Welcome to our monthly photo shoot planning guide where we share themes, special dates and suggested tags to help guide you in creating and preparing your stock images for submission to Noun Project.
April is a month replete with themes of rejuvenation and celebration, as it heralds the full bloom of spring. April brings us a myriad of holidays and observances that reflect this spirit of renewal and joy that offer up many opportunities to create stock photos for submission to Noun Project. In April, we honor our the health of planet by observing Earth Month. Two major religious holidays fall in April: Easter and Passover. National Cannabis Awareness Month falls in April, aimed at increasing awareness around the cannabis plant.
Use these themes as suggestions and expand with your ideas on what types of photos best say “April!” and let these amazing images from Noun Project help inspire creative direction in your photo sessions.
Table of Contents
Earth Month
April is Earth Month, with the annual celebration of Earth Day celebrated on April 22. These observances promote environmental protection, conservation, and sustainability. Since its inception in 1970, Earth Day is now a global holiday, with events and activities held in countries all around the world. The goal of Earth Day and Earth Month is to raise awareness about environmental issues, inspire people to take action to protect the planet, and to live more sustainably in their daily lives.
Creating stock photos of people participating beach cleanups, planting trees and gardening, and riding their bikes to work are good examples of scenarios in which you can create stock photos in the theme of Earth Day.
Stock photos of flat lays and still life concepts around sustainability and eco-friendly products are a great way to communicate April’s Earth celebrations. Images without people are a great way to create photos that don’t require models or releases.
Photo of basket and photo of eco products by Alina Kho
Photo of beach clean up and photo of bike commuter by Jacob Lund Photography
Suggested tags: Earth day, Earth month, conservation, eco, climate change, sustainability
Passover and Easter
Passover and Easter are two major holidays respectively celebrated around the world by Christians and Jewish people.
Passover is a significant Jewish holiday that commemorates the ancient Israelites’ liberation from slavery in Egypt which begins on April 22nd in 2024. The holiday is marked by the Seder, a festive meal that includes the reading of the Haggadah, which recounts the Exodus story, and the eating of symbolic foods such as matzo (unleavened bread). Passover is a time of family gatherings, special meals, and heightened religious observance, focusing on themes of freedom, redemption, and gratitude.
While Easter is a religious observance, many people secularly celebrate the holiday as a welcome gateway to spring. Painting and hunting for Easter eggs and enjoying a springtime meal are traditions that many people partake in during the time of Easter. These traditions make for great subjects to photograph for stock photos.
Setting up your family or friends for an early egg painting day in February is a fun way to create images for April. And, while you have your gathering, optimize your shoot by photographing traditional Passover and Easter foods or other meals inspired by spring. Make sure to get the proper model and/or property releases when photographing people for stock photos.
In images without people, you can also set up flat lays with eggs, flowers, chocolate bunnies and holiday-inspired foods for a fun direction to make stock photos to submit to Noun Project.
Photo by Diliara Garifullina // Photo by Anna Ivanova
Photo of chick and photo of bunny by the Zamurovic Brothers
Suggested tags: spring, springtime, Passover, Seder, Easter, easter eggs, bunny, spring flowers, Passover, Seder
Cannabis
For thousands of years, cannabis has been used for a variety of purposes, including as a source of fiber, food, drink and for its psychoactive and medicinal properties. Cannabis Awareness Month is a time to recognize and celebrate the many ways that this plant has benefited people’s lives and to increase understanding and acceptance.
Cannabis can be photographed for stock photos as a plant in its original form or as the dried flowers or buds. Cannabis beauty products, such as salves and ointments, can be photographed in a beautiful still life with other natural items such as dried flowers.
Photo of salve and crystals and photo of salve and herbs by Heather Bejar
Photo of woman and photo of plant by Lana Ferovic
Suggested tags: cannabis, cannabinoids, medical cannabis, marijuana
More inspiration
Other significant themes, dates and observances to inspire your photos for April are Jazz Appreciation Month, Celebrate Diversity Month; Autism Awareness Month; National Wildlife Week the first week in April; National Library Week falls on the second week in April; April Fool’s Day on April 1st; April 3rd is Find a Rainbow Day; Siblings Day on April 10th, International Day of Human Flight on April 11th, and the favorite day of everyone in the US: Tax Day on April 15th.
Interested in joining our community of photographers and contributing to Noun Project? Submit your photos and explore our guide to creating authentic, inclusive images.
Click here to download FREE photo shoot production document templates.
Plan your photo shoots out for the year with our free monthly photo shoot guide.
For more photography tips, check out our blog.
Sign up for our photo newsletter to make sure you never miss out on our photography content.
