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 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 284; Barren Lane

I haven't posted any color photos recently. This one is of my grandpa's lane. I used the Dusk effect from picmonkey.com to enhance the present brown colors.

Day 264; The Path Less Traveled

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Those are the final lines in Robert Frost's famous poem "The Road Not Taken," one of my favorite poems to date. This particular path was in the woods at the State 4-H Camp where I was at the State Council Retreat last weekend. This is actually one of the more popular paths, as it leads to the swinging bridge, my favorite part of the grounds. The sun coming through the leaves left an interesting lighting pattern which looked calm, warm, and earthy.

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 209; Standing on the Haybale

Last Friday I posted a photo of my brother Noah's shadow on the side of a round haybale. Today, to continue the theme, is a picture of my brother Elijah standing on the same bale. I had him try several different positions, some showing the bale and some without. I ended up liking this one since it gave the impression that he was flying or on top of the world. Since the sky behind him was so bright and the sunset only eliminated him so much, most of his body and face are quite dark. To compensate for this and lend an older vintage look, I layered a green cross-process, a dusk effect, and a spotlight effect to get a more unique and unusual photo.

Day 196

This old barn isn't really used for anything anymore and is really falling apart, but it still looks pretty neat in photos with the unique topline. I don't like the mass of weeds cluttering up the right side of the frame, but there wasn't much I could do about that. I used the Holga effect to add an older feel.

Day 195

Today I'm going to keep it short and sweet - it's cold outside, I'm still pretty sick, and there's snow everywhere. This is a landscape of a field and the woods behind it. I liked the one tree that stood out and was taller than all the rest. I added the Holga effect because the blue snow and sky didn't look very nice with the brown weeds and trees.

Day 191

This morning I was up before sunrise (not an often occurrence) and I noticed the sun was rising in a beautiful burst of color. So I ran outside in my pajamas without an shoes on to catch it before it faded, which was good because 5 minutes later it was already gone. It looked like the clouds or trees were on fire, and was really quite stunning in person. The camera didn't quite catch what I was seeing, but it still looked pretty cool.

Day 172

The snow makes everything look different and more beautiful outside. Here's another black and white winter wonderland, this one of a fence post with a barn in the background.

Day 170

It looks like a winter wonderland outside right now, and it's getting colder every day. I do love how the snow looks, but I wish it could be warm at the same time. For this photo of the forest that borders my lane, I liked the black and white effect the really concentrate on the details in this image.

Day 138

It's been rainy, chilly, and dreary around here recently. And I've been busy with 4-H and school. So today I'm posting a photo that I actually took labor day weekend that will hopefully brighten up both this blog and your day. This is the back of the sunflower featured in the post Day 123. I love the bright colors here.

Day 118

When I was taking this photo I wanted to capture the incredible detail in this one tiny little leaf on a Cottonwood tree in my yard. When editing, I applied very faint dark edges to accent the shadows in the leaf.

Day 113

I'm back! After a week at the Iowa State Fair I am ready to get back to the blog. I do want to mention that I gave an Educational Presentation in the 4-H building about Beginning Photography, and want to thank anybody who is looking at my blog because they saw my talk.
Anyway, today's photo was taken yesterday afternoon, and is of the Sky Ride. In the distant background near the base of the Sky Ride is the grandstand, and to the left of the picture is the agriculture building. I painted on a black and white effect leaving the sky it's original color because I wanted to draw the attention away from the crowd on the ground towards the ride and the sky.

Day 106

Today I dropped by the river to find today's photo. I like the way that the leaves sort of frame the river behind them. I added the dusk effect because the lighting was bad today due to the heat and sun glare.

Day 100

I can't believe I've posted 100 photos already!
Yesterday my family and I went for a walk around the lake. I decided to bring along my camera. I liked this photo for the symmetry with the reflection, and the interesting shapes from the clouds and treeline. I made it black and white, then added dark edges.

Day 92

I just thought I'd let you know now that I won't be posting anything tomorrow since I'm going to a livestock judging contest. I can't wait. The photo today is of the roof of my grandfather's house. I like the lighting and the white and blue colors in this photo.

Day 83

On the way home from my 4-H meeting last night I had to stop and take a photo of the beautiful, delicate pink tint of the sky. It didn't turn out the way I had planned, but I think it was still an interesting picture.

Day 81

Today I wanted to get a sort of abstract photo of the branches of this tree. I like the patterns created by the tree's branches and the contrast between the bright blue sky and the vibrant green leaves.

Day 80

I went down to the river today. I liked the bright green plants and trees and the contrast between them and the gray rock, water, and sky.