Aug 6, 2015 / Photo Challenges

Photos We Loved: Responses to “Off-Season”

A few of our favorite responses to the recent challenge, “Off-Season.”

Leisure Skating. Photo by <a href="http://japancanmix.com/2015/06/15/winter-in-the-summer-off-season-photos/">Hilary</a>

New here? Welcome! The Daily Post runs a photo challenge with a new theme each week. A new challenge drops every Friday at noon, Eastern time.

At The Daily Post, we look forward to Fridays for one big reason: the weekly photo challenge! Each week, we ask you to interpret a theme and your beautiful images never fail to surprise and delight us. We thought it was about time we shared the images that moved us, that made us think, that captured our imagination. Here’s a handful of my favorite responses to a photo challenge I recently hosted with the theme, “Off-Season.”

All photos featured copyright their respective authors.

I love this photo by Jeanette at Emmieverlasting. You’re looking upward through a basketball hoop at an abandoned schoolyard in Norway. The circular hoop and sharp focus on the dried, flaking paint made me look closer, and made me think deeper about what “Off-Season” can mean. This photo is part of a gallery of photos in response to the theme.

Photo by Jeanette

Photo by Jeanette.

If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, you might not look at a surfboard on a beach and think, “Off-Season.” In the Southern Hemisphere — where winter is in full-swing — Alexandra Kleinichen‘s photo of a deserted beach and lonely surfboard make for a great response to the challenge.

Winter in Sydney, Australia -- empty beaches in the morning. Photo by Alexandra Kleinichen

Winter in Sydney, Australia — empty beaches in the morning. Photo by Alexandra Kleinichen.

This photo is by the blogger behind The Farmers In The Dell. The bright red abandoned truck — vivid with snow cover against the red barn — brings not only winter to mind, but also years upon years of off-seasons come and gone. The truck’s elderly vintage, the weathered barn, and the stark red-against-white contrast all lend a certain wistfulness and a palpable sense of loss to the theme.

As a Canadian, there is nothing more sad than a deserted outdoor ice skating rink in the summer. In fact, the black and white image lends a ghostly, ethereal feeling to the theme. I look at Hilary‘s photo at Japan (Can)ada Mix and I can smell the hot chocolate. I can feel my toes freezing, I can see my breath rise into the air. I can hear the clink and scrape of metal on ice as I speed across the rink.

Leisure Skating. Photo by Hilary

Leisure Skating. Photo by Hilary.

Looking for photographic inspiration? Be sure to check out and participate in our weekly photo challenge every Friday at noon, Eastern time.

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  2. I love the photo of the skating rink. We have a big outdoor skating park and in the summer part of it is used for playing softball 🙂

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  4. 🙂 Congratulations to those featured here!
    And congratulations to all the others who joined the WPC and enjoyed submitting their personally selected “off-season” picture (s) 😀

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  10. I’m loving this! Awesome image of the kayak in Australia and the red barn/red truck; great image of the basketball hoop and the skating site; really cool, imaginative and beautiful

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  11. Great photographs. I really enjoyed the theme off season as I was in Lapland during the summer there were plenty of opportunities to explore this theme.

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  12. Great selection of photos they certainly provide the inspiration for even more interpretation of this theme!

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  15. Nice selection. This is a great idea to cross feature various blogs. Keep it up and perhaps Tag the posts with the tag “Posts We Loved” or add one as “Photos We Loved”

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