Photo Essay Part 1: Life on a Couch

Ordinary to the Extraordinary

We worked on photoshopping these in class today. Ironically enough, I'm not overly into editing my photos a ton. I like to try to take photos that don't need much editing. That being said, this first one is of my father and sister and it's not very good quality. I had been taking photos with a really shallow dof when my sister grabbed Dad and made him take a picture. Neither of them sit long for photos so I had to just take one quickly or lose the opportunity. So I took what I could and did what I could with it.



Before:
After:




I was also taking shots of the kitchen as we got ready for Thanksgiving (seems really clean for dinner prep, doesn't it?). I like the angle and I think the saturation effects I gave the photo make it just a little more interesting.

Before:


After:

Thanksgiving Cats

So my family is super camera shy... They get really jumpy around me when I'm walking around with the camera, so I settled for photographing my cousins cat. She was a pretty willing subject considering the fact that she was next to the fire and didn't want to move.

Airbrushing 101

Monday in class we went over how to airbrush and edit. I also played with dropping people onto different backgrounds. Matt was a great model so we had fun!

The Unseen

I tried the skateboard, dolly technique and it didn't work the way I wanted it to. So here what you hardly ever see, the bottom of your shoe from the viewpoint of a bug!

Light Show!

We found glow sticks in our apartment! Pretty sweet timing considering we had just done the light painting in class. My roommate and I were bored and started playing with them so I pulled out the camera.

Light Painting

This is from class last week. We tested out light painting. I really love Gjon Mili's work with Picasso (see my 2nd or 3rd post...), he did some really phenomenal stuff. Any way, here's my first try. It was supposed to be a flower if you can't tell....

I love the beach.

The beach is one of my favorite places, any time of the year. My goal is to own a house on the beach someday so I can be near the water. The Maryland coast is pretty nice, maybe I'll stick around here...

Christmas store: revisted

So I actually spent time photoshopping the pictures from the Christmas store. I like these ones alot; I need to make sure I can import the photos into photoshop as raw in my CS2 (I'm on a school computer now). I think last time I tried I was trying the wrong settings.

Light and Shadow

Before Photoshop:

After Photoshop:

Wandering around the Christmas store...

So I took a few photos.

I know this was two posts on the same day, but they were taken different days I swear!

Photos from Class

I need to work on getting on here.... Here are the photos from class, edited and all.
I need to work on getting on here....
Here are the photos from class, edited and all.

I need to work on getting on here.... Here are the photos from class, edited and all.

10 Rules of Composition

Alright, they're out of order, but all the rules are here!


#5- Rule of Thirds

#6-- Leading Lines

#7- Balance/Symmetry
#8- Framing
#9- Avoid Mergers
#10- Room for Logical Movement
#4- KISS
#3- Biggest, boldest, brightest-- Emphasis on Biggest.
#2- Cropping
#1- Impact

If you're not prepared....

Rain can ruin everything. I tried to take pictures in Eastern Market area on wednesday, but it was raining when we got above ground again. Put a damper on things... (yes, pun intended)
So instead here is this, from my break at work. I think it could be a contender for a "biggest, boldest, brightest" shot, but I don't want to classify it as such just because there is a light in it.

Strength

I've always liked tall buildings with pillars. They always seem really strong and sturdy. The vertical lines are eye catching. While I don't consider this particular shot sublime, I'd like to do a bunch of shots (probably in november) of things that remind me of the sublime. It was something we talked about in my art history class (in terms of Barnett Newman) and I'd like to see what I can do with it. In the meantime, feel free to comment on my pictures with suggestions!

Looking up...

Playing with Photoshop and interesting angles...

Union Station

So location of choice for the semester is Union because, well, I work there. I realized the other day that the reflection in this window was pretty awesome. I'm going to convert it to b&w soon and see if it has the same effect (I'm not sure it will, since part of the "America"ness is the red-white-and-blue from the flag). I also liked the contrast of the urban and the natural in the second shot. It seemed pleasantly ironic.