Many words can be used to describe the photos I have chosen to take, but the best word, in my opinion, is silence. Silence is a virtue and through silence, people can better understand who they are and for what reasons they were put on this earth. To achieve personal satisfaction, it's important for oneself to set aside the time to go out into nature (or wherever they find silence) and dwell on the naturalistic sounds by themselves. Silence doesn't always necessarily mean that you can't hear anything. In my opinion, silence can be achieved as long as you don't hear your own voice and the voices of other human beings. By hearing the consistent sounds in nature, such as birds singing, water dropping, wind through the trees, beetles chirping, the falling of leaves, and more, people can better understand the validity of silence. Silence is a contributing factor in making a person a good listener. And we all know that people that have developed good listening skills are usually the wisest. Silence is crucial to the health of people. It allows people to slow down, relieve anxiety and stress, and gives them a chance to reflect and think about the truly important things in their lives. Many people might say that sitting around and listening to the soundless noises around you is a wast of time and you could be getting so much more done. The truth is, the people that say that are wrong, because after reflecting in silence, it gives individuals a clear mind to achieve their goals in-front of them with a sane mind.
Silence: Complete absence of sound
Description: I really like how this photo laid out. Having everything else dark around the leaf, just enhances the emphasis that should be put on the leaf. It makes the leaf pop out more and makes it the main focus of the picture. Having moist water around all the features in the photo makes all the twigs run together almost like they are melted together. I think that makes it look cool; I like it.
Silence relation: The main focus of this photo is the biggest leaf, in the center. When I look at this photo, I see the leaf as a person and all the other debris (tools) around the leaf holding him down, constricting him from moving, talking, or seeing. His arms and legs held down by hard sticks with rope tying the sticks firmly to his limbs; circulation diminishing. His forehead pinned to the desk; pain escalating. His rights to anything completely stripped; isolation at its fullest. The leaf almost resembles a slave from the early 1800's; no rights to talk or do anything of his own will. As a result, silence has taken over his situation; no friend or loved ones to confer with. He is obligated to be content with the silence surrounding his fluttery heart from the nervousness of the unknowing of his circumstance.
Editing: I kept the editing pretty simple with this photo because there was really only a few things I wanted to do to add to the photo I was looking for. I first desaturated it because I wanted that more dark, entrapped feeling of the leaf (keep in mind I wanted this photo to turn out like a slave in the 1800's with no right to speak and had to remain silent). Once I desaturated it I wanted to continue to make the photo darker but leave the leaf a little brighter, so I bumped the contrast all the way up. Next, to give the photo all around a little more detail and have the items in the photo pop out a little more, I bumped the clarity about half way.
Mechanics in Shooting: To get this shot the way I wanted it, I had to crouch some and be about a foot above the ground, at a slight angle shooting it. Shooting at the ground made it so that not much light was coming into the camera, therefore, in order to get the leaf to turn out as bright as I wanted it, I had to bump the ISO up to 800. I kept the shutter speed at 1/100 for the same reason, cause if I shot any faster then the leaf wouldn't of turned out bright enough. Eventually I wanted the photo to be darker, but since I wanted the leaf to remain lighter once I made those changes in photoshop, I had to shoot it the way I did with a high ISO and a little slower than standard shutter speed.
ISO: 800 SS: 1/100 F: 5.0
Silence relation: When I look at these three trees I first think of isolation in these open field plains. It's a pretty cold area and there is really nothing in site except these three trees and the dusting of snow around these trees. Everything is silent when looking at these trees. Nothing disturbing them, no noise around them; they are simply at peace with each other, being there together, in their own silence in the plains. They are older trees and they appreciated the silence and calm nature surrounding them.
