MN Photography: 2013

Journal/Reflection

For this project, I decided to research how to create gifs using photoshop to create my own original gifs. After I found a great instructional youtube video, I uploaded the photos I had taken in preparation and began. At first, I just made some simple non edited ones, then once I was more comfortable with the software, I decided to experiment some. I went out and took more photos, now knowing more of what I could do to manipulate them and make them look good. I gave some of the photos an extra element of visual appeal by adding special color effects on them. On others, I created the original gif and then repeated it backwards to make a sort of endless cycle of back and forth motion, a "loop." I had a lot of fun with this project and while photoshop was very trying at times, with the numerous crashes and loss of work, I still am really pleased with the outcome!

Focus
I was messing around with the manual focus on my DSLR camera and I ended up liking this picture. I think that it looks really cool how the whole picture is out of focus. The colors are very vivid, which distracts from the fact that the scene is quite plain.

Surfs Down
My friend and I went walking on the beach one afternoon and there were a bunch of surfers out waiting for the waves to come (unfortunately, no big waves came that day). I took this of two surfers waiting off separately from the rest, it is an example of strong center of interest as the surfers stand out against the water.

No lifeguard on duty
This is after the beach closed for the day and everyone went home. It sort of shows rule of thirds with the beach, water, horizon and lifeguard chair on the lower left side.

Flags on Flags
There was a little section of the path to the beach with an ice cream and a surf shop and I liked how the flags were balanced so I tuck a picture of it while walking back one night.

Libations
I had just started using my DSLR and still hadn't figured out how to get the flash to work, but not having it on when I took this picture at night made it cool looking because the each sign has a faded version of it behind. I also really liked the bottom sign 'Libations' that points to the beach tiki bar.

Painted?
The colors of everything on the Isle of Palms in SC are so beautiful. I really love this picture because the colors are so vibrant, it makes the picture almost look painted.

Resort Life
I liked how for a long ways down the beach the chairs and umbrellas for the resort were all lined up, I think the way its just a line of green all the way down was cool. This picture also has leading lines down the beach.

Lets Boogie
This is a very simple picture, but it also has a strong center of interest. I like how the colors of the boogie board stand out so much.

On Cloud 9
Ok. So you can't see it in this picture, but there were actually 9 layers of clouds that just looked like they were stacked on top of each other and they happened to be right under the people parasailing. I thought it was so funny and I really liked it. Also, the colors strike me as kind of like pastels in this and I think its really nice.

Lady Don't Bug My Feet
I loved this ladybug kite and I had never ever actually seen anyone flying a kite so I took this and much to my delight, some person was doing a handstand right at the end of the kite, hence the title.

Old Couples are The Cutest Couples.
Old couples are so cute and especially this one I saw on the beach. They set up their own little two chairs and umbrella and just sat and smiled at everyone passing by and were so nice! This picture has really nice colors and a strong center of interest. I like the umbrella with the water behind (also- note the person in the water under the umbrella haha).

~Hello!
My friends and I drew this in the sand during low tide and when I walked out to a little island in the water I thought it looked good so I took a picture.

Gators
I liked this towel, I focused the picture on it so I like how the background is out of focus, making the towel more prominent and giving it a strong center of interest.

Hold My Hand
These two girls were so cute and I didn't plan on getting this moment, it just happened at the same time I was taking the picture, very fortunately because it makes the plainness of the picture ignorable. This picture also has rule of thirds.

No edits? No way.
The clouds were SO awesome on Isle of Palms. They were so puffy and fluffy looking it was amazing and when I took the pictures of them I was hoping they would really portray how it looked in person and I was so excited to download them and see how great they turned out. I didn't put any edits on this, I really like the simplicity of it because its still is just gorgeous to me.

Journal

I think I have developed quite a bit since last year. I have improved in my camera skills, picking out good scenes to capture and avoiding anything that may be a negative contributor to the photo. I have use the composition guidelines most from last year's instruction. While that seems like an obvious thing to know, I am more aware now when I am taking a picture of what guidelines it falls under. I think my photographic style definitely is geared towards landscape and micro, I really like taking up-close images and I love photographing natural beauties. The assignment that inspired me the most from last year was definitely the series shoot with the film cameras. I had loads of fun with that project, my theme was playgrounds and I really liked the way my pictures came out using the film camera and I look forward to more experiments with that type of camera this year.