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 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 290; Rule of Thirds

I've taken lots of photos of this old shed over the years, but each one turns out a little different. This one I cropped to a wider, shorter size to empathize the lines of the ground and the fence. I also made this particular shot unique through editing. I wanted a different look, so I used a faded black and white filter to give an older, more artsy feel. If you're not a photographer, you probably don't know what the title of this post means. The rule of thirds is a basic rule of thumb for composition. I won't explain it here, but there are lots of articles online if you want to know more.

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 281; Wintry Woods

My last post was a tree in winter. Today's post is a tree in winter, although there are significant differences between the two, especially the extra 6 inches of snow which has recently fallen.  My house surrounded by woods on all sides which is really pretty, especially after snow fall, but it does get hard to switch up the types of winter photos I take. Today we have a very simple photo of the cottonwood tree in my yard with a background of the woods. I did no editing to the photo except for a white vignetting around the edges to soften the image a little.

Day 272; Creek Crop

Today I took my little brothers on an expedition to a creek near our house. I needed a couple buckets full of sand for a project and it was a good excuse to go play in the sand and get some photos. This one had some great colors and textures present though it didn't turn out as well defined as I would have liked. I cropped it to a more unique aspect ratio which was less busy than the original 8x10. Also, this photo looks a lot better if you click on it to see it in a larger size.

Day 270; Color on Campus

Yesterday I was in Chicago visiting the University of Chicago campus. I can't beleive I'll be heading off to college in just a couple years! UChicago is beautiful, and I could definitely see myself going there. This path was through one of the many little parks on campus and was quite charming. I didn't do much editing since I loved the warm fall colors already present.

Day 257; Palm Flowers

Today's photo is pretty simple. I put some little white flowers in my hand and snapped some macros. I liked the lines and detail of the hand as the background and the interest and pop of color from the flowers. I didn't really edit it much, only adding a thin black border to set off the softer sides.

Day 256; Tiny Teeth

In case you haven't figured it out yet, there aren't really teeth in this photo. This is a macro of a plant, though I actually have no idea what kind of plant this was. I only know that it was small and dead. You didn't really notice the tiny burrs when looking at the plant, but when you zoomed in for a macro they looked really fierce. I wanted to draw attention to the detail in the image, so I opted for a black and white edit.

Day 255; Three Seasons of Leaves

Today there are three photos, or rather, three versions of the same photo. The first is the original out of camera shot. I liked the lighting and details, but felt it needed a little something more. Second is a black and white edit which I really liked because it drew attention to the veins in the leaf and the lighting patterns. It also gave a classic look to the image. This second edit is probably my favorite. The third image is mostly just for fun. I took the black and white image and applied a galaxy texture from picmonkey.com to the whole photo except for the one leaf in the foreground. This gave a very unique look to the photo which I really liked.

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 253; Macro Clover

You are probably wondering where I've been. It's been almost two months since I've posted, but I do have pretty good reasons. In July was my county fair, then I had a couple weeks to get all my projects for the Iowa State Fair, then I had one day off before my first day of school. I've been in school for a week or so now. I wanted to get a feel for how busy I was going to be before I got back to the blog. I'm pretty sure I should have time to post again now. But enough about me and my excuses. Today's photo was not the brilliant comeback photo I had wanted. Since my last photo was of a red clover, I thought it would be nice to come back with a different take on the same kind of flower.

Day 229; Sherman (Again)

It's been a while since you guys saw any pictures of our puppies. Actually, since the last photo (here) we've sold Sherman's brother and sister. But Sherman has stuck around. Today while I was out trying to take photos of flowers, Sherman kept vying for attention. He especially likes belly rubs, which is what I was doing when I snapped this shot. The sky has been really overcast all the time lately, so the original out of camera shot was rather dull. To fix this while editing, I increased the saturation in the grass and lightened the exposure so details in Sherman's dark coat could be seen.

Day 225; April Showers

We've been getting quite a few 'April showers' here recently, but I don't mind because it's finally getting green outside and flowers are beginning to bloom. My mom's daffodils have been blooming for a few days now, but I hadn't had a chance to shoot them until this afternoon. My shoot was also cut short so I could pack for the trip to Kansas I'm leaving for tomorrow afternoon. I did manage to get this quick shot, which I liked for the angle and color.

Day 223; Elijah at Easter

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. I know my siblings and I did. Today's photos are of Elijah at our family Easter get-together yesterday. He was waiting patiently for the Easter egg hunt to start, and didn't know I was photographing him. Considering how far away I was, I was surprised these photos turned out, but I was glad they did.