Flowers Part II

I don't have anything to say today, just LOVE this flower.

Also, I figured out how to make the images bigger. yep yep...

The Beginning in the End

Today was the last day of my photo class. I need one more art class for my degree and I am seriously considering taking another photo class. This one was a class specifically focused on digital photography, and even geared towards making great images when you only have a point-and-shoot. I think that I would like to take a real photo class where I learn about processes, spend time in a dark room etc... basically expand my base knowledge of the field while improving my images.

Before class yesterday most all of my classmates were complaining that this class was formatted the way it was. That is to say that it was focused on taking good, quality images, rather than a technical, here's how to use your cameras. I have two problems with that:
1: What is the point of learning the mechanics of the camera if you don't take good images. Isn't that the only reason you would want to know the mechanics?
2: HE TAUGHT US THE MECHANICS. I came out of the class knowing the difference between aperture, shutter speed and ISO. I know what to change to create the images i need. He even taught us ways to trick a point-and-shoot into adjusting these settings without actually having the capability to do so.

Whatever, I got what I wanted out of the class and I honestly wish that it was longer than 6 weeks. I am so grateful for it and so excited to continue going out with my camera!

I went over and hung out with Lily for awhile today and she is INSANE and ADORABLE. One day I will get a good image of her, but in the meantime I have this image that would have been better if I'd gotten more of the chair she's under (see, I learned something!!!)








Not even gonna lie: I have been looking for a great image of squares for awhile. My friend Sarah in Seattle is in love with them and I wanted to find some for her.





Leon: I honestly believe that this is my favorite image that I have taken so far. I love it.

Final Project

For my final project I wanted to do something pretty original that I could actually do. I am not the most talented artist, give me a pencil or a paint brush and you'll get some lines or splotches of color. That being said, I felt that turning in a portfolio would be kind of boring when he told us to be creative and "think outside the box".

I ended up stealing the idea from Kathryn, she did an AWESOME landscape that actually won a contest with the Solar Physics group at MSU. (At least I think that's who it was - Kathryn, correct me if I'm wrong)

All in all I used images from 23 different magazines, but it should be mentioned that almost the entire fence was from one image out of 6 copies of the same magazine...

This is the original image I chose to work with. It's one that had enough detail to be interesting, but not so much that it was impossible for me to finish in the week and a half I had to work with.

I have to apologize for these first images, the first is with my broken lens and the next 2 were with my camera phone. I figured it out after that...























Final Product (with a flash):


Final Product (without the flash):


Overall I am really happy with how it turned out. My favorite parts to do were the wheelbarrow body and the grass. ESPECIALLY the grass. It was fun to work with the textures.

This is out of focus but the only one I have that shows the detail on the grass and wheelbarrow.

Portraits

Portraits are definitely not my strong point. I am an awkward person, especially when I am not sure what I am doing, which means that if I don't know what I'm doing, I for sure can't tell you what I want you to do for me. I think my images turned out ok in the end. Not my best assignment but not as bad as it could be.

We were supposed to have 2 images in natural light and 2 with artificial light. It was supposed to be 4 distinctly different images, but that didn't happen for me.


Natural Light #1 (Laura)



Natural Light #2 (Kathryn)


My camera broke (alright, I fell down some stairs again, and saved my ankle instead of the camera). BUT I have an awesome friend in Sierra, who lent me her camera AND cooked me dinner AND let me take pictures of her with it - it being the camera not the dinner. The two artificial light ones are supposed to be different artificial lighting techniques, but with a borrowed camera and an apathetic nature, you can't be picky.


Artificial Light #1 (Kyle)



Artificial Light #2 (Sierra)

Flowers

Kathryn got these flowers for her birthday earlier this week and asked me to come by and take some photos of them so she could paint them. These are my favorites.

I went for a ride up Peet's Hill and around the library and Lindley Park. It was a beautiful day and worth the hills.

Ducks

So.... for this class we are supposed to stay away from images of ducks. That for sure doesn't mean I have to on here. So far the images haven't been great, but this duckling was too cute not to post.

Gardening

Yesterday I was antsy, so I kidnapped Scout and went to Laura's where she was adding to her vegetable garden. It looked wonderful! Scout and Lily had a blast (aka, tried really hard to tear up the garden) and I got a sunburn. All in all a good way to spend my Saturday afternoon.

Lily:


Laura:

Ruby Slippers and Rain

Kathryn and I went downtown today in the rain to look for some color for my next assignment. It was great to hang out with her, she just got back from Georgia, and I think I got some pretty neat images!








These next ones are the ones I plan to turn in for the assignment, I need two that represent color contrast, two for color harmony, and two monochromatic images.

Monochromatic:

Color Harmony:




Color Contrast:

And Thus It Begins

So I guess I have a couple reasons to start this... First and foremost is my desire to have somewhere to post the photos I am taking in my photo class this summer. Second, and probably more important is to chronicle my semester in Spain.

So for the first assignment we were supposed to show and stop motion. I feel pretty good about how these turned out:

Showing Motion

Stopping Motion:

And lastly this drinking fountain got me extra credit. The class voted and chose it as the best of all the images we turned in for this assignment.

The second assignment was to show depth of field, I was ok with a shallow depth of field, but struggled with the large depth of field.

Shallow DoF:

And this last one I didn't turn in but now I wish I had. I was planning to use it for my final project but went a different direction...

And lastly was assignment 3: Showing the Elements/Principles of Design

Lines


Shape

Contrast


Repetition/Pattern

And lastly, (and my favorite): Texture