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 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 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 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 263; Sunrise at Camp

This weekend was our State 4-H Council retreat at the Iowa State 4-H Center Campgrounds. I didn't have much time to take photos as I was busy working with the other Council members. I did get out on Sunday morning before sunrise to take a few shots in the surrounding woods. I discovered this area my last time at the camp, and I decided to revisit it. The morning light was quite lovely, but I enhanced it a little to make the colors pop more.

Day 206; Muddy Tonks

This afternoon was the first time in a long time when temperatures were well above freezing. As such, all the snow we've been accumulating melted leaving lots and lots of mud and slush. Tonks, the mother of our adorable litter of puppies, managed to find some of this mud and apparently thought it would be a good idea to play in it.  Here she is resting on a bed of old feed sacks in one of the barns. When I took this photo the sun was beginning to set with some windows letting in the bright yellow light and causing the patches behind her.

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 144

This photo was taken in the late afternoon in my Grandpa's yard. I loved the colors the setting sun was lighting up, and took a lot of photos. Unfortunately, the majority of the images did not turn out. In this photo, I liked the bright fall colors and dramatic aspect the angle of the sun provides.

Day 141

 This photo was taken on Friday morning before I left for a rabbit show I attended this weekend. I wanted to capture some of the beautiful green and gold light the early morning sun was producing on this ragweed plant. I didn't notice it while taking the photo, but I really like the spiderweb built between the two leaves.

Day 79

This afternoon I again noticed the sun shining through the tree's leaves, especially in this hickory tree.

Day 78

This is another photo of the cottonwood tree in our yard. Or, more accurately, the leaves of said tree. I took this photo in the morning and the sun is rising behind the trees in the background. I love how you can see all the veins and lines of the leaf. I also liked this photo in black and white, as it added to the details and made the photo less busy by taking out the extra colors.