Kayla Rosenberg

Category: Inspiration

  • Reflections

    A view framed through an ornate, beaded glass pane looking into a dimly lit antique shop filled with warm, glowing chandeliers and vintage decor.

    50mm, 1/100, F 5.6, ISO 640


    Wandering through the antique market, I was drawn to the weathered glass of this vintage pane, which seemed to hold far more than a simple mirror image. Looking into it, the glass blurred the boundary between where I was standing and the room beyond, tangling ornate chandeliers, soft glowing bulbs, and forgotten relics into a single, dreamlike layer of light. For the prompt “reflections,” I wanted to look past standard mirror self-portraits and capture how time and space can overlap—framing a quiet moment where the past and present reflect off each other on a pane of aged glass.

  • Serenity

    A photograph of Kinkaku-ji (the Golden Pavilion) in Kyoto, Japan, taken across a calm pond. The golden three-story temple is partially framed by Japanese pine trees in the foreground, with dense forested hills behind it under a pale, overcast sky. Rocks line the near shore of the pond.

    50mm, 1/250, F 1/8.0, ISO 200

    Kinkaku-ji on an overcast day — no dramatic light, no perfect reflection, just the pavilion standing quietly among the pines the way it has for centuries. The grey sky actually works here, (at least, I feel so), softening everything into the kind of stillness that’s hard to find and harder to hold onto. Serenity doesn’t always look golden. Sometimes it looks exactly like this.

  • Golden Hour

    A photo of a dramatic cloudy sky at golden hour. Large storm clouds fill the lower half of the frame, their tops lit in warm golden and amber tones while the bases are dark grey and navy. A thin white airplane contrail cuts diagonally across the middle of the image against a muted blue-grey upper sky. A second faint contrail is visible in the distance to the right.

    75-300mm, 1/500, F 1/11, ISO 200

    I noticed the contrail cutting across the sky right as the clouds were catching that warm golden hour light, and I thought the contrast between the two was worth shooting — this perfectly straight, man-made line against all these massive, soft cloud formations. I framed it so the dark clouds sit heavy at the bottom and the contrail runs through the middle, which gives it this sense of layers. The warm light hitting the tops of the clouds while the bottoms stay dark did a lot of the work on its own.

  • Eyes

    Brown eyes lit by pink light on the left and dark blue on the right.

    50mmm, 1/60, F 1/2.0, ISO 1200

    While my film partner and I were working on our junior year narrative in film class (which involves our characters discovering a portal) we had the idea to also do photoblogs as well, finding it inspiring and interesting how our actors eyes captures the minimal yet colorful light we had in place of our portal.

  • Water

    A bird of paradise flower with vivid orange petals and a deep blue structure emerges from dark green foliage, dotted with water droplets that catch the light across both the flower and surrounding leaves.

    22mm, 1/32, F 1/6.3, ISO 800

    Exploring water through its aftermath. These droplets scattered across the bird of paradise create tiny reflections and refractions, each one a small lens. The water doesn’t dominate the frame, but it changes everything—the way light hits the petals, the depth in the dark leaves, the sense that this moment is fresh and fleeting before it all evaporates.

  • Using White Balance Creatively

    50mm, 1/100, F/1.8, ISO 800

    The left image is the original shot with standard white balance, while the right shows what happened when I adjusted the color temperature. Pushing it toward cooler tones completely transformed the Chinatown scene—the buildings shifted to purple and pink, and the warm storefront lights popped against the cooler surroundings. I didn’t expect such a drastic change from one setting adjustment. This exercise showed me that white balance isn’t just for fixing color issues—it’s a creative tool that can completely alter a scene’s atmosphere.

  • Mass and Weight

    50mm, 1/160, F/10, ISO 400

    Exploring weight and mass at Hakone Gardens: the textured stone sits like a small monument in the water, its rough surface and solid form creating a gravitational center for the composition. Everything else—the thread-like plants, the soft moss, the water itself—feels weightless by comparison, as if the stone is the only thing keeping this miniature world from drifting away.

  • Mood of the Day

    Pink flowers with blue sky background.

    24mm, 1/30, F/11, ISO 320

    Today’s prompt was to capture our mood. I’m feel like I’m a bit overwhelmed with school work and other personal responsibilities.