Montana trip- 2/18/11

      This week, I have a wide variety of just random photos.  None of them really relate to each other at all.  Since the first three photos have to do about driving, gas, and roads, ill tell you a little story about me and why it's important to fill up your car when there is a possibility you could run out of gas.  It was about 8:30 P.M. and we were going through Sandpoint, heading up to the mountain.  My friend Sam suggested I should probably get gas before going up; (since it seemed low on fuel) I assured him that we would be able to make.  In the end I was right but barely made it. About two miles from the top we started puttering and as soon as we got to the parking lot up there it died and we had to push it into its parking space.  Therefore, the moral of the story  is to always play it safe, rather than being sorry, and top off your gas tank if your in doubt.  The description of each photo will be below each photo.

I shot this picture at a little faster shutter speed so that not as much light would come into the camera.  I wanted this photo to turn out a little darker.  I wanted the trees to pretty much be black except the outline tips of the tree.  For editing I bumped up the contrast, turned the exposure down a hair, I obviously desaturated it, and used the vignetting tool to darken the corners of the photo. 

This picture is pretty simple to say the least.  There really isn't much to it.   I bumped the contrast on it as well as the clarity a little bit.  I desaturated it and darkened the corners of the photo with the vignetting tool. 

I really like this shot a lot and how the focus was on the shoes rather than the nozzle for gas.    I like the different colors throughout the picture.  The blue part of the nozzle adds to this photo as well as the blue horizontal line across the picture.  So does the white shoes laces and all the colors apart of the gas pump.  I did a little clone stamping in this picture after I used the vignetting tool to darken the corners.  I used this tool because I wanted the corners to look darker but I wanted to look darker like it was naturally darker.  I think I did a descent job in making that happen. So I used the vignetting tool to darken the  corners but then I took the cones stamp tool to make the color lighter in the bottom right corner. I did that so that the vignetting looked like it was natural. 

MERICA! Yes, this is a picture of a flag and a clock.  America is often a country that is controlled by time. Time tells you when to sleep, eat, exercise, rather than doing those things when your body tells you you should.  I like this photo because it shoes the relationship between time and America.  Editing wise, I bumped the contrast, desaturated the photo,  turned the exposure up a little, and then darkened the corners. 

This picture represents dependence to me.  The birds that are use to feeding out of this feeder would struggle to feed themselves as well as their family if that feeder wasn't there so they have become dependent on it.  When shooting this, I wanted to shoot this at an angle where it would frame the bird feeder in between the bigger branches of the tree.  For editing,  I desaturated the photo, bumped the contrast up as well as the clarity a little, and then darkened the corners. 

This is my friend Jake Nelson. I like how the light through the window comes through and lights up part of his face.  His expression is priceless in this photo. Since there was some bright light coming through  the window, I wanted to darken the areas around it so I darkened all the corners so that most of the focus went on jacob's face.  I did a little more editing on this photo than normal.   I bumped the contrast and a little clarity.  I then worked on his face quite a bit.   I used the clone stamp to fix the wrinkles under his eye, then the bandage tool to fix little blemishes, and then I took the paint brush tool and just overall brightened his face up a little.

This one guys work doesn't relate a ton to this post of mine, but I do think he has a cool idea.  Every day he posts one picture. And he has been doing it for 6 years. Thats a pretty cool idea. check his stuff out.

http://www.willyurman.com/pixelpost/

Faces, blurred windshields, and country side- 2/11/11

      Today, I will actually try and produce a somewhat productive blog and actually explain where my photography is going and what I want to do with it.  I am pretty satisfied where I am at with my photography.  I know pretty much all the basics and I am able to produce a photo that I think is cool and I like.  As far as editing in detail with portraits goes I don't know as much about.  I think in the future I would like to learn more about that side of photography but as of right now I am happy with the photos I am able to produce.  I get satisfaction in taking pictures where people are unsure what is going on and it takes them a little while to figure out what is going on.  I also like taking photos that have an older film like look.  Hopefully in the next couple weeks I can develope my film in the darkroom and discover a different side of photography.  I can't wait to do that.. just haven't found the time to get it done yet. Anyways, thats about all I have to say for this week. Have a great week ladies and gents!

When I look at this photo, my eye goes straight to the yellow.  I would say the main focus of this photo is probably nothing.  To tell you the truth this photo is very unknowing and it's hard to tell what is going on.  I really don't have a problem with that though, I think it's except-able to have some photos that people don't understand.  I think those photos that people don't understand are often times more artsy (in my opinion).  I got this shot from a car shooting straight out of the front windshield... it was raining and the yellow blur came from the reflection of the car lights off of a yellow sign.  

This shot was taken at night from a car and I left the shutter open for about 3.0 seconds.  The sensor gathered most of the light from the moon behind the clouds.  The moon was the main reason for lighting up the clouds in the sky. In editing I bumped the contrast a little and thats about it.  

