Day 303; A Series of Fog

This morning I woke up to an incredibly thick, very eerie looking fog. I didn't have my camera on hand, so I snapped a few photos with my phone. I couldn't really pick a favorite, and I didn't end up having time to edit them today, so I'm sharing this series of raw images. I noticed, especially in this third picture, that these shots were pretty grainy, and didn't look nearly as cool as what I had seen with my own eyes, but I'm still pretty happy with them.

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 300; Sunrise on the River

Today, I present this gem from last October. On this particular morning, a club I'm a member of was putting on a rabbit show, which meant getting up well before the sun did. The show location had a great view of the river, so when the sun did start coming up I slipped away to get this shot. There are many things I like about this image. I love the colors present, with the purples and blues of the water and the pinks and yellows in the sky. The water has a gorgeous texture and I love how it's juxtaposed with the pattern of the fence. The fence forms a leading line which effectively leads the eye from the highlight on the water to the child's silhouette on the right side. The presense of the silhouette adds an interesting secondary focal point and a significant amount of interest to the image. The negative space of the trees on the horizon, the fence, and the silhouette provide a nice balance with the busyness of the water.

Day 299; Luminescent Lily

Today, another in the series of photos from last June which I've editied recently. I didn't post this one back in June because I didn't like the blades of grass in front of the subjects, but when I cropped it down and adjusted tones and shadows they weren't as distracting and I thought they framed the focal point nicely. To edit, I brightened the whites and yellows of the flower while darkening the blues and greens of the bacground. I used a dark vignette to draw the eye in toward the flower. If I could change anything, I would have the lily pads be slightly less in focus to really set the flower apart.
(Also, I know what the word luminescent means and that this is not a correct usage of the term, but alliteration in titles is something I'm continually drawn to.)

Day 298; Before and After - Purple Plant

 We finally got some snow today, but I haven't had a chance to go take advantage of it. So, today I'm posting another photo from last June which I edited this weekend. Below you'll find the original image - click on either photo to see a larger version and compare. I adjusted a lot of components here - color, shadow vs. highlights, cropping, etc. I took the original because I liked the colors in that plant and the arrangement of the leaves. However, I felt the original was really underwhelming. My edits were all an attempt to add drama and interest. I really like the overall look of my finished product, though there are still a few things I would tweak if I knew how/had the tools to do so.

Day 297; February Ferns

I wish someone had told me how busy senior year would be. The days are flying by - my future is rapidly approaching. I find myself missing last summer when I was working at summer camp and showing at the fair. This winter has been bleak. We've only gotten one or two goods snows, so I haven't been out photographing much. This photo was taken last June at the Iowa State 4-H Conference. While looking through old Conference photos recently, I found this image and decided to edit it. I liked how the sun highlighted the stems and edges and the many lines present. While the original vibrant green colors were a welcome break from the brown world outside my window, I preferred a black and white filter because it drew attention to the intricate structure of the plants and the contrasting light and shadow.

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 292; Through the Pine

The past few weeks have been really busy around here. In fact, this time next week I'll be in Washington, D.C. on a 4-H trip. Today's photo was taken a couple of days ago when I was out checking on our pigs. It was relatively early in the morning, so the lighting behind this little pine tree was very pretty and soft. I cropped the photo so the branches would form more of a window, but that's the only editing I did. I really liked the colors in the tree and grass, and how clearly outlined the branches were with the backlighting.

Day 286; A Classic Crown

My last post and today's post show two different sides of my personality. I love reading, and I feel smarter and more studious when wearing my glasses. But I'm also a super girly girl, who loves dresses and high heels. So, instead of a book and glasses today's shot is of one of the tiaras I've won. I set the tiara on a piece of fabric I had laying around because I liked the contrast of the round diamonds with the straight stripes. I used an overhead light source and took the shot pretty much head on. The one thing I don't like is that the top center portion of the tiara is kind of out of focus. I used a black and white effect because I wanted to draw attention to the details, lines, and textures.

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 276; Time Flies

It's been a very long time since my last post and I am incredibly sorry. A lot of things have been going on and I simply have not gotten around to it. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season, because I know I sure did. This weekend it's been relatively warm, which has been great. It's made me wish summer were back though, so I dug out this old photo from the summer of 2012. My little brother Noah is holding a baby rabbit and was pretty happy about it. I didn't do too much editing to this back then, except for a scratch on his right eyebrow which I had decided to airbrush out. Now, it looks clumsy and kind of obvious, but back then I didn't know any better. I do love the natural lighting going on here.

Day 275; Cinderella's Castle

Today we got back from our vacation to Disney World. It was great to get away and visit such an amazing place. I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I would have liked, but this one of Cinderella's castle lit up at night was one of my favorites. The original blue color of the castle was pretty in real life, but seemed a little fake in the picture. I really loved the drama of the black and white effect instead.

Day 268; Elijah's Eyes

This photo is fairly simple. It's a portrait of my brother Elijah. It turned out pretty interesting, as it focused on his nose and left his eyes out of focus. I liked the black and white to draw the attention to the lighting pattern and smaller details.

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 249; Noah in the Dark - Funny Face Edition

My brother Noah is a little ham. He likes to make funny faces, and was not in the mood to cooperate, even though I'm leaving tomorrow morning for state conference. I won't be able to post for the next three days, and possibly not on Friday either. For this shot I used a small light to illuminate his face but leave the background in the dark. I wanted a sweet smile, but he was not in the mood tonight. I still think he's adorable though.

Day 247; Black and Lace

I really love lace, though I don't wear it often. There are white lace curtains over the windows in my room which I see everyday but don't really look at. If you really look at lace there are some very interesting patterns and textures. For this photo, I laid the curtain over a blanket and took a close up of the threads which make up the lace. I love black and white, and especially with the high contrast in this shot.

Day 242; Wood from Retreat

I had the most amazing time ever at the State 4-H Council retreat last week and cannot wait to work with all the great youth selected throughout the year. There weren't really any opportunities to lug around my camera, but I did go outside before breakfast on Friday and got this shot of the mulch around one of the trees. The early morning light and the great texture of the wood chips appealed to me, though it didn't turn out as dramatically as I had imagined.

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 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.