Author: x

Posted on

Viewpoint

click to enlarge

This weekend, I helped some friends who are taking Film Analysis (an English alternative class offered at Los Altos High) with the film project that they are currently working on. Their film’s synopsis is an abandoned dog wanders through a town until he finds a new friend, and hopefully a new home. Since they wanted to get many different kinds of shots of the dog walking around, I decided that this would be a good opportunity to give a different kind of viewpoint. In this photo that I took with my drone (sorry it’s blurry; it is a screenshot from the drone video shot in 1080p!), I got the viewpoint of a neighbor watching the dog from the second story of their house. The neighbor sticks her head out the window and is surprised to see the dog wandering with no owner.

Posted on

Film Noir

click image to enlarge

Noir photography is a spin-off of film noir, which we film students have previously studied in class. It is a distinctive style in which a dark atmosphere is present and cynicism can also be depicted. Film noir cliches include low-key lighting, detectives, silhouettes, and window blind shadows. I took a photo of a vase filled with roses and other flowers which, with a bit of editing in Photoshop, look lifeless and dead. I think that the contrast between the window and the darkness of the flowers is a great representation of noir, however it could have been better had I just gotten the photo to have more harsh shadows and darkness around the edges.

Posted on

Work

For this week’s photo challenge, we took photos of what reminded us of work. I decided to take this prompt literally and took a photo of me in the shirt that I wear to work which has our the City of Mountain View’s logo on it. Since I work as am aquatics staff member, I wanted to do a clipping mask of another photo of the pool water that I took and overlay it with a blending mode filter so that the white lettering and logo on my shirt would be filled with pool water. However, I was unable to add that to this photo because Photoshop did not cooperate with me as I had wished.

Posted on

Color Theory

For this week’s photo blog, we were encouraged to explore color theory and the effect of color grading a photograph. I took this image from when we were on set filming our narrative film and then edited it in Photoshop. I color graded it by creating a selective color layer and I played around with lighting and with making the colors in the photo more soft and more as if the photo is a still from a real movie.

click on image to enlarge
Posted on

Modern Convenience

click on ad above to enlarge the photo

For this week’s photo blog, we took pictures of a modern convenience that we take for granted and realize that we wouldn’t be able to live without. I choose automobiles in general because daily transportation for all people would be incredibly difficult had cars not been invented. They have become a modern convenience for us because most families have cars and use them every day to get to work and school. We were tasked with using the pictures that we took and making an advertisement for the convenience that we choose. Therefore, I made a car ad similar to those seen on Google Ads and commercials during sports games on tv.

Posted on

The Elements – Rain

PAC-12 championship game at Levi’s Stadium

During the football game, it began raining which didn’t at all dampen the mood. Even though it was raining pretty hard, the rain didn’t show up in any of my photos so I decided to go in with Photoshop to recreate the rain effect. I created a new layer and added a noise filter, which I then changed its blend mode to screen. I also added a motion blur filter so the rain wouldn’t look like little dots but more like rain falling down.

Posted on

Rule of Odds

wall art at Nektar

I utilized the rule of odds in a Nektar building. I noticed that they had hung up an odd number of pictures and had placed them in a way that was unaligned and visually appealing. In addition, the building had an odd number of windows.

Posted on

Seasons

In honor of the end of fall, I went up to Woodside to photograph Alice’s and the woodsy-autumn vibe of the restaurant. The drive was refreshing and the diner style food was a great celebration to finish off the season. I also went to Winter Lodge to ice skate and took pictures of the remaining fall decorations and warm hearth where my friends and I sipped on hot cocoa and ate cookies.

click on images to view them in full size
Posted on

Gratitude

This Thanksgiving, I have reflected that I am grateful for so much. Friends, family, and the opportunities that I’ve been given solely because of the area that I have grown up in. However, I’d like to express my gratitude for nature in this post because I feel that Earth does not get enough credit for all that it provides for us humans. No matter what we do, nature is always there for us. It never fails us, no matter how many times we fail it. I appreciate the beautiful sunsets of California and the versatility of the planet which we live on. We can drive just one hour and get to the beach. An hour south and we can reach dormant volcanos. A few hours to the east brings us to the icy mountains which we can ski, snowboard, and sled on. I am grateful that I can always count on nature to calm my nerves and take a break. Thank you Earth!

downtown Mountain View
Posted on

Rule of Thirds Emotion

rule of thirds

This photo shows the feeling of behind left behind or left out. I positioned the rest of the group on the bottom left rule of thirds while the main girl is on the bottom right rule of thirds. She is also much closer to the camera but still looks the same height as those in the background, making her feel small and almost forgotten. I think I could’ve done better with the conveying of emotion in the photo.