I really like this photo a lot.  Let me first explain how I got this photo and then why I like it.  This shot was also taken at night.  I held the camera out the side window and took a shot of the mountains with the moon shining onto them.  I left the shutter open for about 2.0 second. Right as I pushed the button to take the shot we passed a stopped semi with its emergency flashing lights on.  And the rest was history.  The reason I like this shot a lot is because it looks like a painting.  The detail in the mountains and the fog that covers it makes the picture pretty vague thus resembling more of a water painting.   

I like how this turned out except for me shaking the camera and making the moon turn out abnormal.   I do like the clouds around it and everything though. 

Ok, so when I first got this shot on the computer,  I was going to crop it, but once I looked at it more I realized it looked better not being cropped.  I see lines in this picture.  I feel like it is broken up into five sections. Two sections to the right of the wood telephone pole.  Two to the left of the wood telephone poles and then the last section that includes the hills of the mountains.   In editing,  I i bumped the contrast a little as well as the clarity and that's about it. 

I got my inspiration from this one website and it gave pointers on how to improve landscape shots.  Even though, not all of my shots on this blog were landscape this was some really helpful advice and the pictures were really cool. Check it out!

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/11-surefire-tips-for-improving-your-landscape-photography

Different- 2/4/11

     This week I tried to shoot pictures in a little different way.  I wanted them to turn out a little more peculiar.  I think I did a descent job in getting different shots.  All of these shots are related to the kid in the first picture.  One day, (after pulling another late night party situation based out of Sam's house) I was sitting there on Sam's couch trying to peal my eyeballs out of my foggy, delusional, distracted brain and right as I got them clear enough to see, there it was.. a perfect picture opportunity.  I ran outside and, as usual, missed my opportunity.  Since I had already drug my lifeless zombie like body off of the couch, I figured I wouldn't waste my time outside Sam's house, and started taking pictures. They turned out pretty cool.

The reason I like this photo is because of Sam's expression and actions.  I feel like this photo is saying a lot.  His expression almost portrays an awkward, creepy situation.  I think his expression draws you into the picture.  On the editing side of the picture I bumped the contrast almost all the way up.  I turned the clarity up a hair also. I also believe I turned down the exposure a little bit.  I then used the vignetting tool to darken the edges of the pictures to put more of a focus on Sam's face.  I then touched up Sam's face, starting with the bandage touch up tool on any little blemishes on his face.  After that, I took the paint brush tool and turned down the opacity to about 20 and sampled a brighter portion of his face and simply just brightened his whole face up a little bit. 

  

The two bird pictures are very similar, just a little different.  These two pictures took me awhile to get a good  shot.  It was a little more difficult because the cage bars entrapping the bird had to be just in the right spot for it to turn out.  If one of the cross bars of the cage were in front of the birds face then you could kind of tell it was there. I managed to get it lined up where you can barely tell.  For editing, I desaturated it all the way, bumped  the contrast up some and then turned the clarity almost all the way up to try and get as much detail in the birds feathers as I could. 

I like this shot a lot.  It's actually a reflection of a sliding glass door.  The reflection consists of a barn, trees, and an old broken down car. I like how there is more of a darker picture, yet there is lighter spots of the grass and the barn. For editing, I turned the contrast all the way up and then I bumped the vibrance up some. I turned the vibrance up some cause I wanted the color of the grass to pop out a little more through the dark trees.  

This is the same location as the picture above except  in this one I just the picture wider.  I kept this picture a little lighter and more dull colors. In this photo I turned the vibrance down to get a more subtle look to the picture. I like how this picture almost looks like a picture from a film camera.  The lighter white bar/line adds to the film look of this photo.     I also left the black bar at the top of the photo in the photo so people understand it is a reflection of something.  My goal  with this photo is not to hide the fact that it is a reflection but to make it clear that it is one. The black bar at the top almost makes it look like the photo is glued to some black canvas board and you could peal the photo off that canvas board. 

This photo is cool.  You can tell this photo is a reflection by the white blurry line streaks down the middles and to the right.  This photo looked better desaturated simply because when it was normal colored the white line streaks stood out to much overwhelming the picture.  For editing, I believe I bumped the clarity a little just to have the swinging chair pop out a little more. 

Ok so for this photo, I shot it with a faster shutter speed to not let as much light into the camera, because I wanted this photo to turn out darker.  Once on the computer,  I desaturated it, I bumped the contrast all the way up to get everything darker even more,  and I also turned down the exposure some.  I then darkened the corners as much as I could with the vignetting tool.  The goal with this photo was to make it as dark as I could and have a little light come through the top of the picture through the cut wood. 

I put the focus on that middle big bark piece.  I also wanted this photo to turn out very dark so I shot it with a quick shutter speed. I really like how the big branch runs across the lower part of the picture.  That branch and the vertical branch almost frames the big center bark piece.  When I look at this picture, I see circles everywhere from  overlaying branches. 

I attempted to shoot the moon, and it didn't turn out very well.  I figured I would put it up anyways and be critical about it.  I don't really like how there is no definition in the moon.  I wish the moon would have more definition and the objects around the moon be more of just a silhouette rather then be totally lit up by the moon.  I just wasn't very well knowledgeable about shooting moons.  Any advice for future shootings of moons would be greatly appreciated.

I got my inspiration from Essex Prescott:

http://s6photoblog.blogspot.com/