Day 302; Jeans and a New Phone

My birthday happened recently, which was great. Besides turning a year older, the day was significant because I got an iPhone. And I love it. One of the big reasons I wanted an iPhone was because they're known for having great cameras. Today's photo is one of the first I've taken on my new phone, but you can expect to see more photos taken on my phone on the blog in the weeks to come. This photo is a close up of a pair of my jeans. My only edits were to crop the image and make it black and white. My goal was to keep the focus on the seam and the texture of the fabric.

Day 296; Art and Absence

It's been a while. I feel slightly guilty that I've left the blog for so long, but I wasn't sitting idle all this time. Summer is an incredibly busy time for me, and I had to prioritize my time. In fact, my life won't be slowing down much this fall either, so posts will be sporadic.

Today's photo is of a rose I made from an old book for a project at my county fair this year. I was thrilled with how the arrangement turned out and plan to try making more again in the future. The text and the rounded shape of the petals add some interesting lines and shapes to the photo. When composing the shot, I wanted the eye to be drawn first toward the center of the flower and then radiate out to examine the petals. This was a really old book, so the pages were really yellow. I wanted the focus to be more on the lines and depth than on the color, so I used a faded black and white effect so there was still a touch of warmth.

Day 295; Black, White, and Backlight

Today's post is a close up of one of my scarves. This one was hanging on the end of my bed and I happened to notice the way the window behind the scarf was providing a really nice backlight. Originally I loved the teal color of the scarf and the way the lighting interacted with it, but in the end I wanted the focus on the lines and contrast so I opted for a black and white effect.

Day 289; Lines and Vines

These honeysuckle vines are growing up along the side of my house. Even though it's starting to feel like spring, these vines are still bare except for a few dead leaves left over from last fall. The sunset provided good lighting and when paired with the curving, unpredictable lines of the vines made for a very interesting photo. I used black and white to highlight these traits.

Day 279; Foil Curls

Back at Christmas time I needed a cardboard tube for a present. The one holding our aluminum foil was the perfect size. I didn't think there was much foil left on the roll, but it turns out I was wrong. I hastily rolled the foil back up loosely after extracting the tube. The roll had been sitting there every since, until today when I got it out for pictures. The texture of the crumpled foil was very cool, and it reflected the light and cast shadows to create a very interesting lighting pattern. I shot the photo in black and white, and then added some vignetting to finish the look.

Day 269; Black and Blue

This black grid thing was part of the packaging for some socks. I liked the lines it presented, and decided to compliment the lines with some color. The shirt I used had a little texture of its own which just added to the look of the grid. A dark vignetting effect tamed the bright blue and drew attention to the black lines.

Day 266; 'Tis the Season?

Most people aren't thinking of Christmas just yet. But I'm working on a 4-H project where I'm going to build collapsible Christmas trees, and had the prototype set up by my desk. The shiny tinsel was the perfect subject for today's photo, even if it's no where near Christmas time yet. I turned down the lights and used my on camera flash to get the most dramatic an festive lighting pattern.

Day 260; The Brace

If you're reading this you may or may not already know about my brace. I have degenerative disc disease in my lower back which has completely changed my life since I developed it in 2011. I got a back brace pretty soon and had to wear it 24/7 for a very long time. This year I've been working on regaining my strength and am no longer dependent on the brace. I brought it out again today to take some macros of the many details which it is made up of. This photo is of one of the many velcro portions. The brace itself is black, so I used a black and white effect to minimise the yellow colors from my light source.

Day 239; Techno Petals

We've been having beautiful weather lately so there're all sorts of flowers blooming outside. My mom has a comple peony bushes in the yard which are full of blossoms, one of which is featured in today's photo. And no, they're not blue flowers. I tried out some new techniques today. Below you can see the original image. I first applied an infrared black and white filter, then added a blue tint. I loved the blue, which I felt gave a modern, techno feel to the image.

Day 234; Charred Wood

We had a bonfire outside the other day, so tonight I took a picture of the left over charred firewood. Since it had been burned there wasn't much color left, so a black and white effect simply enhanced the contrast present.

Day 233; Lines Interwoven

Today was my last day of school - yay! Hopefully I'll be a little less busy now and be able to take photos every day again. But for now, I'm using a photo I took at the hotel the night before my AP test. This image is a close up of the decorations on the blanket. The interwoven lines of gold accents were very pretty, and interesting from a textural standpoint. The main fabric was a kind of greenish color that looked really good in person, but didn't turn out in the original photo. Because of this, I liked the black and white effect the best.

Day 228; Honeycomb Pattern

My brothers are really into Star Wars, and have a bunch of Star Wars toys. This hexagon honeycomb-like pattern was on the floor of one of their ships. I liked the ridges on each of the hexagons, and the missing ones which provided interest and shadows.

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 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 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.

Day 217; G On Canvas

The background for this photo is a painting of a rose my sister did on canvas. For the main subject I used a charm in the shape of a letter G which I bought years ago to wear hanging from my back brace. I haven't worn it in quite some time, but I saw it sitting on the shelf today and thought it would be a fun subject to shoot. I didn't like the yellows in the photo due to the lighting, so I used a black and white Holga effect from picmonkey.com which also enhanced some of the details in the canvas.

Day 213; Up the Cedar Tree

For this photo I wanted to emphasize the peeling texture of the bark on this cedar tree. I put my camera right up next to the tree and angled it up so you could see the trunk carrying up toward the sky. I also liked how this angle gave some different depths of field - closest to the camera which is out of focus, the middle ground which is in focus, and then farther out which is again out of focus. This angle showed the undersides of some of the pieces of bark as being quite orange, and each patch of color stuck out. To reduce this distraction, I applied a faded Holga effect to give a washed out look while still retaining some of the original color and depth.

Day 212; Stacked Bark

When I was out looking for subjects this afternoon I noticed the textured, bumpy bark of this tree. It looked almost like the ridges had been stacked on layer after layer. To really enhance the details I decided a black and white effect would be best, and I ended up layering infrared and holga to get the look I wanted.

210; Bump on Tree

This bump thing on a tree caught my eye this afternoon because of the textured surface and grooves. Since I went out in the early afternoon the lighting was kind of blank, so to add some color and richness I applied a Dusk effect.

207; Lace Curtain

It's been a while since I last posted and there are several combined reasons which prevented me. I wanted to come back today with a stunning or at least memorable photo, but that didn't exactly happen. Today's abstract is of the lace curtain which hangs over the west window in my room, and was taken at sunset when this window lets in all sorts of  beautiful light. I loved how the pattern in the lace really showed in this photo and how the draping of the fabric added some depth to the photo. I chose to highlight those details with a black and white effect.