Week #7 Shadows and Light

I worked on shadows and light this week. I have a wide variety of pictures, because there are a lot of possible interpretations for shadows and light. I have some very dark ones that I took while working on light painting. Others, are focused more on shadows in daytime. Shadows are interesting because they create form while leaving color and background to make the image interesting.

Tech Specs:

ISO 100

f 5.0
1/499 sec

Week #6 Event

West Side Story! I was in a production of this marvelous play over the past weekend. These are some pictures of the things you can't see from the audience. This experience was a crazy roller coaster of emotions and tiredness. I am really happy though, that I could capture some of these cool special moments with my camera to remember. I am going to miss all of the things you see here. I hope that you catch a little bit of what the cast was feeling backstage. The energy of putting on a show like this is unlike anything else.

Tech Specs:

ISO 800

f 3.4

1/40 sec

Gimp #6 School Context

We had the pleasure of editing the school to look very different this week. The goal was to use editing to change the context of the school so it was in a very new place or idea. I had a LOT of fun working with this. I didn't have much time, so I couldn't be too finicky, but that was easier and less stressful. I'm looking forward to using these photo editing skills again.

Gimp #3 Portraits

We learned about studio vs. on the spot portraits. The photo on the left is in the studio, and on the right, we're outside but I used some white to create a fill light. The goal of portraits is to capture the character of the person. Taking portraits should be lots of fun.

Week #5 Portrait

I've been spending a lot of time in the Performing Arts hallway of the school with beautiful people. There are some interesting lighting challenges back there. Namely, the black box, which eats up all my light, or the dressing rooms which are kept dim. However, I decided to shoot some portraits. Now, none of these are conventional portrait shots. Most of them were done in a matter of seconds with no extra lighting and no fancy backdrop. Despite that, I feel like some of them turned out really well, and I learned a new technique that I'm sure I will use in many more of my pictures. Portraits were a lot of fun, I've continued to shoot pictures of the rehearsal/show in hopes of capturing more interesting or marvelous moments.

Tech Specs

ISO 800

f 3.4

1/30 sec

Gimp #5 Motion

Today we practiced panning. This is a technique to get a subject in focus while the background is blurry. It was a challenge, and will take a lot of practice, but I think with time it can lead to some really cool shots. The important part is patience on the part of your subject, because it requires a lot of takes.

Week #4 Light Painting

I worked on light painting with my younger brother this week. It was a whole lot of fun and very addicting. I end up staying up late to take more pictures. I'm hoping to try lots of cool new light painting ideas in the future.

Tech Specs:
ISO 100
f/ 5
4 sec

Gimp #4 Panoramic

This week we worked on compositing three photos into a panoramic. It was very difficult to get everything to line up and look realistic. I learned a couple of new tools within Gimp that really helped. I probably won't use this style very often, but now, when I need to I can make it look cool.

Week #3 Architecture

I focused on architecture this week. I happened to be in Puerto Rico on a mission trip and I was enchanted by the building style there. Everything is so colorful and there are a lot of intricate fences and walls. I learned about where to take the picture from, because different angles affect the picture in significant ways.

Tech Specs:

ISO 200

f 4.5

1/320 sec

Week #2 Nature

Tech Specs: ISO 100 f5.6 1/80 sec

Shot in Program mode on a Canon SX130 is

I spent this week focusing on nature. This was made slightly difficult by the snow and the cold, but I learned to find interesting things to shoot anyways. I liked getting shots with snow coming down in them, and I'm looking forward to taking more pictures of nature soon.

Gimp #2 Car

We spent time this week learning how to retouch a picture. It was interesting, and helpful because we can apply these techniques to our own pictures. The most interesting thing I learned it that you need a vision to re"touch" or redesign a picture. If you go into a program like Gimp with too many tools and options and no vision you'll have a really hard time.

Week #1 Animals

I focused on animals for my first photo assignment. I worked on finding interesting shots of different animals in my life. My best picture is a shot of my cat in my room. It was rather dark, so I unfortunately had to bump the ISO up too high and it produced a lot of grain. Other than that, I like this picture because my cat is usually very sleepy and cute and I can't take her seriously when she looks like she's "hunting"

Technical Data:

Shutter: 1/60

Aperture: f2.8

ISO 800

Gimp-1

Today we worked with Gimp for the first time. Gimp is a program similar to Photoshop except that it is free. The detailed instructions helped me complete my project quickly, but I still have a lot of learning to do before I'm comfortable working with Gimp. I'm excited for the editing capabilities though, and I think this will be a great tool to use during this class.

This particular photograph isn't one I took, but I have turned it into "pop art" by editing it and adding color filters.

Composition Project

Assignment Description: This was an exploration of 11 different aspects of composition. The pictures have all been taken around SHS

Photos:

Texture - Snow and grass

Depth of Field - Wooden table with snow

Pattern - Stairs

Lines - Bench with ice

Rule of Thirds - owl

Space - Leaf on ice

Color - Red brake light

Symmetry - Gray bench

Balance - Sunrise with treeline

Perspective - Under the benches, towards the sunrise

Framing - Girl in artroom

During this project I learned that there are a lot of beautiful photographs to be taken on campus. I learned to appreciate the sunrise, and to take my coat with me. I have also discovered that I really like using space in my photography. I like a clean background and simple subjects. This project has been really fun and interesting to work on.