Day 304; Cobweb in the Fog

When I went out in the fog yesterday I also took this shot, but I knew I wanted some time to edit it. I really liked the composition of having the dewy spiderweb in the foreground, and the foggy woods in the background. To edit, I tried to tone down the colors of the dead leaves and branches on the forest floor, and smooth out the background so it wasn't quite so grainy.

Day 299; Luminescent Lily

Today, another in the series of photos from last June which I've editied recently. I didn't post this one back in June because I didn't like the blades of grass in front of the subjects, but when I cropped it down and adjusted tones and shadows they weren't as distracting and I thought they framed the focal point nicely. To edit, I brightened the whites and yellows of the flower while darkening the blues and greens of the bacground. I used a dark vignette to draw the eye in toward the flower. If I could change anything, I would have the lily pads be slightly less in focus to really set the flower apart.
(Also, I know what the word luminescent means and that this is not a correct usage of the term, but alliteration in titles is something I'm continually drawn to.)

Day 297; February Ferns

I wish someone had told me how busy senior year would be. The days are flying by - my future is rapidly approaching. I find myself missing last summer when I was working at summer camp and showing at the fair. This winter has been bleak. We've only gotten one or two goods snows, so I haven't been out photographing much. This photo was taken last June at the Iowa State 4-H Conference. While looking through old Conference photos recently, I found this image and decided to edit it. I liked how the sun highlighted the stems and edges and the many lines present. While the original vibrant green colors were a welcome break from the brown world outside my window, I preferred a black and white filter because it drew attention to the intricate structure of the plants and the contrasting light and shadow.

Day 296; Art and Absence

It's been a while. I feel slightly guilty that I've left the blog for so long, but I wasn't sitting idle all this time. Summer is an incredibly busy time for me, and I had to prioritize my time. In fact, my life won't be slowing down much this fall either, so posts will be sporadic.

Today's photo is of a rose I made from an old book for a project at my county fair this year. I was thrilled with how the arrangement turned out and plan to try making more again in the future. The text and the rounded shape of the petals add some interesting lines and shapes to the photo. When composing the shot, I wanted the eye to be drawn first toward the center of the flower and then radiate out to examine the petals. This was a really old book, so the pages were really yellow. I wanted the focus to be more on the lines and depth than on the color, so I used a faded black and white effect so there was still a touch of warmth.

Day 295; Black, White, and Backlight

Today's post is a close up of one of my scarves. This one was hanging on the end of my bed and I happened to notice the way the window behind the scarf was providing a really nice backlight. Originally I loved the teal color of the scarf and the way the lighting interacted with it, but in the end I wanted the focus on the lines and contrast so I opted for a black and white effect.

Day 292; Through the Pine

The past few weeks have been really busy around here. In fact, this time next week I'll be in Washington, D.C. on a 4-H trip. Today's photo was taken a couple of days ago when I was out checking on our pigs. It was relatively early in the morning, so the lighting behind this little pine tree was very pretty and soft. I cropped the photo so the branches would form more of a window, but that's the only editing I did. I really liked the colors in the tree and grass, and how clearly outlined the branches were with the backlighting.

Day 289; Lines and Vines

These honeysuckle vines are growing up along the side of my house. Even though it's starting to feel like spring, these vines are still bare except for a few dead leaves left over from last fall. The sunset provided good lighting and when paired with the curving, unpredictable lines of the vines made for a very interesting photo. I used black and white to highlight these traits.

Day 276; Time Flies

It's been a very long time since my last post and I am incredibly sorry. A lot of things have been going on and I simply have not gotten around to it. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season, because I know I sure did. This weekend it's been relatively warm, which has been great. It's made me wish summer were back though, so I dug out this old photo from the summer of 2012. My little brother Noah is holding a baby rabbit and was pretty happy about it. I didn't do too much editing to this back then, except for a scratch on his right eyebrow which I had decided to airbrush out. Now, it looks clumsy and kind of obvious, but back then I didn't know any better. I do love the natural lighting going on here.

Day 268; Elijah's Eyes

This photo is fairly simple. It's a portrait of my brother Elijah. It turned out pretty interesting, as it focused on his nose and left his eyes out of focus. I liked the black and white to draw the attention to the lighting pattern and smaller details.

Day 257; Palm Flowers

Today's photo is pretty simple. I put some little white flowers in my hand and snapped some macros. I liked the lines and detail of the hand as the background and the interest and pop of color from the flowers. I didn't really edit it much, only adding a thin black border to set off the softer sides.

