Day 188

Guess what tomorrow is? If you said that tomorrow is the one year anniversary of this blog, that is correct! It seems like an awfully long time ago when I look back now. Today's photo is of the insides of a geode that was cracked in half. Geodes are normal enough looking on the outside, but inside there's beautiful crystal formations of all different colors. Where I'm from, nearly all the geodes found are a white/blue, but this particular geode is half white/blue and half yellow/brown. I added a light Orton effect to bring out all the natural luster of the colors, and a slight dark edge to draw the eye into the center of the image and away from the sides.

Day 174

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I've been taking some time off from blogging, but I hope to be back to posting regularly next week. Today's photo was taken on Christmas Eve at my Grandpa Tom and Grandma Judy's house. This little tree was the centerpiece on the table I was sitting at, and behind it I could see the fireplace with some stockings and decorations. I tried to enhance the warm, bright, holiday feeling when I was editing by applying the Orton effect from picmonkey.com. I really like the details of the artificial tree's needles and snow, and the homey feel of the brick fireplace with the stocking.

Day 142

This photo is of an old Allis-Chalmers tractor my grandfather owns. I loved how the paint had cracked and aged, and thought it would make a really cool photo. I also like the angle I used, as it draws the reader's eye back into the photo. To edit, I applied a very slight Orton effect to add some contrast between the paint and the orange background of the tractor as the colors were pretty faded with age. I also did a really faint light edge to enhance the white paint.

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 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 117

Today's photo is a macro of rabbit feed that my sister was about to give to a litter of Dutch. I applied the Orton effect from picmonkey.com but turned the Bloom down to 0% and tuned the brightness down as well. I applied this effect to give the photo a kind of surreal, edgy look. I also added very slight dark edges to bring out the many shadows in the photo. I loved the details of the dust and ragged ends of the pellets.

Day 13

This is a macro photo of some flowers I had gotten for my birthday ages ago. The flowers are really dried up, so to add some color I used the Orton effect. Sorry I took so long to post today,  I think I had photographer's block.