Smile…it’s National Photography Month!

Photography makes us smile all year round — but for the occasion, we’ve collected 10 fun photography project ideas for exploring, teaching, and celebrating photography with Haiku Deck.

1. Do a Photography Scavenger Hunt

Hunt for, and photograph, a list of geometric shapes, colors, numbers, or textures. Snap photographs of things that start with a certain letter or rhyme with a word. Use Haiku Deck to share your photos and compare your discoveries!


Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

2. Illustrate a Process

Take photographs to capture and share how to make something, do something, or carry out an experiment, step by step. Here’s a Haiku Deck that demonstrates how to make ice cream in a plastic bag!


Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

Here’s one that documents the experience of planting a school garden:


Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

3. Capture a Place

Take photographs of your classroom, house, back yard, neighborhood, or community. Experiment with different perspectives, angles, and zoom levels.

You can take inspiration from Sue Vaughton, who creates gorgeous Haiku Decks to showcase vacation rental properties. I particularly love how she combines specific details with surrounding scenery to make a place truly come to life.

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

4. Take a Virtual Trip

You can also use photographs to take a virtual trip to a place you’ve never visited. Look for interesting details that tell the story of the place and make it feel like you are there.

Here’s my virtual Haiku Deck voyage to Mt. Everest:


Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

5.  Learn about a Topic Through Photographs

You can use this same method to learn about an animal, a famous person, a historical event, etc.

Here’s a short, sweet Haiku Deck of hummingbird photos and facts created by 1st and 2nd graders:

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

6. Take Portraits

Take photographs to capture the personality of classmates, family members, team members, or friends and turn them into a Haiku Deck photo album. You can add captions for names, nicknames, favorite foods, job titles, dream jobs, mottos, etc.

Here’s a fun Haiku Deck that introduces our team!


Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

7. Create a Portfolio

Creating a portfolio is a fun way to showcase artwork of all types. Students can photograph their own drawings, sculptures, dioramas, and other projects. Another variation is to display art contest entries or winners, as in this art-filled Haiku Deck:


‘Animals In Art’ Competition Winners! – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

You can also create a photography portfolio, like this one:


Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

8. Study the Elements of Photography

Use the Haiku Deck image search to explore how photographs can convey mood, texture, light, and shape. Try collecting photographs that illustrate these concepts — here’s some great inspiration to get you started.


Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

9. Explore Perspective

You can also learn about composition and perspective by examining — or taking — photographs, as in this Haiku Deck:


Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

10. Teach Digital Citizenship

Collect favorite photographs using the Haiku Deck image search, then explore the photo credits from Play mode. Haiku Deck incorporates photo credits and Creative Commons license details automatically, but you could have students add photo credits to their slides to reinforce the idea of giving credit where it’s due.

Photography Project Ideas: Creative Commons image credits in Haiku Deck

Tap the CC logo from Play mode to view image credit info

Photography Project Ideas: Creative Commons image credit in Haiku Deck

Sample Creative Commons image credit

Photography Project Ideas: More Resources

Your Turn

Share your photography project ideas for a chance to win fun Haiku Deck prizes!