Editing: Once again, kept the editing fairly simple because I got this shot about how I wanted it already. I bumped the contrast up about 75% of the way to darken the trees a little bit. And then, I turned the clarity up a hair just to get some sharpness in the land features in the picture. Just to get the photo a hair darker, I turned the exposure down a little and put down the vibrance about 1/8th of the way. I then darkened the edges by using the vignetting tool. I did this to give the picture a darker look, portraying an even older set of trees.
Mechanics in Shooting: I want to get a fairly parallel shot so I was directly facing the three trees about 200 feet away. I wanted some of the ground in-front of the main objects so I made sure I shot it with enough ground room before them. It was a pretty sunny day out and with the reflection off the snow around the three trees it made everything bright. Therefore, to compensate for that, I adjusted my shutter speed to a quicker rate and since I did that, I didn't have to mess with my ISO or Aperture.
ISO: 200 SS: 1/800 F: 5.6
Description: For this picture, I was looking at getting different details in color from twigs going into the little pool of water and then traveling out of the pool of water on top of land. A good example would be the pine needle. At the bottom of the little pool of water it starts out as a more dull, faint brown, and as it comes out of the water the more true colors of the dying pine needle arises. I also really like the color change from the pool color (a pasty white reflection type color) to the color of all the items outside of it. There are significant color changes and that most definitely adds to the photo.
Silence Relation: When I look at this photo, I think of death at rest. My logic behind this is mainly the pine needles. Notice their color is dark brown and light brownish/reddish, that clearly shows that they are dead or in the process of totally dying they. They have been cut off from their nutrient source (a tree) and are now laying there lifeless in silence, excepting the fact that they are dying. The other items in the picture are also dead which adds to the affect of silence in this picture. Once death comes, like it does to everyone, silence is forever upon that person till the next world or whatever you believe in. Everyone can agree, that once death finally overcomes someone' or something's dying body, silence is the promising result. Yes, it is sad, but it is apart of life.
Editing: To add to the assurance of death with this photo I bumped the contrast all the way up to darken the shadowed areas around the photo. I then desaturated the photo for the reason of dulling some of the colors in the photo besides the pine needles (the main focus of this picture). By turning down the vibrance it actually puts more of an emphasis on the brightest colors in the picture, which in this case is the pine needles.
Mechanics in Shooting: Since I was pointing my camera at the ground, everything was really dark, and in order to get features of the ground to turn out, I had to have my ISO at 800. Same story goes with my shutter speed; I had to have it at a little slower shutter speed than normal because of how dark everything was.
ISO: 800 SS: 1/100 F: 4.5
Description: I really like how this photo turned out. The goal with this photo was trying to show that there was a little stream of water coming out of the gutter. I wanted people to be able to see the stream coming out, but I didn't want it to just be a solid stream going into the water pool below. Therefore, I shot this at a little slower shutter speed, to show motion in the stream coming out of the gutter. I also like how the twig behind the stream strengthens the depth of field.
Silence Relation: I took this picture on a stormy day, and as I was in the position to take the photo all I heard was the faint sound "drip, drip, drip." There was a consistent sound of water drops from the gutter and that was it. My focus was completely on that water stream. I was zoning into that sound and everything. Everyone thing else was clear from my mind and that is how the silence arose. If you are focused on one faint consistent sound, all other things vanish and no other sounds are heard. At that state, you are in silence.
Editing: In editing this, I bumped the contrast to darken the shadowed areas of the picture to put more of an emphasis on the water stream out of the gutter. I then turned down the temperature just a hair, to get more of that cold, blue, clear water look. I then desaturated it just a little bit to simply tone down the harsh, bright colors of the leaves. If I hadn't done that, then the main focus would of gone to the leaves rather than the stream from the gutter. I also turned up the clarity to make the stream from the gutter more distinct.
