Photography Prompt: Dreamy

Week of 2025-05-24- to 2025-05-30

Aminus3 Photography

and

Jason Kravitz

May 24, 2025

The photography prompt this week is: Dreamy

Create and share photos inspired by this week's prompt on your Aminus3 website, Substack Notes, or linked in the comments on this post.

Substack community can tag

Aminus3 Photography

in your posts.

Those of you posting on the Aminus3 community, add tag: #am3-prompt-202522

Be Inspired and Learn Something New

I distinctly recall one August summer day when I was out photographing the full moon, that the concept of dreams and photography came together when my neighbor’s Lippizaner stallion casually strolled over to see what I was photographing.

It was this photo that made me think of the symbolic aspects of a photo almost like a dream report.

A moon rises over a white stallion on a warm summer day in an empty meadow.

Type that into any dream interpretation app, and it would be fertile ground for a full psychoanalysis.

It was this photo that led to my first presentation at an international conference about the intersection of dreams and photography, and it was this image that got me started on this path of photography prompts and everything else you see today.

As for the prompt this week, you might already have an idea when you think of “dreamy” photography. The word itself often dictates a style of image where things are slightly out of focus or blurry. Or maybe there are bright colors, or something that appears to be a tad more strange than reality itself.

For me personally, my dreams are often vivid and life like. Not fuzzy and foggy and fleeting. Though I do get those sometimes too and those kind of images do make for good photography.

And so the challenge this week is to consider for yourself what “Dreamy” means to you and then create some photos which bring it to life.

Don’t forget to share some with us here on Substack Notes or on Aminus3.com.

And by the way… did you ever wonder why our name is Aminus3? What does that even mean?

You might be surprised to learn that this came from a dream I had long ago where I was trying to figure out what the letter “A” minus the number “3” equals. There was a whole cast of strange characters including actor Owen Wilson and a full metal jacket style drill Sargent who told me, “Son, I cannot tell you what A minus 3 is, I can only tell you what A minus 3 is not!”

I woke from that dream and registered the domain, aminus3.com. Soon after I told the dream to my friend who had moved across the ocean and we were looking for a way to share our photography with each other.

All these years later, I’m still working the equation but I think we are getting closer to a solution. Till then, Aminus3 continues to be an active daily photography community inspiring joyful creators around the world.

Last Week’s Prompt Photos for “Renewal”

The “Renewal” prompt for last week was probably one of the more conceptual themes we’ve had to date. I was wondering how many people would give it a try, and I was happy to see a number of creative interpretations.

Nina S. Nazir

writes about the fleeting beauty of cherry blossoms which arrive anew each spring in a fanfare of alluring scents and colors.

One of the recurring themes was about the resiliency of nature which has the ability to renew and thrive despite harsh constraints and trauma.

These photos from

Alison Renee

of a region in California that was destroyed by wildfires were an excellent representation of this concept.

This Parisian scene by Mhelene of the Notre Dame Cathedral being rebuilt after a 2019 fire destroyed the historic steeple was an urban analogue of a similar phenomena.

Similar again, Sugata’s artistic slice of the New York City skyline features 1 WTC tower, built on the grounds of the former World Trade Center buildings that were destroyed in 2001.

one Picture one Story

posted this photo of melted snow and grass which remarkably resembles a human embryo.

Le Krop had an original idea to document the closing handshake of the sale of a second-hand television, giving new life and ownership to something old and unused.

Stephen in Australia shared this photo about how street art has rejuvenated a laneway at the Dickson shopping centre in Canberra.

From the Chicago area, in Waukegan, Illinois, Steven posts a photo of the recently renovated and re-opened historical museum on the grounds of the former Carnegie Library. This room is dedicated to science fiction author Ray Bradbury who spent many hours at the library in Waukegan as a child, feeding his imagination.

Be sure to check out all the photos shared on Aminus3 for last week’s Renewal prompt.

You can also find all of the Substack photos shared from the links below.

Aminus3 Essence of Photography

Photography Prompt: Dreamy

Week of 2025-05-24- to 2025-05-30

Be Inspired and Learn Something New

Last Week’s Prompt Photos for “Renewal”

Discussion about this post