Day 307; Abby on the Pond

I am pleased to announce that I will be spending the summer working as a camp counselor. We started our training period this week, and it's been so fun and I'm so excited for campers to get here. My camp nickname is Grapes, and my roommate's nickname is Jelly. Jelly made awesome flower crowns for myself and Abby, who is the subject of today's photo. I won't have a lot of time for photos and editing while I'm here, but when I do take photos they turn out really well because the camp is beautiful. Here, Abby is pictured looking out over our pond. I liked the angle of her head because it draws your eye across the frame. I also loved the reflection of the trees onto the water and the textures of the leaves, water, and her hair.

Day 306; The Wall

One of the most enjoyable and most uniquely "camp" experiences at the Iowa 4-H Camp is the climbing wall. I've attempted it a couple times, but I enjoy climbing the wall much less than I enjoy watching others do so. This weekend, armed with a camera, I sat with other chaperones under a tree and watched several campers reach varying heights on the wall. I wanted to get a more interesting action shot, but this particular group was very cautious, and I can't really blame them. Even though it wasn't exactly the composition I wanted, I really liked the lighting and colors of this image. The colors in the camper's outfit pull out the blue of the sky and the hand holds, in addition to making her pop from the brown of the wall.

Day 305; Madeleine

Last weekend I spent at the Iowa State 4-H Camping Center for the first of two Culturally-based Youth Leadership Accelerator retreats Iowa 4-H is putting on this year. It was an awesome experience. My friend Madeleine and I spent the whole weekend photographing and videotaping the delegates' experiences and then putting together a video which we played at the closing ceremony. I've never really done any video editing before, but it was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to doing it again next weekend!
This photo of Madeleine was taken while we were waiting to load the buses at the end of camp. I really liked the hipster-esque look she had going on, so as the other counselors and I sat there laughing at the end of a very long weekend, I snapped a couple of candid shots of her. I love how the sun is hitting her shoulder and hair. If I could change anything, I would have moved the backpack which is behind her, but all in all, I'm really pleased with this shot. Editing was minimal, mostly to decrease noise on the side of the cabin and keep the focus on her face.

Day 304; Cobweb in the Fog

When I went out in the fog yesterday I also took this shot, but I knew I wanted some time to edit it. I really liked the composition of having the dewy spiderweb in the foreground, and the foggy woods in the background. To edit, I tried to tone down the colors of the dead leaves and branches on the forest floor, and smooth out the background so it wasn't quite so grainy.

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 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 294; Bread Line

This is another shot from my recent trip to DC. These statues are part of the FDR memorial near the Tidal Basin. I loved the way these statues were indistinct and imperfect, while so many of the others I saw were smooth and flawless. I also liked the symmetry here, with the line of men with similar hats and downcast faces.  I wanted the photo to look a little less vibrant and more subdued, so I applied a black and white effect but faded it so there was still warmth from the original bronze color.

Day 293; Cherry Blossoms in D.C.

Late on Thursday I got back from a week in Washington, D.C. for the 2015 National 4-H Conference. It was a truly incredible experience, and I met many amazing people from all over the country. I took loads of pictures, especially since we were there during peak cherry blossom bloom. This was one of my favorites. It was taken at the Tidal Basin, with cherry blossoms in the foreground and the Washington Monument in the background. We were there in the middle of the afternoon, so the light was a little harsh. I adjusted the saturation and exposure, which left the flowers looking a little more pink than they were in real life, but I liked the final look much more.

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 291; Sun Beams

There was a solar ellipse today, but unfortunately those of us in America couldn't see it. So with no moon in the way, I was able to get this shot of the setting sun behind the vines from this post. To show off the sun's warm hues I chose a dusk effect from picmonkey.com instead of black and white. I was careful when taking the photo to line up a branch in front of the sun to avoid sun spots, but this angle also caused a lot of the detail of the vines to be lost.

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 288; Brown Bales

I actually took this photo a couple weeks ago on my grandfather's farm. Now, these hay bales are covered in snow. I love the golden and brown colors present in the bales, and edited to enhance and complement them. I also liked how there were so many different textures (the hay, the grass, and the trees) but the image didn't seem too busy. In retrospect, I would have framed the image so a little more of the face of the first bale was visible.

Day 287; Ordinary Orchid

My great grandfather passed away last week. I went to the funeral on Monday. My mom and I brought home these beautiful orchids which were red and yellow, which are the colors of Iowa State University, which happened to be where he went to college. I loved the colors, but after being in the car on the way home the flowers kind of wilted and turned brown. So, I decided to make the photo black and white. This also had the added benefit of drawing attention to the texture and structure of the flower.

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 283; Snow Teeth

Today's photo is of the snow and icicles which formed on the gutter of the poultry barn. I wasn't a huge fan of this photo when I first saw it on my camera, but then a couple things happened. For one thing, I edited it. That always has an impact on the way the final product is perceived. But perhaps more importantly, I got glasses today! They make a huge difference. Everything is so much crisper and clearer. I predict having glasses is going to help my photography a lot. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

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.