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 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 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 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.

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 235; Forest Park

My whole family is on a bit of a vacation in Saint Louis for my brother's birthday. Tomorrow we'll be going to the zoo, but today we had a picnic lunch and visited the art museum. Today's photo was taken in Forest Park when we stopped to eat before going to the museum. I thought it was neat that you could see the skyline behind the trees. I took other photos from angles I liked better, but unfortunately they didn't turn out. I did like the colors and lines in this shot.

Day 148

Even though I'm not going as the Wicked Witch of the West for Halloween this year and am not likely to melt in the rain, I cowered in the doorway so as not to get wet while taking this photo. The day started extremely foggy, and proceeded to rain continuously all day. I was not in the mood for being wet, so for today's photo my subjects were limited to what was inside and what was within reach just outside the door. This little patch of dead grass, mud, and now, water became my newest addition to the blog. To edit, I added a little boost to the color to draw out the yellows of the grass and the blues in the water, and then added dark edges to enhance the shadows the grass and mud create.

Day 139

For school I am currently reading "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." For those of you who don't know, it is about a boy who lives on a raft on the Mississippi River with a run away slave named Jim. To show my understanding of the novel I will be making a creative project featuring photos I take. Today I took my little brother to portray Huck and got some shots in the river. I also got this shot for today's post. I cropped it down to give a more dramatic view, and added a faded Holga effect to add age and artistic quality to the image.

Day 130

This morning we had a light rain, the first we've had in quite a while actually. So I went out to take some photos of the raindrops on this milkweed leaf. I love the diamond, unreal look of the drops on the bright green of the leaf. To edit this photo, I added a softened look to the background. I also enhanced the shadows a bit to make the details pop a little more.

Day 112

Today's photo is of a weeping willow tree and a bench by the pond at the house of one of my mom's friends. I applied the Holga effect but faded it so the original colors were just subdued. I loved the ripples and reflection from the pond and the elegant, draping quality of the branches.

Day 111

This morning we got quite a bit of rain. I went out to get some early morning shots, and found myself continually drawn to my mom's tiger lillies. I loved the reflective quality of the water droplets and the bright orange color of the flower.

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 87

This is one of the many waterfalls in one of the habitats at the zoo. It looks so lush and beautiful, don't you think? I wish the water was  little more in focus, but it was moving very fast.

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.

Day 72

I love this photo. The early morning dew on the long grass looks good in real life, but making it black and white gives it an air of sophistication and elegance. The texture and depth of this photo add to that impression as well.

Day 65

I was up early again today to photograph the early morning dew. This tree in particular had a lot of perfect droplets on its leaves. I was working on taking photos with shallow depths of field.

Day 62

This is a close up photo of some grass in my grandpa's yard that is growing in a puddle after some recent rain. I like the bright vibrant colors in this photo, and especially the texture and depth the water adds.

Day 61

 I took this picture of the bridge yesterday. The water is super high, and is only a few feet from the bottom of the bridge. Hopefully it will go back down soon.