Mechanics in Shooting: Since I wanted to get ground level for this feature, I had to crouch completely and dip my head down to my camera and then take the shot. It was a very difficult angle to say the least. The gutter was in a very dark corner against the house so I had to have my ISO at 800 to make the photo bright enough. I adjusted my ISO though after I had my shutter speed at the level I needed it. I needed my shutter speed not to fast or it would just freeze the water stream from the gutter, which I didn't want. And then if I didn't have it fast enough it would just become a blur and be took dark. So it was a pretty fine line, but I got it to work. Once I got my shutter speed dialed, I then could put the ISO where I needed to make the picture turn out as bright as I wanted it too.
ISO: 800 SS: 1/30 F: 5.6
Silence Relation: I think this photo resembles silence in really good way. Everyone knows telephone pulls represent voices and people talking to one another via phones. Right about now, you are probably saying "duhhh so how does this relate to silence if there are voices?" Well, I'm getting there. When I look at this photo, I first see the closest telephone pole. As my eyes move along each telephone pole it gets darker and darker, going into a storm. Eventually the storm is going to ruin the communication source through the telephone poles and there will be silence. The type of silence you hear after a very aggressive storm.
Editing: To emphasis the dark storm I bumped the contrast all the way up and then dropped the exposure a little bit as well as the brightness. I then sharpened the telephone poles by bumping the clarity a little bit.
Mechanics in Shooting: I just shot this photo straight on pretty much, maybe at a little angle to the left. The sky was very bright so I had to to turn the shutter speed to 1/800. I either had to decide to have the sky more the prime color or the storm to be more the prime color. I figured the sky would be more colorful so better to adjust my settings to make the sky look the best. As a result of making the sky look really good, it made the lower side of the picture (the storm area) a little darker than wanted. Overall all though, I think the colors turned out pretty well for the situation I was in.
ISO: 100 SS: 1/800 F: 5.6
Description: This photo is a picture of the road at about 3:00 A.M. It was completely dark out and we were traveling at about 60 mph. To say the least, It was very difficult to get a photo to turn out like this. I really like how this one came out though. I like how there are about three distinct main color changes between the photo. There is the top of the photo which is black, the middle part of the photo that is dark blue, and then the tan color of the road.
Silence Relation: I think this picture represents silence in a couple ways. The first way, is the silence I had myself while taking this photo. I was completely focused on keeping the camera as still as I could for 2.5 seconds; zoned out completely hearing nothing except the muffled noise of the rumbling car. As I was sitting there, silence overtook me and all the anxiety of this world flushed away immediately. It is a great feeling to just sit there and reflect on that zoned out silence you are currently in. The second way I see silence is the dark aspect of the photo and where the road leads. The picture shows that we are heading straight into the darkened road and woods ahead; no life, no sound, just silence.
Editing: On this picture, I barely made any changes. I bumped the clarity up a hair. I then turned down the temperature a hair to make the blue part of the sky show up a little better. At the end part of the road, It was a little grainy as well as the dark part of the woods, so I took the paint brush and just darkened the end of the road a little bit as well as the forest above it. I then darkened the corners a little using the vignetting tool. I did that mainly to make the road a little darker in the bottom right corner.
Mechanics in Shooting: Since it was so dark out, if I wanted any chance of this photo turning out I would have to leave my shutter open for at least 2 second. After testing things out for awhile, I realized it worked out the best if I had it at about 2.5 second. If I left it open longer then that, it would get to blurry from the shaking of the camera as a result of the road. Also, if it shutter was open to long the road would get blown out from the bright headlights. If it was open for less then that, everything would turn out way to dark. Also, to get this photo to turn out somewhat descent, I had to turn my ISO all the way to 1600 (the highest is goes on my camera). For it being completely dark out I think this photo turned out pretty well.
ISO: 1600 SS: 2.50 F: 4.5
A good portion of my inspiration over this last 5 months have mainly been friends in my photography class, as well as some of the Comune photographers. This one girl I found after viewing other peoples work, over the past five months is Nirrimi Hakanson. She is about my age and I really like her style of photos. Hopefully one day I could possibly produce some photos similar to hers.
http://nirrimiphotography.carbonmade.com
