Day 290; Rule of Thirds

I've taken lots of photos of this old shed over the years, but each one turns out a little different. This one I cropped to a wider, shorter size to empathize the lines of the ground and the fence. I also made this particular shot unique through editing. I wanted a different look, so I used a faded black and white filter to give an older, more artsy feel. If you're not a photographer, you probably don't know what the title of this post means. The rule of thirds is a basic rule of thumb for composition. I won't explain it here, but there are lots of articles online if you want to know more.

Day 273; Black and White Branches

This is another photo from the creek yesterday. These branches (part of a beaver dam?) looked coolest in black and white, which showed off the lighting and lines. I also liked the contrast of the angular branches with the soft ripples in the water.

Day 272; Creek Crop

Today I took my little brothers on an expedition to a creek near our house. I needed a couple buckets full of sand for a project and it was a good excuse to go play in the sand and get some photos. This one had some great colors and textures present though it didn't turn out as well defined as I would have liked. I cropped it to a more unique aspect ratio which was less busy than the original 8x10. Also, this photo looks a lot better if you click on it to see it in a larger size.

Day 270; Color on Campus

Yesterday I was in Chicago visiting the University of Chicago campus. I can't beleive I'll be heading off to college in just a couple years! UChicago is beautiful, and I could definitely see myself going there. This path was through one of the many little parks on campus and was quite charming. I didn't do much editing since I loved the warm fall colors already present.

Day 252; Clover Blooms

It feels good to finally be home again. I've been working to teach my brothers about photography and get their photos taken for the county fair. So far they've been doing really well, but since they were using my camera all day I didn't have too much time to take photos myself. I did get a few, one of which was this shot of a red clover. Hope everyone has a great 4th of July weekend!

Day 251; Fences and Foals

I just got back this afternoon from the 4-H vet science camp. It was so much fun, even though it rained practically every day. Thankfully it was nice when we toured the dairy farm, vet med school, and horse barns at Iowa State University. These foals were one of my favorite parts of the tour. They would come right up to the fence for the kids to pet.

"A horse is the projection of peoples' dreams about themselves - strong, powerful, beautiful - and it has the capability of giving us escape from our mundane existence." ~Pam Brown

Day 246; Noah and Thalia

I love my brother Noah and my horse Thalia, and especially like watching them together. Today's photo is simply a snapshot taken while Noah was walking Thalia around this afternoon.

Day 241; On the Grass

This photo was actually taken a couple weeks ago. Tomorrow morning I'm leaving for a State 4-H Council retreat and won't be back until late on Friday. I'm going to miss both Elijah and Noah and the rest of my family so I wanted to bring out this cute shot before I left. It was actually Elijah's idea to make it look like he was giving Noah a monkey-back ride, but getting Noah to cooperate was difficult. I did love how it turned out though, especially with the texture of the grass in the background.

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 229; Sherman (Again)

It's been a while since you guys saw any pictures of our puppies. Actually, since the last photo (here) we've sold Sherman's brother and sister. But Sherman has stuck around. Today while I was out trying to take photos of flowers, Sherman kept vying for attention. He especially likes belly rubs, which is what I was doing when I snapped this shot. The sky has been really overcast all the time lately, so the original out of camera shot was rather dull. To fix this while editing, I increased the saturation in the grass and lightened the exposure so details in Sherman's dark coat could be seen.

Day 173

This is a shot I took of the path that leads from our rabbit barn to Joy's bee yard. I kneeled in the snow to get this angle so the grass and weeds would look taller and fill more of the frame. In contrast to some of the previous posts, I wanted a little color in this photo, so instead of black and white I opted for the Dusk effect.

Day 155

We got the first snow of the season yesterday, and this morning we had a big frost. I got one of my brothers to pose for me to take advantage of the morning light. The light is a little harsh on the side of his face nearest the sun, but I love dramatic light on his face. To downplay the highlights a little I added slight dark edges. (click photo to enlarge)

Day 150

Today was really productive for once. I got a lot of work done, but not much of it was photography related. So even though it was quickly darkening at 5pm, I ran outside to get a couple shots of some grass. None of them turned out fantastically, but I thought the interest provided by the blurry pieces in the foreground and all the lines was enough to warrant a post today. To edit, I added a little bit of graininess to help with a more artistic and interesting image. I also did a focal black and white effect off to the side, so that it graduated from black and white to the original colors.

Day 148

Even though I'm not going as the Wicked Witch of the West for Halloween this year and am not likely to melt in the rain, I cowered in the doorway so as not to get wet while taking this photo. The day started extremely foggy, and proceeded to rain continuously all day. I was not in the mood for being wet, so for today's photo my subjects were limited to what was inside and what was within reach just outside the door. This little patch of dead grass, mud, and now, water became my newest addition to the blog. To edit, I added a little boost to the color to draw out the yellows of the grass and the blues in the water, and then added dark edges to enhance the shadows the grass and mud create.

Day 144

This photo was taken in the late afternoon in my Grandpa's yard. I loved the colors the setting sun was lighting up, and took a lot of photos. Unfortunately, the majority of the images did not turn out. In this photo, I liked the bright fall colors and dramatic aspect the angle of the sun provides.

Day 129

This morning my little brother Elijah was outside playing while the other kids were feeding our animals. I was photographing this field where my grandpa had mown down some foxtails when Elijah ran up. I decided to stage an impromptu portrait shot using the dead grass as our backdrop.  To edit I added a slight Dusk effect to give some warmth to the colors, and then added a softened effect to the background to decrease attention to the details of the grass and make his face stand out more. I then rounded the corners because the oval shape helped make the textured grass background less overwhelming.

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 114

Today's photo I took while lying on the ground looking down our lane. I wanted to get the texture and shapes of the rocks, and the lines drawing your eye back into the photo down the lane. I applied a slight Dusk effect to give it more warmth of color.

Day 103

I love this photo. I took it on Saturday when I took my little brother Noah down to the pig pen. On the way back he noticed a bird perched in a tree, and that is what he was looking at and smiling about. Thankfully I had my camera with me, so I snapped a few shots of him before he noticed. Since he's so short it looks like he's in a jungle, and I wish that one piece of grass in front of his face was not there. But other than that, I think it turned out well. I used the Dusk effect from picmonkey.com.

I also wanted to let you know that I won't be posting again for a while, since I'm leaving tomorrow morning for a youth conference.

Day 97

This morning I was on my way to check the pigs' water and just happened to have my camera with me. My brother, sister, and I have worn down a path through the grass to the pig pen, and this morning I decided it would make a cool photo. To take the photo I squatted down so that the grass which is usually about at my hips was now over my head. I added the Dusk effect, but faded it considerably to get the mood I wanted in the photo.