In this challenge, I want you to photograph the place where you work. That may be your office or studio, the garden, the kitchen, out in nature, on a building site… take us there!

But here’s the challenge: I want you to photograph your workspace as though you had just - only seconds ago - stepped away.

Maybe there is a cup of tea in your favourite mug, still steaming beside your open computer where a document is visible, half-typed, on the screen. Maybe there are broken egg-shells, spilled flour, and orange rind on the kitchen bench. Maybe your paints and brushes are open on your table, next to a partially-started work.

A little bit of mess is perfectly OK, because it suggests a real person is working in this space (this is not an interiors photoshoot for Vogue Living).

Photograph your workspace, five different ways.

Maybe you want to go close-up and focus on some of the tools of your trade. Maybe you want to pull back, and show your desk, and a glimpse of the view from the window, or a stack of books on your shelf.

Try different angles, look at different things in the room (is there a cat sleeping on a chair beside you? A dog under the desk?) Look all the way around your workspace: what else helps to capture a little of what you do and where you work? Jars on the pantry shelf? An old watering can beside the veggie patch? Stacks of notepaper with your ideas jotted down on them?

Keep going and experimenting until you have at least five that you like - do more if you’re inspired and on a roll!

In this next challenge, you are going to include a little bit of yourself, physically. I want you to photograph yourself doing the thing(s) that you do… but only hint at it.

Show us your hands writing, typing, painting or whittling. Show us you in your garden, forest, building site or office, but half-hidden behind flowers, trees, brick walls or desks. Do you know what I mean?

We want to see part of a human body in these photographs, doing what you do, but these are not “portraits” - they’re moments. Moments in time, with you at work.

If you have someone close to you who can take these shots, that will make things a lot easier. However, you can 100% do them on your own. (I’m too embarrassed to have other people take my photographs, so I prefer to do them all alone).

You’ll need to set up your camera or phone somewhere stable - use a tripod if you have one, or prop up your phone or camera with some books, blu-tac, masking tape, etc. Use the tips in the lesson on Self Portraits if you need some help.

Put your camera on a timer, then race into the shot and just begin doing your thing: stir the pot of spaghetti, paint the flower, type the words of inspiration, teach the class, peer into the microscope, hold up your handwritten notes.

Photograph snippets of you working, five different ways

It shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with five different elements of what you do. Most of us are in creative fields but even if you’re not, there’s still more to what you do than you might think. An accountant could photograph herself at the computer, typing numbers into a calculator, sipping tea on a break, jotting down notes, and reading through a ledger.

Keep going and experimenting until you have at least five that you like - do more if you’re inspired and on a roll!

We’ve been working up to this! Now, you need to get in front of the camera. Use all the ideas and guidelines in the lesson on Self Portraits if you’re feeling nervous or awkward, but I believe in you. You can do this!

The previous lesson was all about going in close, showing snippets of the work you do. Now we need the camera to take a few steps back, and show that it’s you doing the thing.

You’re mixing the cake, setting the table, typing the masterpiece, guiding the tour, recording the music, painting the artwork, sculpting the bowl, harvesting the herbs, taking the photographs, sewing the dress, laying out the website…

… it’s you, in the place where you’re most comfortable, doing the thing you love to do.

My friend Kristen Allan (@kristenallancheese on Instagram) loves cheese-making so much that she likes to dance while she’s working, and shares little videos of her dancing self on Instagram among the cheeses.

Her joy is infectious, and people who want to learn how to make cheese want to learn from Kristen, rather than other cheese-makers, as much for her joy as for her expertise.

Photograph yourself doing your thing, five different ways

Set up the camera (or friend), and have some fun doing the thing that you love doing. Let your passion and joy for what you do shine through.

You might want to do five different things for your photographs, or you might want to do the same thing from different angles, in different locations, in different ways. That’s up to you.

Keep going and experimenting until you have at least five that you like - do more if you’re inspired and on a roll!