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 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 278; Beauty in Death

This was a flower back when it was warm out. Now it doesn't look much like a flower, but it's still very pretty and intricate. I loved the warm brown colors and I enhanced them to make them a little more vibrant.

Day 273; Black and White Branches

This is another photo from the creek yesterday. These branches (part of a beaver dam?) looked coolest in black and white, which showed off the lighting and lines. I also liked the contrast of the angular branches with the soft ripples in the water.

Day 271; Library Lines

I took lots of pictures on the University of Chicago campus. This is one of my favorites. The sculpture on the left marks the spot where the first controlled self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was created. The domed structure at right is the Mansueto Library. The lines in the modern design of the library and the concrete surrounding the sculpture interested me and looked best in black and white.

Day 254; Looking Through the Fence

"There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something." ~J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit 

I've looked at a lot of things in my life, and will continue to look at many more. But me looking at something is always different than someone next to me looking at the same thing because we're going to perceive it differently. Today's photo is of a bridge I have seen thousands of times, but this time taken through a chain link fence. I messed around with some different angles and depths of field, but liked how this turned out with the bridge in focus and the fence blurred. When editing I wanted a very dramatic look, so I applied black and white and softened all the areas except inside of one of the links in the fence.

Day 248; The Silver Butterflies

I like butterflies in real life, but don't like to wear them on jewelry or clothes or anything. Usually. But I do love this hair pin, even though I haven't been able to wear it for a long time since I cut my hair short. I put it on a light yellow pillowcase for today's shot. I really like the detail in the pin, and wanted to bring attention to that with a black and white filter. The Holga effect was a good fit for this shot, since it added some drama to the lighting which was otherwise somewhat flat.

"Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies."
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

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 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 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 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 214; Russian Nesting Dolls

My great aunt Glenda is one of the most interesting people I've ever met. She travels all over the world, and sends back the most beautiful things. These are two in a set of hand painted Russian nesting dolls which she sent to my sister and I a few years ago. The detail of the painting and etching is really quite lovely, and while admiring them earlier today I decided to make them the subject of today's photo. I set them up in my de-shadow box and used a black skirt as the background. I used the on-camera flash and the black background to highlight the dolls and help their color pop. The biggest thing I would change is that a fold in the skirt hides a portion of the larger doll's base.

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.

Day 211; Wood Lines

Leaves, ragweed stalks, and a random piece of dried tree trunk were all thrown together by the intense winds we've been having recently to form the subjects for today's photo. I love lines and textures found in nature, primarily veins in leaves and textured tree bark, so this scene naturally caught my eye. In hindsight, it seems a bit busy, but I like it anyway. I also loved how the dampness we've been experiencing and the time of year left all the items with some of the same hues and colors to lend a unified feel.

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.

Day 205; Black and White Round Beads

Back in the day I made jewelry as 4-H projects. I got better at it, and started selling my creations at local swap meets. A couple years ago I lost interest in the hobby and put all my supplies away. Today I got out this tub of black and white round beads for the subject of today's photo. I liked the way each bead reflected the round light source I'd used.

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 189

As almost any teenage girl would, I love sparkles. Sequins are one of my favorite decorations, usually on dresses. Recently, however, I got a sequined fedora, which is pretty awesome. The way that they sewed the sequins onto the hat is pretty impressive, and gives some really cool details to this macro shot.

Day 187

When I was younger my sister and I collected porcelain dolls. We gathered a lot, through birthday and Christmas gifts or by buying at yard sales and swap meets. The one featured in today's portrait was one of my favorites, and one of the first brides we got. When looking around for a subject today, I noticed her sitting in front of my window and thought she would make an interesting portrait. I love portraits taken with the face at an angle, and with all the details in her outfit I got a really life like shot. I loved the black and white, but I also wanted a softer look, so I added a focal soften which softens the edges while leaving the face in focus.