Day 227; Woven Straw Hat

 After getting back from Kansas it took me a while to get back in the normal swing of things. Today I broke out an old straw hat I used to wear. I loved the woven straw texture and the pattern of rings radiating out from the top of the hat. The hat is a pale pink color, but I really wanted to draw attention to the texture and lines in the photo by converting it to black and white.

Day 226; Stars and Stripes

We're in Kansas for the National Dutch Rabbit Show. The hotel we're staying at has an amazing pool area with an unusual astronaut theme. There is an astronaut cutout statue which you put your face in for pictures. Here, I took a photo from the shoulder of the cutout at an angle to highlight the American flag, colors, and textures present in the statue.

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 224; Spotted Dress

At Easter this year there were so many adorable little kids in nice clothes, so portraits were inevitable. This little girl was particularly adorable in my opinion, and I managed to snap this photo in the midst of the chaos of the egg hunt. I liked the texture the bushes in the background and the bright, springtime colors.

Day 223; Elijah at Easter

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. I know my siblings and I did. Today's photos are of Elijah at our family Easter get-together yesterday. He was waiting patiently for the Easter egg hunt to start, and didn't know I was photographing him. Considering how far away I was, I was surprised these photos turned out, but I was glad they did.

Day 222; Wavy Bark Texture

To switch gears a little bit I decided to post an abstract bark texture today. I loved the peeling, wavy look and the bright colors. I tried to enhance the lines by angling the camera and increasing the contrast slightly.

Day 221; Joy in the Dark

I think I'm going to try to do a series of all my brothers and sister in the same style in the dark. Here you see the oldest of my younger siblings, Joy. Again, it's not as good as the one of Noah, but I still think it was worth trying. Joy has similar coloring to Noah, so the faded holga effect turned out pretty well. Joy was wearing a dark shirt which covered her neck, so it looks like her head is floating in midair, which I don't really like.

Day 220; Elijah in the Dark

Tonight's photo is a portrait of my brother Elijah. When taking it the goal was to get a photo like the one of Noah I posted a while ago (found here), but it ended up going in a whole other direction. Elijah's darker hair, eyes, and skin made the faded look I used on Noah impossible and I couldn't get the lighting quite right. Plus, he couldn't pull off the serious, stare-into-your-soul look I captured on Noah.   While editing I toyed around with several possibilities, but I settled on this very dramatic black and white look.

Day 219; Owl Face

It's been kind of nice taking a break from my blog recently. But I'm ready to get back to it. This necklace featuring an owl was a gift from an old family friend. For today's shoot I put a netted veil over a plaid shirt to give texture to the background. The owl's golden color didn't turn out very pretty in the end product, so I went with a black and white.

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.