Seeing Red

   






 For the final project I matched objects that are red together. I printed out two images on one piece of paper so that it was obvious what two images went together.
     The first two images were put together because the swirls of the rose go with the swirls made by the nail polish. I wanted to take a picture of a rose since I think red roses make beautiful images. Then I had the idea to swirl red nail polish in water to get a wily design to match the rose picture. That's how I went about with  the idea for this project.
 















  In the second two images I took the picture of the red cardinal first. Then I saw a red feather from an ornament on my Christmas tree that would go well with the red bird.
     Im happy with how my final project turned out. I put my creativity to the test to see how many red objects I could photograph in an artistic way. It made me realize how many red objects there are, exceptionally during the holiday season.
   

Fact Sheet: A look into the nature photography career path

• Nature Photography- Photographs that are taken outdoors and shows natural elements such as landscapes, wildlife, plants and flowers, and close-ups of nature.
• The majority of nature photographers are freelance photographers who sell their work on their online websites to individuals and collectors.
• Some work for publications such as National Geographic by going on assignments.
• The least amount of education needed is a high school diploma
• People who have a high school diploma can take some classes to learn the fundamentals of photography.
• To further chances of becoming a professional photographer for companies, an associate’s degree or a bachelor’s degree helps.
• Work days aren’t a typical 9 to 5 type of job. Photographing depends on the weather, lighting, and opportunity.
• There’s also the business part of the job so not everyday can be spent outside taking photographs.

Reaction Paper #3

    In class, both Professor Keener and Professor Cyr presented their photography work to the class. I found it interesting seeing the work that they have created. It was cool to see what kind of photography style each have.
     I really liked Professor Keener's journalism work for the newspaper. I liked the images were still artistic and not just point-and-shoot images. The one that really stood out to me was the photographs of the little boy who lost his arms. They showed a community getting together to help welcome that little boy home from the hospital. Keener's artistic photographs that he made in college were also very interesting. His self portraits had a strong mood and emotion to them.
     Professor Cyr's abstract/ texture images were visually pleasing all together. I liked how his photographs were in collections where they all go together, like the sky images. I really liked the developer trays collection of photographs because of the different colors of the trays on the black background all put together.
      It was interesting hearing how two photographers got to where they are today. I enjoyed hearing the stories and jobs they've had before teaching. I really enjoyed the presentations.

Red Orbs

   Continuing with the red theme that I'm doing for my final project, I took out of focus pictures of lights. I like when lights are out of focus because they create the bokeh effect. My christmas tree lights helped to get the cluster of light orbs.
   For the images with tons of light orbs, I desaturated the other colored lights and mad eat red lights more prominent.
    For the image with the two orbs I made sure to get close to two red lights. The one orb has black lines through it which is from the the Christmas tree branches.

Red Everywhere

      For the final assignment we got to chose what to do for the photographs we wanted to shoot. I decided to talk pictures of objects that are red and dull the rest of the colors. This is different for me since I like tons of vibrant colors in my images, but I feel this will come out as a nice theme.
      These three images have red in nature. I have a few other images that are Christmas decorations that are red, but right now I' making sure to get nature photos before all the leaves die and fall off the trees for winter.
      So far I'm enjoying shooting this assessment since I see tons of red now and can go and photograph what interest me. Also since it's near the holidays there are many things that are red all over the place. I can also abstract photographs swell as nature.
     

Rainbow Lighting

      For this assignment we had to use light to our advantage. At my house I have a lamp with a prism stand that creates rainbows. I decided to try self portraits using the rainbow as the light.
     In the first image I made sure to get the rainbow over my face. I did this by using a wide angle lens and auto focus to make sure my eye was in frame and in focus. I also looked at the reflection in the camera lens to make sure the rainbow was in the right spot. In Lightroom I cropped it in closer so it was just my eye and eyebrow.
      In the second image I made sure the get the rainbow to be on the wall behind me swell as my eye. That image I didn't crop much since I wanted the wall to be seen.

Cloudy Skies

     These two images were taken for a landscape assignment. I like these two images because though they are from different locations they are very similar. Both images have cloudy blue skies and similar colors of green and orange within the land.
    The first image was taken at Smiths point beach. The sky had fluffy clouds which I feel adds more interest to the sky. That is also seen with the second image as well. The second image was taken by my house on a different day. The white fluffy clouds added interest to the sky just as the first image did.
      I enjoy landscapes that have many different tones. That is why Ansel Adams landscapes photographs are so well known. The range of tones in his black and white landscapes are perfect. They really give a sense to how the area looked on that day.
   

Abstraction in Nature

   For an assignment we had to taken abstract photographs. At first it was hard for me to figure out what that meant. I know that abstraction in photography means that the visual image doesn't have an immediate association to an object. In class we talked about getting close to an object or photographing it in a way that isn't what's usually done. That way it takes the viewer to take a moment to realize what they are looking at. That's when I realized that there is lot of abstraction in nature.
    For the first image I went over to this long grass that's in my yard. I was first taking pictures of it from the side close up. The images came out nice but wasn't what I was looking for. Then I went in front of the long grass and took pictures of it coming at me with only having the closes parts of it to me was in focus. I feel the image looks very odd but captivating since looks like something with tentacles coming for you.
    The second image of the closed flower dub, I took because of the colors. I was interested in the swirl of purple that was hidden within the closed flower bud. I got close so that that tip of the bud was in focus and the rest started to blur out. Once I started taking pictures of plants and flowers outside, I felt in my element and understood what to do for the assignment.

