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 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 303; A Series of Fog

This morning I woke up to an incredibly thick, very eerie looking fog. I didn't have my camera on hand, so I snapped a few photos with my phone. I couldn't really pick a favorite, and I didn't end up having time to edit them today, so I'm sharing this series of raw images. I noticed, especially in this third picture, that these shots were pretty grainy, and didn't look nearly as cool as what I had seen with my own eyes, but I'm still pretty happy with them.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 265; Barking Up the Wrong Tree

I'm no tree expert, so I can't tell what type of tree this was. All I know is that I have always loved photos of bark and will continue taking them. This has been a pretty slow season, with cloudy days and not much good lighting outside. Hopefully it will clear up and I'll be able to capture some of the fall colors developing outside.
Also, I realize the post titles have been pretty cliché recently. Sorry about that.

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 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 251; Fences and Foals

I just got back this afternoon from the 4-H vet science camp. It was so much fun, even though it rained practically every day. Thankfully it was nice when we toured the dairy farm, vet med school, and horse barns at Iowa State University. These foals were one of my favorite parts of the tour. They would come right up to the fence for the kids to pet.

"A horse is the projection of peoples' dreams about themselves - strong, powerful, beautiful - and it has the capability of giving us escape from our mundane existence." ~Pam Brown

Day 238; Zebras

Zebras are one of my favorite animals. I love the great contrast between their black and white stripes, and highlighted it with a Holga effect just as I did last year after our trip to the zoo. To make sure the focus was on the zebra on the left I added a focal soften.