Day 138

It's been rainy, chilly, and dreary around here recently. And I've been busy with 4-H and school. So today I'm posting a photo that I actually took labor day weekend that will hopefully brighten up both this blog and your day. This is the back of the sunflower featured in the post Day 123. I love the bright colors here.

Day 137

Today's set up is very similar to yesterday's, the only real change is the subject. This is a piece of modelling clay that I formed into a round disk and then pushed against a fireproof safe that had this cool squiggly line pattern. I really liked the contrast of the random, round lines in the clay and the straight lines in the book's cover I used as the background. Editing also was much the same, a slight Orton effect and then black and white.

Day 136

This photo was a quick set up with 7 or 8 quarters on a book on a desk by a window. I wanted to create a really dramatic lighting that really showed the detail and lines on a quarter. I love how prominent the line is on the forehead, nose, and lips of the front quarter is, as it really sets the head off from the rest of the quarter. I also like how there's bright white on the right of the frame and then really really dark shadows on the left. To edit, I first made the photo black and white, then added slight Orton and Lomo effects to help give the shadows a deeper, darker, and smoother look.

Day 135

I found my dad's old softball glove and thought it would make a good subject for today's post. There were so many interesting areas to photograph, with a bunch of different textures and looks. To give this photo an older look, I applied a slight Dusk effect and then a faded sepia to decrease some of the shine and bright colors my lighting gave it.

Day 134

This is a close up/macro of one of my dad's neck ties. I noticed the interesting pattern and that it would be a good photo subject. I love how the pattern of cubes gives an illusion of depth. To edit I applied a very slight orton effect to pull out some of the blacks and make the blues and yellows pop. I also adding dark edges to help enhance the detail in the stiches.

Day 133

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, I had a doctor appointment in the morning and then was not feeling up to doing anything after that. This photo is a package of thumb tacks that came on a piece of cardboard. I loved how they were all lined up in rows. I thought it would be interesting to get an angle that showed some of the lines and angles and played with the size of the tacks as they got further away. I made the photo black and white because the tacks were a really ugly gold color and I really wanted the color not to be the focus.

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 131

This morning I took some macros of a leaf, trying to get some interesting lines and angles. The only thing I really don't like about this photo is the brown spot, as it really detracts from the appearance of the whole photo. To edit, I added very slight white edges to help pull out the highlights and not enhance the spot.

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 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 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 127

Today's photo is a portrait of two of my favorite subjects; my brother Noah and my horse Thalia. Noah was so cute because he would try to feed her out of his hand, but would drop the grass and run as soon as she moved her head up to eat it. In this shot I had finally convinced him that Thalia knew the difference between carrots and fingers.

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.