The 5-Minute Photography Battle You Need to Try

A little bit of competition can be a healthy thing for photographers and a great way to get the creative juices flowing. Are you ready to try this five-minute photography battle?

I think many of us have had moments in our careers where we have lacked inspiration or drive when it came to our photography. Sometimes, all it can take to get out of a rut is a jolt to the system by doing something a little different. One possible way of shaking things up a bit is to try a photography battle with a fellow photographer. The premise is simple: give yourself just five minutes to make the best images you can in a location of your choosing. All that's left to do after that is to compare your results to see how you both did. For those competitive types, you could then head over to social media with your fresh captures to see whose pictures were most popular and declare a winner. This is exactly what photographer Samuel Bassett of OpticalWander did with his friend Ocsar, who is better known as The Visual Life on YouTube.

In this battle, the streets of London were used as the backdrop for the competition, where we see both participants using every second they had to squeeze in as many camera-worthy moments as they could. While this probably isn't the first photography battle video you've ever seen, the fact both photographers strap point-of-view cameras to themselves is a nice touch, as it allows us to see the creative process happening in real-time. Both shooters captured a variety of interesting images covering everything from people, buildings, still life, and vehicles in the five-minute timeframe they gave themselves.

For those who do not partake in street photography, I still think this challenge is worth trying with whatever genre of photography you do. Exercises like this are a great way for you to step out of your comfort zone and not think too hard about what you're doing. I think you may be surprised with what you come up with when you set yourself such difficult restraints and compete with others. It may just be the jolt you need to get the creative juices flowing.

What did you make of the five-minute photography battle? Would you have approached things in a similar way? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.