Day 204; Kickball

Today's abstract is a close up of a kickball my brothers left laying around. The textured surface is probably supposed to help prevent the ball from slipping out of your hands, but today I was more interested in the pattern and lines it would provide in a photograph. The ball is a worn green color which I didn't really like, so I knew I wanted to use a black and white effect. I like Holga because it accentuated the lighting pattern I had achieved using natural light through a window.

Day 203; Doll With the Floral Dress

This doll was for the longest time tied for my favorite porcelain doll. I think it was mostly because she was plain enough that I could play with her comfortably without ruining her (although her hair has seen better days). For the past few years she's been sitting in a box with all the other dolls I outgrew. It's sad that I can't even remember her name anymore. For this photo I put her in a box of packing peanuts which you can see in the corner. I did a focal soften so it would fade into softer focus the farther out from her head you got. I also did a faded black and white to give a gentler light to her dress.

Day 202; Sherman the Puppy

I'm so sorry I haven't posted for so long - life distracted me. Since my last post I've turned 16 in addition to my regular obligations for school and 4-H. Not to mention we've still been sick. In any event, I haven't been posting and now I'm going to change that. Today's photo is of Sherman, one of the three puppies we're the proud owners of. This photo was actually taken a few days ago, and the puppies have all grown a lot since then. I used the Holga effect from picmonkey.com to give a more artistic look to this snapshot, mostly because I didn't care for the red color of the coat in the background. I didn't realize until I took this picture with a flash how shiny the puppies' coats are.

Day 201; Winter Forest

The massive accumulation of snow we've got here is finally starting to melt off, so much so that surrounding counties are under a flood watch. Out in the woods behind my house there was still quite a bit of snow yesterday afternoon when I was out photographing. I love the warm woody browns in all the trees. I enhanced this slightly with a Dusk effect from picmonkey.com, and finished it with vignetting around the edges.

Also, as you may have noticed, I've started a new naming system for my posts as of today, with the day number followed by a post specific title. We'll see how this goes.

Day 200

This afternoon when I was outside taking pictures the sun was starting to set and the light made the colors and details in this plant really stand out. I loved how the sunlight pouring through the leaves allowed you to see the veins. I added a thin black border to give a finished look and help make some of the details more pronounced.

Day 199

I was experimenting again with my de-shadow box, this time with a scarf and bracelet. I love the pattern and colors in this scarf. The bright, hard bracelet gives a nice contrast while adding a detailed subject. The only editing I did was to reduce the yellow hues in the bracelet and add a very subtle dark edge to make the light bracelet really pop.

Day 198

Happy Valentine's Day! I don't have a Valentine this year, but my mom planned a pretty awesome day by buying tickets to a concert. Unfortunately, we weren't able to go because of road conditions, but we still had a great time shopping. So instead of spending today with a boyfriend I spent it with my mom and (dramatic pause) our new puppies! That's right, we are now the proud owners of 3 adorable puppies. All three puppies are black with white spots on their tummies, so when they're nursing as shown in the photo you can't really see them. Their mother, Tonks, is a stray who showed up at our house a couple months ago. It soon became obvious that she was pregnant, and late Tuesday night she finally had her puppies. Most didn't make it because of the extreme cold we were facing, but these three did and I don't know how my parents are going to ever be able to convince us to sell or give them away. I used a slight Dusk effect to bring out some of the warmer hues of Tonks' coat.

Day 197

For Christmas I got a really awesome de-shadow box (can view here) from my parents, but I haven't really had a chance to use it. Until today. I used a lace dress of my sister's for the background to add some texture, and for the main subject used an angel my grandmother gave me a long time ago. I used one light on the left side to give directional and more dramatic lighting. The pinkish off white colors in the original photo weren't especially pleasing, so I used black and white with vignetting around the edges. My only issue with this photo was that my camera kept focusing on the dress in the background rather than the angel.

Day 196

This old barn isn't really used for anything anymore and is really falling apart, but it still looks pretty neat in photos with the unique topline. I don't like the mass of weeds cluttering up the right side of the frame, but there wasn't much I could do about that. I used the Holga effect to add an older feel.

Day 195

Today I'm going to keep it short and sweet - it's cold outside, I'm still pretty sick, and there's snow everywhere. This is a landscape of a field and the woods behind it. I liked the one tree that stood out and was taller than all the rest. I added the Holga effect because the blue snow and sky didn't look very nice with the brown weeds and trees.

Day 194

Sorry I haven't posted in the past couple days, but the whole family has been super sick. I finally seem to have started getting better, or at least I'm well enough to work on photography. I had my brother Elijah with me, and we went outside to get a few portraits. I'm not sure exactly what this pose is all about, but when I'm working with Elijah I usually just let him stand or sit however he wants to. In this case, he opted for a sort of squatting position with his arms folded across his body. Now, I'm not the biggest fan of the color red. But that's what color Elijah was wearing and I actually really liked it against the bright white snow. I added some vignetting around the edges to give a kind of ultra modern look to the portrait.

Day 193

We're in the midst of a snowstorm at the moment with snow falling from the sky in ridiculously large quantities. I braved these wintery conditions to see if I could get any good shots and the short answer is - no. With the snow falling between the lens and any subjects landscapes were blurry and indiscernible. The thick, even layer of snow covered up most potential macro shots. Finally I discovered this portion of a wooden fence sticking up out of the snow and I thought the pictures ended up looking pretty neat. I used a flash to reveal some of the detail of the already fallen snow, and it picked up on some of the flakes still in the sky which accounts for some of the round lights scattered across the photo. I knew I wanted the photo to be black and white because the flash had given a really yellow tint. I settled on a Holga effect from picmonkey.com because I liked how it really added to the dramatic aspect of the photo.

Day 192

Here in Iowa we get a lot of snow, ice, and cold nasty weather in general. On Friday we got 7 inches of snow, and are supposed to get 6 to 8 more tomorrow. Yay! The only upside to this dreary winter weather is how pretty everything looks covered in snow. The icicles on the buildings here in town are getting really big, and are the subject of today's post. To offset the vertical lines of the many icicles I angled the shot so a portion of this brick wall was also included, with the horizontal lines of the bricks providing a nice contrast. I added a slight dark edge to bring out some of the details in the icicles.