Day 175

This weekend we had a brief meltdown before getting back to near zero degrees today. On Saturday morning I got this beautiful shot of the sunrise shining through these weeds in a field.

Day 142

This photo is of an old Allis-Chalmers tractor my grandfather owns. I loved how the paint had cracked and aged, and thought it would make a really cool photo. I also like the angle I used, as it draws the reader's eye back into the photo. To edit, I applied a very slight Orton effect to add some contrast between the paint and the orange background of the tractor as the colors were pretty faded with age. I also did a really faint light edge to enhance the white paint.

Day 141

 This photo was taken on Friday morning before I left for a rabbit show I attended this weekend. I wanted to capture some of the beautiful green and gold light the early morning sun was producing on this ragweed plant. I didn't notice it while taking the photo, but I really like the spiderweb built between the two leaves.

Day 132

This is a photo of the pages of a dictionary. This is an unabridged version, so it's really, really thick, and I was able to fill the entire frame with the pages. It's also pretty old, and the pages are starting to fray a little giving the photo more texture and breaking up some of the black lines. I really wanted to pull out the shadows, so I made the photo black and white then added very faded dark edges.

Day 130

This morning we had a light rain, the first we've had in quite a while actually. So I went out to take some photos of the raindrops on this milkweed leaf. I love the diamond, unreal look of the drops on the bright green of the leaf. To edit this photo, I added a softened look to the background. I also enhanced the shadows a bit to make the details pop a little more.

Day 128

This photo is a macro of a piece of tulle I had tied into a bow to give the overlapping and various distances from the camera. I placed the bow in front of a black notebook to get a solid backdrop. I then applied the black and white effect because in the original image the tulle is a very bright blue, and the light going through the tulle onto the backdrop made the whole photo blue.

Day 126

This photo is a macro of a leather armchair. Today while sitting in said chair I was struck by the tiny lines and wrinkles the leather was comprised of. So I wanted til this afternoon when the natural light coming through the nearby window was at an angle more parallel to the seat of the chair to produce the lighting pattern shown here. I love the bright white highlights mixed with the deep black shadows in the wrinkles and how there are all the tones in between. I only wish the foreground that is out of focus was slightly smaller so the in focus area was larger, but then again that may have been too busy. 

Day 125

This is a macro of a foxtail plant growing my yard this taken this morning. I love the golden and green color scheme, and the lines and focus on the plant. In the original image the entire head of the plant was showing, but I decided to crop it to give a more artistic and interesting look.

Day 124

When I was at my grandpa's house last Friday I noticed the beautiful backlighting the sun was throwing on the plants in this field. I especially loved this plant, as the sun hitting the bristles created a white halo effect that really set the plant off from the background. I also like the contrast of the bright white backlight and the shadows and warm light in the background. 

Day 123

This morning I'm posting this photo of the face of a immature sunflower that I took last Friday at my grandfather's house. I love the round lines and symmetry in this photo. I focused on the center of the flower, leaving the front of the photo out of focus to draw the eye into the image. I like the little specks of water, and especially like the dark shadows in the part of the flower nearest to the camera.

Day 122

This is probably one of the most dangerous photos I've ever taken. I was outside the other day when I noticed 15+ bumblebees on the ironweed plant in my yard. I grabbed my camera and attempted to get a good macro shot. Several times a bee would buzz in my ear while I was taking the shot, sending me running in the other direction and leaving many blurry photos. This was the most in focus shot I got, though I think the flowers in the lower left hand corner are actually more in focus than the bee. To edit this photo I applied a few layers of faded black and white effects in order to get different levels of fading on the bee and flowers and the background. I also added slight dark edges to enhance the dark colors of the ironweed flowers that had not yet blossomed and the bee's black body and legs.

Day 120

This morning I present a portrait of a hen my brothers hatched out earlier this summer. Actually, there's two sisters in this photo, the second being in the background. I love how it looks almost like the front hen is reflected in the background and out of focus but is in sharp focus in the foreground.  I thought the bright pinks of the combs and oranges of the beaks were pretty distracting, so I applied the black and white effect then added dark edges to make it look more like a portrait.

Day 119

I would first like to give a shout out to my sister Joy who made today's photo possible. I saw this beautiful, huge spiderweb and thought to myself, "I have to take a picture of that." Unfortunately, this spiderweb was in a window on the second story of our chicken barn. Joy had to lift me onto the roof and then come get me down after I had taken several shots. At first, none of the photos appeared to have turned out, and Joy was not happy because she had pushed me onto the roof for nothing. But today I had some spare time and was looking through the photos and edited this one. I applied the black and white effect so the strands of the web would stand out more. I wish I would have had the forethought to mist the web, because that would have made a much better photo.

Day 115

Since school is starting up again I thought that today I would post a photo of a familiar back-to-school item: spiral notebooks. For this photo I stacked several notebooks on top of one another then maneuvered them so that each ring was catching the overhead light. I used this angle so that the eye was drawn back into the photo, and also for the interesting depth of field with the subject becoming out of focus the farther into the photo you go. Since the notebooks were all different colors I opted to make the photo black and white so the focus was more on the lines and details of the photo than on the colors.

Day 111

This morning we got quite a bit of rain. I went out to get some early morning shots, and found myself continually drawn to my mom's tiger lillies. I loved the reflective quality of the water droplets and the bright orange color of the flower.

Day 110

I'm back! I'm so sorry I haven't posted, but what with the county fair and getting ready for the state fair I haven't gotten a chance. And I will be heading up to the state fair soon, so I won't be posting regularly. Today is a macro of the sweater I wore today. The sweater is hot pink and silver striped, but I felt that when it was in color all you saw was the bright pink color, and the detail of the knitting was lost. I love the little sparkly threads in the yarn, and how they catch and reflect the light randomly, especially in the background.

Day 96

I was at a day camp all day today, so I didn't get a chance to take any new pictures this morning. But as I was clearing off my memory stick after I got back I found this macro of an apple tree I took a couple weeks ago. I love how there is the detail and texture of the bark, and then the fuzzy, beautiful background of the other apple trees. I added dark edges to this photo, because I think it makes the photo more finished looking, and enhances the textural appeal of the bark.

Day 94

This morning my little brother and I were walking around looking at the clover that was blooming. I liked this photo because it's different in that the leaves and stem of the plant are in focus while the actual flower was slightly out of focus. I liked the photo as black and white because it makes it more artistic looking and almost abstract.

Day 91

Is anyone else fascinated by tree bark or is it just me? I've been taking a lot of macro photos of various trees recently.  I chose to post this one today because it was more interesting than the others because I took the photo from an angle to show the canopy of leaves and the trunk continuing out of the area of focus.

Day 78

This is another photo of the cottonwood tree in our yard. Or, more accurately, the leaves of said tree. I took this photo in the morning and the sun is rising behind the trees in the background. I love how you can see all the veins and lines of the leaf. I also liked this photo in black and white, as it added to the details and made the photo less busy by taking out the extra colors.