
Pick the ones that carry the idea
This is the work, and there's no right answer here, it's your call. Pick the 8 to 12 that carry the one feeling you wrote down, and be ready to say why the rest did not make it. You will leave out perfectly good photos.
4
Step 3
Put them in an order that tells the story
Same set, different job: decide what order they go in. Choose which photo opens it and which one ends it on purpose, because the order is what turns 12 photos into one story.
5
Step 3-4
Small edit, then somewhere people can see them
Give every photo the same small edit so they all look like they belong together. That matters more than one heavily edited photo. Then put them all somewhere people can see them: an Instagram post, a free web page, or one document you can send. As you post, choose one last time which photo goes first.