Day 255; Three Seasons of Leaves

Today there are three photos, or rather, three versions of the same photo. The first is the original out of camera shot. I liked the lighting and details, but felt it needed a little something more. Second is a black and white edit which I really liked because it drew attention to the veins in the leaf and the lighting patterns. It also gave a classic look to the image. This second edit is probably my favorite. The third image is mostly just for fun. I took the black and white image and applied a galaxy texture from picmonkey.com to the whole photo except for the one leaf in the foreground. This gave a very unique look to the photo which I really liked.

Day 254; Looking Through the Fence

"There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something." ~J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit 

I've looked at a lot of things in my life, and will continue to look at many more. But me looking at something is always different than someone next to me looking at the same thing because we're going to perceive it differently. Today's photo is of a bridge I have seen thousands of times, but this time taken through a chain link fence. I messed around with some different angles and depths of field, but liked how this turned out with the bridge in focus and the fence blurred. When editing I wanted a very dramatic look, so I applied black and white and softened all the areas except inside of one of the links in the fence.

Day 253; Macro Clover

You are probably wondering where I've been. It's been almost two months since I've posted, but I do have pretty good reasons. In July was my county fair, then I had a couple weeks to get all my projects for the Iowa State Fair, then I had one day off before my first day of school. I've been in school for a week or so now. I wanted to get a feel for how busy I was going to be before I got back to the blog. I'm pretty sure I should have time to post again now. But enough about me and my excuses. Today's photo was not the brilliant comeback photo I had wanted. Since my last photo was of a red clover, I thought it would be nice to come back with a different take on the same kind of flower.

Day 235; Forest Park

My whole family is on a bit of a vacation in Saint Louis for my brother's birthday. Tomorrow we'll be going to the zoo, but today we had a picnic lunch and visited the art museum. Today's photo was taken in Forest Park when we stopped to eat before going to the museum. I thought it was neat that you could see the skyline behind the trees. I took other photos from angles I liked better, but unfortunately they didn't turn out. I did like the colors and lines in this shot.

Day 225; April Showers

We've been getting quite a few 'April showers' here recently, but I don't mind because it's finally getting green outside and flowers are beginning to bloom. My mom's daffodils have been blooming for a few days now, but I hadn't had a chance to shoot them until this afternoon. My shoot was also cut short so I could pack for the trip to Kansas I'm leaving for tomorrow afternoon. I did manage to get this quick shot, which I liked for the angle and color.

Day 218; Colorful Beads

Since I had a black and white photo yesterday I wanted to take a really colorful one today. I dug into my old beads and pulled out some different sizes, colors, and patterns. When editing I mostly wanted to emphasize the coloration, so I adjusted the saturation and contrast as well as applying dark edges.

Day 216; Down the Elevator

I didn't have all that much time to shoot today as I was preparing for some interviews I have tomorrow in Ames in addition to my regular school work. I did find time to edit this shot of an elevator which has been sitting out in the hay field for forever. Some of you may recognise it from a photo I posted last year (Day 20). I think This rendition is better, with a more focused angle and better lighting. To enhance the colors already present I applied a slight Dusk effect.

Day 213; Up the Cedar Tree

For this photo I wanted to emphasize the peeling texture of the bark on this cedar tree. I put my camera right up next to the tree and angled it up so you could see the trunk carrying up toward the sky. I also liked how this angle gave some different depths of field - closest to the camera which is out of focus, the middle ground which is in focus, and then farther out which is again out of focus. This angle showed the undersides of some of the pieces of bark as being quite orange, and each patch of color stuck out. To reduce this distraction, I applied a faded Holga effect to give a washed out look while still retaining some of the original color and depth.

Day 184

Since we recently got internet at home, I've been staying at home a lot more. There's a whole other world of subjects here as opposed to my father's office, where I normally shoot. Today's photo is a macro of the inside of a cardboard egg carton. While cracking eggs for my mom today I noticed the unique texture and shapes present in each carton. I used an angle when taking this shot so there would be an impression of repeating shapes going all the way out to the edge of the photo. The front bump I actually got in clear focus, but the grainy look of the carton made it difficult to tell between focused and not.

Day 179

My mom recently bought a tub of ball point pens and someone opened them on the wrong side so they were upside down. The springs in the tips of the pens could be seen through the clear tips, and I thought they looked really cool. I took a few pictures, but wasn't crazy about all the colors going on, so I made it black and white. I thought there were some nice shadows and highlights once I had edited it, but I do wish the background wasn't so grainy.