Category: Inspiration

  • Tell a Lie

    A scene showing a chair, stacked boxes, and clutter on the floor, with a human subject holding a measuring tape posing as if gravity direction was sideways rather than down.
    50mm, 1/60, F3.5, ISO 1000

    For this photograph, I wanted to appear that I am magically floating sideways over a scene with a chair and some clutter. To make this, I stacked a chair sideways on top of two boxes next to a wall, and taped some random objects to that same wall to make the wall appear like a floor. Then, I sat down on the actual floor holding a measuring tape, giving the illusion that I am unaffected by gravity. Bright light sources some distance behind me provide illumination from “above” toward the “floor”, creating highlights and shadows that add to the illusion.

  • Serenity

    A creek calmly flowing through a redwood forest.
    50mm, 1/400, F1.8, ISO 100

    This meditative tranquil scene was taken at Redwood Grove Nature Reserve in Los Altos while I was taking a walk. The scene induces a sense of serenity when looking at it.

  • Eyes

    Self-portrait of the photographer's own eye, revealing a dark brown iris and a dilated pupil.
    f5.6, 1/10, ISO-800, 200mm

    For this photo, I wanted to take a picture of my eye with some sort of glint inside. I tried my best to keep the photo as unblurry as possible, and I went through photoshop to touch up some of the edges to make the image sharper. Unfortunately, some of the reflection details inside of the eye got lost, but luckily the white circle coming from the light overhead is still there. Overall, while I wish I did a better job at making a reflection in my eye, the photo not being that blurry makes it good enough for me.

  • Water

    Condensation from a green guava juice can creating a puddle on a white countertop with an ice cube in the foreground.

    For this photograph, I doused this guava juice can I found in water to create a “condensation” look. I also put an ice cube next to the green can to draw the viewer’s focus toward the water.

  • White Balance

    Four large rocks, two in the foreground and two in the background, sit on the grass with warm sunlight casting down on them.
    50mm, 1/4000, F1.8, ISO 100
    Four large rocks, two in the foreground and two in the background, sit on the grass with the cold atmosphere giving them a slight blue tint.
    50mm, 1/4000, F1.8, ISO 100

    For these two images, I wanted to play around with making the outside look “shadier”. Therefore, for my adjusted white balance, I chose a colder white balance to contrast the auto white balance.

  • Weight or Mass

    A heavy black computer and a light-weight phone rest on a white blanket.
    50mm, 1/80, F1.8, ISO 1000

    The idea of this image is to show how heavy an object is in different ways. For example, the computer in the image appears heavier due to the computer creating crease marks, while the phone in the first image seemingly causes no disturbance to the blanket.

  • Mood

    An abundance of leaves that are saturated with a cyan and magenta color wash.
    50mm, 1/160, F1.8, ISO 100

    While tinkering with my DSLR camera, I noticed the camera’s “Creative Filters”. Since I was studying some Abstract Expressionist painters at the time such as Mark Rothko, I was inspired to try to create some photos that were “Abstract”.