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 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 301; Rust and Snow

I took this photo a few days ago after we'd received a light dusting of snow. Today, temperatures rose to 65℉ and it felt like spring for the first time. To get this photo, I put my camera down into a large, rusty basin sitting out in our yard. The bottom had rusted out so that I could see the ground on the other side, and the combination of snow and rusted edges lent a nice contrast of texture and color to the image. For editing, I cropped the original down to the area I wanted to focus on, and adjusted the exposure to best represent the white of the snow and the shadows on the sides of the basin.

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 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 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 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 285; Poe & Poetry

I've always wanted to do a photo like this, and now that I have my own glasses I can. I set the glasses on a book opened to the poem "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe (which is a really good poem, in case you were wondering).  I knew I wanted the final product to be black and white, and I ended up using a reverse focal soften effect, so the text in the glasses would be clear while the rest of the image was out of focus. If I had a do over I would probably experiment more with lighting and the composition - the focal point is a little too centered.

Day 282; Lane Loveliness

I realize you're probably getting tired of black and white winterscapes, but with all of the snow we've been getting I don't foresee an end to the trend anytime soon. This view is one of my favorites though. It's looking from our garage down the lane toward the highway, but with all the snow it looks like it's from Narnia or some other fairy tale setting. The editing was simple, just a black and white filter with dark edges to bring out the tree trunks and branches.

Day 280; Hickory Tree

Today we had a gorgeous sunset. Unfortunately, the best of it only lasted a couple minutes. Even though I didn't get any good sunset shots I did get this one of a hickory nut tree with an old shed in the background. I liked the lines and textures in the shot, so to pull those out I used black and white. I loved how the sky and remaining snow are so bright, and to balance that out I used vignetting.

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.

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 274; Colors of Cards

 Late last night I got back from spending a week in Texas for the national rabbit convention. Next week I'm leaving again for Florida, so I won't be posting much this month. I wish I could post more, but I'm not sorry I'll be in Florida while my hometown is forecasting highs in the 30's with snow this week. The subjects of today's post are a bunch of thank you notes and envelopes which were in a box on my desk. I loved the lines and texture which you typically don't associate with such bright colors. I liked the shorter, longer crop as it helped make the vertical lines less overwhelming.

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 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.