Reaction Paper #2

     Being able to go and see a professional photographer's studio was an amazing experience. Jim Lennon was kind enough to invite the class over to see how it is working in a studio. The first thing I noticed about Jim Lennon's studio is that is was a very decent size studio. I felt it wasn't too big and it wasn't too small either. He had his main entrance where a few of his photographs were framed on the walls, then in the next room he had a kitchen where his food photography takes place along with an area to frame his photographs, then finally he has his main studio area where he takes most of his photographs. There were tons of different backdrop colors, studio lights, and cameras.
    Aside from the actual studio, Jim Lennon also talked about what he does as a studio photographer and that he works mostly with companies instead of individual people. That, to me, shows how long he's been in the industry, having big companies always going to him for their products to be photographed. He's created a partnership with these companies in that they can rely on him for amazing images and he can rely on them for jobs. He also talked about how much it costs to own a studio, which was very informative. It makes sense why many people who do studio work start out using their homes as their studios.
    I also enjoyed how he brought up his pricing for a shoot. He made it very clear that his final price is the final price. I liked how he said when clients complain about the price and what can be done to lower it, his response is "what do you want taken out", showing how the price is set for a reason and if it's too high for the client then the client needs to see what is really necessary for the shoot and what can be taken out.
    I enjoyed the experience of meeting Jim Lennon and looking at his studio since I haven't really seen a professional studio like that before. It was very informative and something I'll remember for a long time.

Slow Shutter Speed

    I feel these two images I took really goes with the spooky halloween season. To achieve this eerie look I used a slower shutter speed. Once I pressed the shutter release button I made exaggerated movements so that I wasn't supper blurry and so that you could see what was going for instead of just the whole image being ghostly.
    For the first image I set my camera on a tripod and put the shutter for a few seconds. Once I pressed the shutter release button I stayed facing front for a fraction of a second then I turned my head to the left for a fraction of a second then finally I turned my had right for a fraction of a second. I made sure to stay in those positions for a little so that the sensor could capture that I stopped moving. If I continuously moved my head without stoping for a movement, my head/ face would have been completely blurry.
    For the second image I still had my camera on a tripod and the shutter set for a few seconds. I pressed the shutter release button and stop still looking at the car for a fraction of a second. Then I quickly brought my hands to cover my face for last possible fraction of a second. Since I moved my hands last second they appear ghostly. This allowed for my eyes, nose, and mouth to be seen through my hands.
     I really enjoyed experimenting with long shutter speeds with movement. It created images that made people who aren't so familiar with the camera ask how I achieved these images. I'm definitely going to create more photographs using a slower shutter speed.
 

Reaction Paper #1

   When we went to the library to check out a photography book, I picked out Land, Sky, and All That Is Within; Visionary Photographers In The Southwest by James L. Enyeart. This book caught my eye because it shows pictures of and talks about nature landscaped. I enjoy landscape photographs so I immediately became intrigued by this book. In the book it shows photographs from photographers in the southwest such as Ansel Adams, Timothy O'Sullivan, and Edward Curtis to name a few.
   The book has different sections that shows the photographers photographs and then talks about the motivation and artistic value of the photographs. There's a section of the book that is titled Fragment of Reality which touches on Edward Curtis's photographs documenting the North American tribes and how he staged the photographs so that it was the desired effect. He would dress the Native Americans in costumes and romanticized the landscapes. I felt this was interesting in that even nature, which is relatively known as being the truth, could still be manipulated in photographs to convey a message and give off an emotion.
    This book orders the images not by the photographer but by the location that the photographs were taken. I like that a it;s put together in that way because some photographers have taken images at the same location and seeing them side by side lets you see the different perspectives. It also allows you to see how certain southwestern state looked with all the different photographers work being put together. It makes me feel that I've been to that stat
e and saw the magnificent landscapes.

White Balance

    For an assignment I had to go out and take pictures in different lighting situations using different white balances. This was to see how different white balances effect to the color of an image in certain lighting.
    These two photographs of the deer I shot this during an overcast sky using the daylight and auto white balance settings. The first image I used the daylight setting which in this situation made the image warmer. The auto setting made the image cooler in color. For the overcast sky I noticed that the daylight white balance gave                                       the image a better color then the auto.

    These two photographs of the yellow flowers I took at dusk using the daylight and auto white balance settings again. In this situation the daylight and auto setting came out very similar. Though it is noticeable that the auto white balance image (which is the second image of the two flowers) has a slightly warmer tone. In this situation the auto setting was the better choice for white balance.

Butterfly

   I was out taking photographs for an assignment about the placing of subjects in the composition. At first i was focusing on the white flowers until a butterfly landed.
   I'm so thrilled with how the photographs are composed. In the first image I have a few of the white and yellow flowers in the upper corner of the image and then the  orange butterfly in the lower corner. I feel this makes your interest go to the corner where the most color is and then spend to the rest of the image where the white and yellow flowers are.





   In the second image I had the butterfly directly in the center. I wanted the main focus to be on the beautiful orange butterfly. I made sure the butterfly was in sharp focus and I used a shallow depth of field so that the background would be blurred.

Shallow Depth of Field

   For my assignment in Digital Photo 1, I had to take photographs using different apertures, shutter speeds, and ISO. My favorite kind of images are those with a shallow depth of field. I used a low aperture number to get the blurred background and sharply focused subject.
    These three photos are a few of my favorites from the ones I shot for the assignment. With the silhouette of the chicken I made sure that the light was behind the chicken. For the flower  image and the plant with the bee on it, I made sure to get very close so that the backgrounds were as blurred as possible. 
     I really enjoyed this assignment of using the settings of my camera. It helped me to understand how the different apertures, shutter speeds, and ISO can really change an image and make it how it was intended to look.